First of all, that texture is not repeating seamlessly so it will never be perfect. You can still position it. Best to turn hidden geometry on first (under the View menu). Right click on a face and go to Texture > Position... [image: cBnI_1.png] You can now position your texture but if you are happy with it, just press Enter. Now simply sample the positioned texture from this face and apply it on the neighbouring one. Repeat the steps until you get to the end. [image: j9CA_2.png] This is how it would look with the positioned texture applied on each face. Aerotape problem.skp

@mal said: ...Ive updated the scenes, and the active section planes, and the styles of each scene. I saved the file before exporting, but still no cigar. Any tips?? These would be the steps I would also suggest. So best would be to share that file if possible so we can have a look.

[flash=420,315:1qvtqaap]http://www.youtube.com/v/SZWYtDDbSFY[/flash:1qvtqaap] [flash=420,315:1qvtqaap]http://www.youtube.com/v/eSlkkTsC4bA[/flash:1qvtqaap] When you have your surface just draw 4 vertical lines under it at the 4 extremities and make your volume [image: HWEB_terrain.jpg] You can now make with it any thing you want [image: xOpn_terrain1.jpg] All with Tig Slicer and Tig Super Drape [image: Kf3j_terrain2.jpg]

Try making another user who is also 'you' and with 'full' admin rights. Login as that new user... Now try Sketchup and plugins... any better? If so then your user account is foobar - move everything over to the new one and forget/delete the other one - rename the new [working] one to a needed... This is weird...

Thank you, very useful as always.

SUp v8 Pro has 'Layout' which allows 2d/3d sheet-creation using live-links into SKPs and other documents... with 2d drawing and text tools too...

SU Pro can be re-installed just as usual using the licence key from your original authorisation e-mail - I have done this several times without any problem.

Thanks so much I will look into those plugins and work on drawing the contours and smoothing them out to see how that looks, I don't quite need the mesh you have in the bottom pic because that's all supposed to be a flat concrete pad but the idea and methods helped me a lot and I will work on them in the area I need them at.

I finally got the model finished, after 1000 mistakes and 1001 fixes [image: eggchairfinished.jpg]

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=8784#p52793 Haven't try it.

Jeff, Thanks a bunch. Perfect answer. Exactly what I was asking about/needed. Thanks again, Chappy

You're welcome. I quite agree - I experimented with the demo's of quite a few CAD packages when we first started making our own hardware at work. IMHO, the speed and simplicity of modelling in SU more than compensates for the hassle of export "tweaking". (plus we have the friendliest and most helpful user forum, and all those incredible Ruby guys "upgrading" the software on a daily basis! Hint, hint ) Here's a few other little tips that may help when designing for laser... The 'underside' of parts will have a slightly wider kerf due to the way that the laser is focused. So export your outlines looking towards the side where the dimensions are most critical, especially for thick materials (> ~3mm). If cutting or engraving text, always convert to vector outlines, as fonts often do not translate well. Don't be tempted to butt parts up against each other to save space; leave a gap of a mm or two. 'Shared' cut lines will often get cut twice, and can spoil the edge of the first part if it moves slightly after being 'released' from the sheet. Many small laser firms these days are using cheaper imported Chinese machines, and the software for these is often rather arcane and works in non-standard ways - for example our "LaserCut" software treats colours as different 'layers' but doesn't recognise genuine layers within the source file. As a designer, how are you supposed to know this? So it seems odd to me that the guys who program the machines do not offer to optimise files at their end - a reasonable fee for an 'expert' to do this could be cheaper than paying the designer to spend hours revising their files until they hit on something usable! Hope your project comes out well, Trog.

+1 Jean! The simple icon base of SU is what I find so appealling at the moment. I've worked on AutoCAD and ArchiCAD and there comes a point when you realise you can have so many command options and icons that you forget what you were trying to do in the first place while you try to remember how the command works. (I know first sign of altzeimers). Having started on a drawing board, (you know, pencil & paper), there is a lot to be said for SU's simplicity in maintaining design focus. That's not to say I don't have any plugins, I do, but they are a select few that bring instant productivity gains rather than clogging my menu structure with subtle variations that do a similar thing. Grumpy old man rant over.

@dave r said: You would find it much easier to use SketchUp if you drop to the track pad and start using a standard 3-button mouse with scroll wheel. You'll use the wheel for zoom and have much better control over it. i use my trackpad with sketchup a lot.. as in, i'll do entire drawings with no mouse .. dunno, it's ok now and will only get better in the future.. a n y w a y s……. you can use the ZOOm tool for fixed rate of zoom.. it's *cmmd- * or via the menus, Camera -> Zoom (though it will only zoom to the center of the window instead of where your pointer is) likewise, you can adjust your tracking speed (globally) via System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Point & Click -> Tracking speed.. but all that aside, sketchup is more or less content aware when it comes to zooming/navigating.. so you're better off becoming familiar with it as that's the way it is.. i think if you did a survey, you'd find very few complaints amongst the more seasoned users regarding navigation in sketchup.. it's pretty darn good.

You are seeing the route you should at least test. Try this on a cube to see what happens. Don't use colours as these are not textures as I mentioned already. If when you export a cube and things still have errors holla back.

i've seen this before...when i would see that somebody enters this i would post myself infront of it and perform something like this ->

There are all nice Podium is maybe the more easy with LightUp, Twillight,...

Massimo beat me to it but his is almost the same process I used. If you don't want the edges of the model as mine shows, after setting the Face Style to Hidden Line, edit the style to turn off edges leaving only the dimensions visible.

Not sure if my last reply was posted. Cotty thanks for the help... I can't beleive I've never used that tool before. I always thought it was to align an object to axes or another object. Thanks again Joe

Sure. Make copies to try various ways. It seems likely that you have the items in groups. If so explode and intersect them and delete extra entities. Try editing with attention to inferencing to govern entity creation and editing. If you post a model someone can be more specific, rather than making very general guesses.