i guess gap is the wrong term, i meant distance from the edge of holes to outer edge.

And here is why those faces were missing: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36261

so obvious... and yet. Thanks!!

Hi folks. I would try this: 1 - Make a group or a component with the object. 2 - Inside the group or component, I would create another nested group that will contain a simple rectangular box having its dimensions adjusted to contain exactly the object. This is very easy to do with the Rectangle Tool and the Push/Pull Tool using the object itself to control the pulls or the pushes. 3 - I would hide this box. 4 - Then, whenever I need to grab the "bounding box" of an object, I would first show hidden geometry and then move the object using any suitable points on that box. Of course, using scenes to memorize settings like "show hidden geometry" or not would help greatly. Just a click on a scene tab and I am set to grab and move. Another click and the box or boxes are hidden. Using layers could also be possible to control the visibility of these boxes. Just ideas.

Thank you, all, for your links and suggestions! Much appreciated. I like the visual guide, especially. I have to say I'm very thankful and impressed at the patience demonstrated by all of your responses. Cheers to you all. C.

@tig said: Another way that avoids 'stretching' is to make the dormer a group/compo and initially to have it as a simple gabled rood at both ends that stretches through the main roof plane. Especially useful on curved or odd angled roof/dormer combos... Edit the dormer, switch the view settings to show only the edited item [hide rest of model] and now select all, pick intersect with model and then you should get the main slope's cut-lines appearing around the dormer's geometry. Erase the unwanted parts of the dormer and close the edit. You now have a dormer that fits neatly onto the roof... Here's a tutorial... [attachment=0:1ewmyq3t]<!-- ia0 -->Intersecting Dormer.skp<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:1ewmyq3t] If you have a half-made dormer with a wrong slope then in a similar way edit it and select all of the sloping edges etc and move them axially through the main roof plane, work with only the edit geometry showing - intersect them with the model and the cut-line of the roof plane will appear; erase the excess part - this way often easier than trying to stretch edges and vertices... Wow, between the original suggestion and now this, I think I've got a great new set of skills to tackle this problem. You're right, the sloped faces are causing a significant portion of my headaches. I think making a grouped/component "double-dormer" and editing it as necessary will save me a lot of grief. I'm so hung-up on having perfect geometry that I get wiggy when I have "junk" floating on the inside of my houses, not realizing that it can actually save me a lot of time if used as a tool. Thank you guys!

Hi John, hi folks. The Dimension Tool will auto select a full line or a full arc or a full polygon or a full circle if the cursor is placed on the line or any edge of the other entities. The Dimension Tool, however, can attach dimension lines to points (endpoint, midpoints, center points and construction points). So, for some nice effects, you can add temporary points or edges from which you will use one or two endpoints to attach the ends of a dimension line. When done, simply delete the temporary geometry. Even better, dimension items can be moved and rotated and can also be used with the Move/Copy and Rotate/Copy feature to get linear and radial arrays. Just ideas.

Welcome Sanjay, Just jump in a start havng some fun Mike

Jeff: The right hand illustration would most likely be how they would lay it out in the real world with heavy bar reinforcement. The left hand illustration would be closer to what it would look like if welded wire mesh were used. Either way could work, depending on the gauge of the wire mesh and the thickness of the shell, which I assume would be some form of concrete. But-- let's see what brob1969 has to allow.

Lots happened to the wiki It was a great project that never quit got the support it needed to survive. I invest a lot of up front time into making a base for it. Al Hart invest a LOT of time in adding content and cleaning up spam. Faruk Ahmet invested a lot of time working on conent formatting. And others invested time adding content, etc. But in the end, the spammers won, and my cheap WebHost couldn't handle the load. Wikis are very server intensive with all the php and sql database processing. And it just was painful to try and edit pages, often getting web time outs, erasing the attepmted edits. So it was a good effort, but just never quite took off like I had hoped, though it was incredibly succesfful if you count how many visitors it had. Now the information has been put onto the Sages site like you said. Joy (Catamountain) and Al Hart did virtually all the content moving over to the sages site. Hopefully it will stay there and continue to be accessible. Chris

Admittedly, an SVN-based repository is not without its own challenges; there is a learning curve for the administrators as well as the plugin authors, not to mention the end-users. As much as it a success with WordPress, it's not exclusively used by all plugin developers, either. Thanks for the links and comments, everyone.

Hi folks. And some will show up the contextual menu that you get with a right click on an entity. Just ideas.

Hi Numb, Yes, it was me that posted that question on the Blender Forum! Thanks anyway!

@papa said: anyone in the burlington vt. area. i need just a little help getting going. let me know. Why don't you post your question if you have one. you my get answers from around the world. Why limit yourself to Vermont??

thank you for your reply. extensions are already disabled, still the error appears. but anyway, i don't think i will use it.

Gaieus advice solves the problem. But if you are looking for editing curved surfaces (eg. draw a rect. and push pull) don't miss this out: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=11212 It is Fredo6's Tools on Surface plugin. IT WILL BE WORTH IT.

Hi Queenhunter, There is no (native) object animation in SketchUp - normally you can only "animate" the camera and thus create walkthrough or flythrough animations. There are a couple of plugins however, like Sketchy Physics (we have a whole subforum for this), Proper Animation or Mover with which you can also animate objects.

Thanks Ecuadorian, your example was great. So often the small details that make it can be forgotten. There are some amazing results and I know it going to take some time, and considerable patience. Can struggle with both, but hopefully will get something to be proud of. Keep an eye out, will be after feedback sometime soon

You make it projected on that flat face in front of the bus. Then sample the projected image Alt + :paint) and it will not only pick the texture image but also its position and projected state. Now release the Alt key and paint it on the front of the bus. Also this is why it is very important to correctly align that free hanging face with the front of the bus.

Hi Christine, Here's a link to the Newbie Forum where you can say 'Hi' to everyone http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=57