TIG: Thanks for the feedback. I looked at all, as best I can, but do not find anything wrong. Everything had been working fine then all of a sudden things changed. FORTUNATELY, I had a backup and upon restore all was fixed and no further problems currently exist. broomstick: I tried “zoom extends but it did not solve my problem by itself but in conjunction with what Gaieus said read the solution is there. Dave and Gaieus: “Update Scene” solved the problem. I will never forget! Gaieus: As always, thanks a lot! In regards to #1 I think I did something and I have no idea what it could have been and I cannot find the specific cause. I think you identified the probable cause. Restore from backup solved the problem.

One final point for you and all others new to the program: I grouped those two planes used to intersect the ends. Therefore, when they were deleted, they disappeared completely with a single click. If I had left them as raw geometry, I would have needed to delete all 4 edges on each square. Obviously, the face would have disappeared as soon as I started this action...however that part of the face that formed the end of the curved cover would have remained, instead of having to fill it in later. The face on the far side would have been the wrong way round, however, (blue face outwards) unless I'd flipped the face on the square before intersection. It's useful to consider such things beforehand...whether to group the intersector, the intersectee, or not. For instance, you can produce a line of 3D text, or extrude a 2D logo and intersect it with a curved surface, leaving the outline of the text/logo branded onto the surface...ready to receive a separate colour, or whatever. It's much easier to clean this up after intersection if the 'branding iron' is grouped beforehand, so it can be deleted by a single action...otherwise you may need to clean up the remains of hundreds of separate faces on both sides of the curved surface. The Pro version of SU has a new assortment of Solid Tools which can perform all manner of such Boolean intersections...both subtractive and additive.

that was my reaction exactly... john BTW. The Mondrianum picker is great... works in SU with 'coverflow' in materials box...

Have a look at this topic over th help forums: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=6c575f696884e0af&hl=en It seems that if you sign up for the trial of IES VE-WARE, you get a promo code worth $ 100. It's an old thread but someone posted that it still worked yesterday.

Not upgrading is a wise choice. there is a list of known issues but I have submitted a couple that are not on that list (crashes when exporting to fbx for example). http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=09d5a01c3e4845cf&hl=en

@tig said: OK... Windows-Vista and Windows-7 have a stupidly hyperactive [but uncommunicative] 'security checking' system... that might be it If you put a file into a folder on which you have insufficient access-rights, instead of Windows telling you that, it looks like the file went into the folder, BUT in actuality it's been put in a 'Compatibility Files' folder [I think Win7 has another similar name ?] so it doesn't auto-load from there, as it would had it gone properly into Plugins! Windows protects you from yourself, but doesn't let on! The clue is that a 'Compatibility Files' button [or similar] is added to the top-bars of any folder's windows that have this issue - clicking on that reveals what's not really been loaded. To fix/avoid... Ensure that you are a full Admin in your User settings. Change the Permissions on the Plugins folder [and the Components, Materials and Styles folders too as you might want to write to those from time to time] - to do this right-click on the folder's icon > Properties > Security > Edit, change permissions to 'Full control' [All?] for you, AND for others who need it. Now move the scripts etc across or reinstall them from scratch... Thank you so much!! I couldn't get rid of Engineerintoolbox.rb and I thought I was going crazy! It still don't make sence though! Download some rb, goes in standard folder, download another goes in hidden folder, Same permissios, same user.

Daniel. This was a wonderful experience. Thanks for everything. Regards, Phil

thank you

Gaieus, Thank you for your reply and advise. A few mm either way shouldn't be a problem if this makes thing easier to model. Brian

Thanks, no we don't have this. The workaround is to click on the In Model material, switch to the chosen library and then drag the material from the preview bar in the material picker into the library. SU will auto rename the material by appending the next number and you would then have a duplicate (so if the original was named WoodMat then you would now have WoodMat and WoodMat-1). You can remove the WoodMat and rename WoodMat-1. This however does not clear the material from the HD so you would have to manage manually.

I also second Paint.NET - as a "starter". Very easy to use and if you erase a part of your image, it will automatically become transparent. There is a "magic wand tool" which lets you select colours like your white background. One click. Then press the Delete key and all is gone. Under Window > Preferences > Applications, you can set your favourite image editor. Now if you right click on a face and go to Texture menu item, there is a possibility to edit the texture image. Do the deleting in Paint.NET and upon saving, it will automatically update the image in SU. You really need something better than MS Paint. [image: yDM0_transparent.png]

thanks..gilles method is perfect for my work thanks to all again

Thanks Dave, I agree it's not difficult to go into finder and delete/rename. I did think that you would be able to do it from inside SU as it seems a pretty basic function and therefore I thought I was missing something somewhere (despite looking for a while). Thanks for the confirmation.

Thank you Gaieus. That works great and makes sense now, especially purging unsued objects and I noticed a huge slowdown last night whilst playing around with materials so this would be why. thank you again

TIG, Thanks! I will do as you suggest! Makes perfect sense and should work intersecting two roofs first then cleaning up....

Thank you very much for the speedy replies, Tig I am going to download your plugin as it sounds exactly the tool I need, thank you very much. Jean I selected all the layers and changed the layer info but it still seemed to keep the unwanted layer info within the group when I opened to edit them. I need to keep the groups as they are as its an intricate stairway and I have a feeling when I send it back he will still need maximum editability, thank you for the other info, It will be stored and used in future.

Hi folks. For a guide perpendicular to the center of a sloped rectangle, see attached SU file for ideas. Guide perpendicular to the center of a sloped rectangle.skp

Yes of course. From my side I sent already 2 messages about that, within the 2 Google forms made for that, and I guess I'm not the only one ! Best wishes,

Thanks TIG. Now you know why this is in the newbies section.

really i newly know how to use divide from left click thats awesome! I was thought that was a bug but it was me and, greatly thanks to SketchUcation for the learning, also i will learn how to use the correction plugin, thanks SketchUcation!