You're going offtopic here guys... Eric, finally you could make use of the one smiley no-one could imagine when to use... Tell Edson, too!

Dear Richard, Many thanks for the tutorial. Regards, Bob

chippwalters, Yes, I forget to mention that possibility. I don’t even know if there is any such ruby but it should not be that hard to reproduce a scene since that data is saved with the model. The only thing is you have to know where to ‘look’ to fetch it. I enjoyed doing this. success, Wo3Dan

Like Mr.Gaieus sad: You can speed up your workflow with this with the help of the Skin.rb. It's little tricky but save a lot's of time.

Turning on hidden geometry did the trick. Thanks Sorgesu

Wow, despite of the polycount it could still be a very handy program! Thanks Phil (and of course, welcome to the forums though I see you haven't just recently registered) I think you should also post this in the Hardware & Software section.

Quintain, If your purpose with the model is to place it on GE there's no real need to model it from inside, too (navigation in GE won't really let you "go in" anyway). Therefore there's no real need to model the floors either. Also, since you cannot "cut through" the GE Terrain, moödeling a basement (or any kind of undergound structure) is simply useless. If you want to model "realistic" buildings however, with the floors and walls (thick walls - not just single faces) as well as inside walls, have a look at these tutorials here: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=723 and http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=752

Yeah that feature is on the mac version. Pretty nice feature.

@gaieus said: Mike, Note that 3D text is not an editable text entity but simply geometry (grouped) like anything else in your model. "Editing" it is only possible like any other geometry; deleting faces, adding lines etc. ...BUT if you use my "TextTag" script it makes 2D-like text using 3D text, so that it behaves differently to ordinary-text (snaps to a face, remains 'flat' etc, AND it's editable later). Right-click a previuosly placed and now selected TextTag and then pick "Edit TextTag" in the contect menu - you can change all settings (like font, color etc) and the typed in text itself... To edit what 'plain 2D text' says you just double-click it and enter new your text in the box.

Randall, sorry, I was out of town today...for a really detailed/accurate site model use the sandbox tools (separate utilities download). Start with a contour drawing to create the site plane, use the drape tool (or extrude and intersect the drives, curbs, etc. yourself), then build your site features as you will. There are tutorial videos on all these steps...always an excellent place to start. Or, simplify any portion of the site as you can/will. First extruding all the paving and such, I'd probably (but I'm not an LA) just slope the two sections of the site with the parking lots each toward the drive, then slope those two and the drive section of the site toward the street. Then I would do the same with major blocks of the remaining pieces of the site, positioning all vertically as they need be, and "stitch" the whole thing together.

thanks, gaieus, i did not know about changing it other than in 'preferences' - still surprised how it happened as i did not change anything - well, problem is solved anyway, must be a computer thing

If your goal is to design, not just to practice with SketchUp, don't simply take an existing plan, make a few changes, and call it good. Instead, think about the qualities that make for a great house, and incorporate those qualities in your design. Christopher Alexander and his colleagues thought about the qualities of great design, and in 1977 they published their thoughts in "A Pattern Language." The book is widely available, but it is a little pricey. Even if money is a problem for you, though, you are in luck: Alexander has a web site. http://www.patternlanguage.com/leveltwo/patterns.htm You might not agree with some of the conclusions, but I guarantee it will get you thinking. Also, it would be good to study the works of past masters. (Learn, don't worship.) You could start with Frank Lloyd Wright. Both his work and his biography are amazing - so much so that I sometimes wonder if he made a deal with the Devil to become the best architect ever. You can find a lot about him on the web, and I would be surprised if there weren't books about him at a library near you. If you do become an architect, I wish you great clients with great commissions and the talent to do them justice.

Susan, I guess he meant the ruby file to download.

Jean and Greyhead were dead on the money. I had given thought to Jeans' very idea, thanks for the conformation, and had tried Greyhead's idea. I think Jeans' idea will do a better job with the profile and then push/pull or follow me. Mike

Also a "newbie", and a somewhat lazy software developer. I have an extension monitor connected to my laptop. My Sketchup project is displayed on the laptop screen, and all my component folders are displayed on the extension monitor (Windows Explorer). To add a component to the project, I just drag it from the extension monitor to the laptop screen. Major advantages of doing it like this are the (much) bigger thumbnails, and I can display more of them in the bigger window. Another component tip: When creating many similar components, like windows, doors, kitchen cabinets etc, make only one of each main type. Test it to be sure that it "glues" and "cuts" exactly as you require. When completely satisfied with your "basic" component design, you can then create many more similar components from this basic one. Open the basic component, save it as a new file, and then do whatever editing and modifications are required for the new component. The BIG advantage in doing this is that every copy of the basic component will automatically "inherit" the same "gluing plane" and "cutting surface" as the original basic component. Maybe we should have a special forum thread for "component tips and tricks"?

It does it to me too. I'm not an expert but I figure the refresh rate of my video card just can't keep up with my orbiting. Everything reappears when I stop orbiting.

[image: 6tzdekj.jpg] If the rear side have same shape as front side of leg you could do it like this. Video preview:http://dhost.info/pagan/leg.avi And here is a model:http://dhost.info/pagan/leg.skp

@ross macintosh said: Was the model originally created by you in SketchUp or is it imported? They keys of the keyboard were taken from J-m@n's "Standard Qwerty Keyboard" model. I am not sure if that was modeled in Sketchup. The rest of it is created in Sketchup 5.0.305. @gaieus said: Wow that's weird... Do the skb (autosave) files present this problem, too? Maybe try to leave SU open for a while than exit without saving the model and open the autosaved skb file to see if those faces are still in there. If so, don't save it but maybe share the skb file with us somehow and we can have a look into it. I shall try doing that. I had actually successfully copied and saved the keyboard and keys by creating a new Sketchup file in which I pasted the keyboard in. It took two steps though or else it will blow holes in the board again. I first copied the "board" and pasted it in then the keys. I shall upload both the old file (skp and skb) along with the new one so you can compare them. EDIT: The files are uploaded here: http://files.filefront.com/Keyboardrar/;9393076;/fileinfo.html

@unknownuser said: @unknownuser said: Now that I think of it, that might be a fun prank to play on someone. Almost as good as setting their monitor settings 180° off. I saw that for the first time last week. My kids shouted me upstairs because their computer screen had rotated 90 degrees and I had no idea how to get it back. Good old Google came to the rescue as usual! I did think though, im gonna have to do this to some people at work, it could be quite funny Isn't it some key combination that does it? I remember that sometime my coworkers had this happen accidentally, and that I had a heck of a time trying to set the damn thing right again. Anssi

Gaieus and Ross, Thanks a bunch for your replies. Much appreciated!