I can't see why you would want to do this - most people struggle in the other direction trying to make their objects 'solid'... BUT assuming it has some hidden use we can't think of... a small hole will make it 'non-solid'... if you want all 6 faces of 'the box' to remain the same, but for it to be 'non-solid', you must add something else into its group/component like another group - e.g. group one of its faces - or add a single diagonal non-faced internal line that is then hidden - use Xray mode [or put it on an off-layer]. A manifold 'solid' contains no entities other than faces and their edges, and every edge must have two faces - no more, no fewer - it's a simple rule [note that for these purposes 'guides' are ignored]. So the converse is true - to make something 'non-solid' you must ensure that the simple rule is broken!

Special thanks to Dave Richards for going beyond the call of duty to explode my rigidly grouped SU Mind. As Donald Rumsfeld famously said, one can arrive at a perfectly logical conclusion from a wrong assumption. For me that assumption was to group, group, group (avoids the nastiness of merged geometry). While that served my purposes allowing me to accomplish certain things, in the end it was my downfall. Making components of everything is a superior way of grouping and a much more efficient way of working in SU. That, and avoiding the pitfalls of laziness by under-estimating the power and range of SU's native tools. Thanks, Dave! folding dolly.avi

The ruby dpot is back so here is the link to the tube along path plugin: http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugin_details.php?id=453

thanks alot I agree I use the mouse for Orbit so you key strokes seem to make alot of sence to me.

There are some issues like that with this file. It's kind of hard to understand exactly what Cathy has in mind with this. The scale also seems to be strange or maybe there isn't one.

Thanks Gaieus I will try that.

For info: http://www.ciri.org.nz/bendworks/bending.pdf Depending on where you apply fredo's bend tool, (neutral fiber) you come close to real deformation.

Well Akram, I would love to see more images of this project, it is really interesting. So now you've teased us please post more Cheers Dale

I'm pretty easy to please...

I don't think there is anything available. However, I know that I could utilize the Pro OBJ exporter to do this... If you want to you can PM me about it... but it would probably involve $... PS: Are the materials by just face or group/instance [or both] ?

click on one point as axis to rotate on, second click the point u want reference to when rotating, hold option key ( on the mac) and snap it anythwer u want

Super! Thanks a lot Tig, i have also found out that the plugin guide tools (insert components at Cpoint) is so helpfull. But it seems your method is more simple. thanks,

Which panels? Most of them would be best modeled as a small section copied to make an array of the desired size. The panel called Causeway would be the easiest to do but I'll guess you're after one of the others. It would actually probably be best to create a seamless texture and insinuate the panels rather than using geometry.

@dave r said: Sorted. The materials/colors need to be applied to the faces instead of to the component wrapper. Indeed. A component (as "such") will not actually be affected if you only apply a material to it "from outside" (i.e. - as Dave put it - to its wrapper only) That material will only belong to the model this component is placed in. This is not different from alignment (position, rotation...) of a component inside a model or the scale of a component when it is scaled (again) from "outside" (not while editing it). Here is a little tut that I put together on a different note but may still be interesting (does not seem to be a very popular one, as I see though): http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=39655&p=350494

TIG, I checked and found I'd somehow put LibFredo6.rb in the LIBFREDO6_Dir_45 folder. I pulled it back into Plugins and now everything works a treat. Thanks for your help. Tim

Thanks TIG. The Components folder and Preferences options showed nothing so had to resort to 'regedit'. Sure enough, ComponentBrowser1 was pointing to my Desktop. I cleared the other ComponentBrowser keys as suggested, just in case. Everything works as it should now. Thanks for giving your time - much appreciated.

Thanks Dave. What a good explanation. I will try it right away. EDIT: So I did, and found out that the line color was solid black! After comparing both versions I saw that the guide lines in SketchUp 8 were thinner than in 6. I do not know if that can be changed. At least I did not find where I could change that. Rob

@unknownuser said: My Meshlab can't imports 3DS @unknownuser said: Meshlab import:PLY, STL, OFF, OBJ, 3DS, COLLADA, PTX, V3D, PTS, APTS, XYZ, GTS, TRI, ASC, X3D, X3DV, VRML, ALN export:PLY, STL, OFF, OBJ, 3DS, COLLADA, VRML, DXF, GTS, U3D, IDTF, X3D

So these one and at the end you have the review of the Basic tools used ! [flash=420,315:1i0kl3z8]http://www.youtube.com/v/3wSvMUdnW_8[/flash:1i0kl3z8] Thes basic tools for the robot! [flash=420,315:1i0kl3z8]http://www.youtube.com/v/1NREaJLMpaI[/flash:1i0kl3z8]

Ok. Thank you so much. I knew something would come up with the query. I just didn't restart sketchup when I changed the settings. Big whoopie for me. I did the geolocation to find the area in the exact location where the building was at to do a sun/shade study model. Thanks again guys.