Good tuts guys. The tip about grouping after the intersect is very useful for the more complicated shapes. Thanks

You could experiment with Macro Express it's a very versatile Windows Macro tool and can be scripted to do almost anything . . . never tried it with SketchUp though. Bob

No the math only works if you have a 2 point perspective. The help text clearly says so. No grid style or "bar" placing will give you what you require with the one point perspective.

The new IRender nXt has its own forum and gallery on the nXt site. Check it out if you like: http://nxt.accurender.com/

Hi Mike, hi folks. 1 - RESIZING After bringing a ship in your model, make sure it is in a group and resize it. If not in a group, group it first. To resize, go inside the group with a double click on the group and use the Tape Measure Tool to measure a line of known length. Observe the length shown in the VCB. If not correct, type over the required value and then validate with the RETURN or the ENTER key. There is no need to click in the VCB since it is active as soon as you start using any tool. SU will ask if you want to resize the active Group/Component. Click yes and then exit the group. Repeat for any additional group (imported ship in your case). If you dont use groups, SU will resize the whole model which may be OK for the first ship but will probably be not very good for the next one. Of course, all this assume that your ship is actual 3D geometry and not just a picture. However, imported pictures can also be resized using the same measuring tool. And, since they normally import as groups, it saves a step. 2 - COLORING See attached SU file for ideas. Note that you can modify existing colors by editing them. All this and more is in the help. Hull painting.skp

Meant to mention; of course I have a fairly detailed model now. Any tips of how to separate it all into easy layers? I suspect I will have to start from the beginging because of my ongoing selection problem. Molly

@unknownuser said: Are the "units of measure" for each native file the same? Good question Modelhead. There is a bug in SU:s DWG export function, that ignores any metric units settings. As at least ACAD 2008 is much more scale-aware than the older ones, I have to open my exported files in ACAD first and change the unit settings before importing the file into my ACAD drawing or model. Otherwise the it will import 25.4 times too large. Anssi

Good news: Jim is working on a custom toolbar script.

Hi Dawn, Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=676 You can apply the basic concept to any kind of roofs very easily. Also see this video for the "SketchUp for Dummies" book: http://youtube.com/watch?v=A6WxE6oO3JU

@rob d said: Chris Thanks for the hint on using the xref ruby. I hadn't realised you could xref components with it too. That's made my day! Well don't get too ecstatic. The tool is sort of broken. If you have a file with components which themselves are made of components you have to be careful. If you modify a component several 'layers' down and then open the top most file, the xref manager will want to update that component and it's parent component. Unfortunately this will send the ruby and Sketchup off into never-never land as it is evidently a circular reference. I've asked TIG (the author) to modify the xref ruby to only show the components inserted directly in the file (not any of the 'children') but he has failed to respond. You can work around this by setting the update on all the lower level child components to OK in the manager and only updating the highest level children. In SolidWorks we call these parts and assemblies, but since that nomenclature is not present in Sketchup, I'm attempting to adapt ;> I posted a file in the xref ruby discussion area. You can download it and see what I'm driving at. Perhaps if more people poke TIG he will fix the script. Have fun, chris

Remus and Gidon, You guys are the best! It is nice to see people sharing their information with each other. Hopefully the world will catch on. Great examples of the human spirit! I'm blown away! Thanks again!

I changed my plan (SketchUp) and did a 'follow me' on my box to give me a thickness and then did the 'push-pull'. That gave me a thickness to the walls. Thanks.

Thank you, it was a mix of the 'use fast feedback' in preferences and the mouse settings. Much appreciated. Great to get fast response.

@anssi said: Gaieus, You are misrepresenting me a bit, I am not a regular Mac user. I own one, but it is I think about 10 years old and totally unable to run SU. I bought an Intel Imac for my daughter and tried SU on it a couple of times.... ...Sorry I cannot be of more help, I'm mainly just quoting things read in these forums. Anssi Me too, Anssi. I often quote you in these cases. I wonder where the original information comes then if we just quote each other But seriously; I did really have the impression for some reason that you used Mac (although NOW as I see your specs it clearly say Windows )

There's no need to reboot when using KT for Mac...

Thanks. Looking forward to learning more.

Thanks for the tips. I haven't had a chance to try any yet But I will as soon as I have the oportunity.

Thanks Eric!! I use to live in Huntsville/Alabama. Got to love the space and rocket musem!!

Ive never had any problems with SU and vista, and you don't often hear aobut them, its usually more to do with graphics drivers and (intellipoint) mouse software In terms of purchasing a laptop for SU stuff, the things to look out for are a dual core processor with a highish clock rate (2.4 ghz or thereabouts) and a proper graphics card. Of the two the graphics card is probably the most important, lots of laptps use integrated graphics to save money, but these dont work with SU. If you can, go for a quadro graphics card as they generally have the best drivers for supporting openGL (the thing SU uses) Its also very important do shop around, as different places have deals on all the time, and dont feel presured to buy a computer, i can sometimes be worth waiting for a it to try and get the best deal possible.

If section planes don't do it for you, you can always fall back on layers. The only reason for layers in SU is to control visibility...not to separate geometry...so that is pretty much what you want. You need to draw everything on Layer0 then move it to other layers you create...preferably after grouping it first. The only reason I haven't grouped stuff in my example file is that the house is only 1 skin thick so you'd see the edge of the groups all over the outside walls...very messy. You can see in the example that you can reveal whatever you like by hiding the appropriate layers. Different requirements would obviously call for a different layer structure. layers.skp