"Light base" is probably just a name someone used for a light source component. These are made by a plugin for exporting to specific a rendering program. I see that you have icons for the Kerkythea export plugin. If you are using Kerkythea, then the yellow icons that look like Saturn and a cone are the ones that create a light source. I see other icons that look like rendering plugins as well. Depends on what rendering program you are using.

@mac1 said: Not an unsolved problem but normal design. 3d models have 6 clipping planes, top, bottom, left,right, front and back and is not limited to SU. The reason for these is they limit the amount of rendering the program must do to keep performance at a reasonable level.Other wise they would have to render a huge model extents.Rendering is not done outside these planes and is the reason the model ' dis-appears" when the limit is hit. Some programs like Blender allow you set the planes. The link above gives good guidance on how to avoid the problem. ok, unsolved was the wrong expression. i understand the limitations for rendering, my vis-software allows to adjust the clipplanes. i just was hoping to improve the editing work (modelling) in skp by a sort of 'hidden' adjustment of a near plane (for ex. editing components in huge project, where thos problem occures extremely).. so thanx a lot for all the infos and replies to everybody.... sta

Thank you. I had tried everything but right click. Just need to practice with it now. Paul

Hi Cotty, I can't believe you produced the video just for me. So generous with your time. Also I tried what you suggested. Opened the group and placed the windows whilst still in edit mode. It works!! not more Z fighting. Thank you Cotty and to all others that have helped. Regards, Andrew (Penguin2)

Hi, Gary: Rereading your reply, I think maybe the joining of two pieces can work. Did you have trouble with forming faces on the portion with edges only? Because, all you have to do is trace over one of the straight segments and the face will form. Then right click on the circle face and delete. Or select the circle face and delete. If it doesn't delete then the circle is not coplanar. Again, working at such small dimensions could cause problems. Are you familiar with Groups and Components?

[image: bpd2_angulardim.jpg]at the end we made it! was a problem of the site from which the plug-in unloaded, and did not appear in the menu item tools. here is the screenshot that shows that it works well now. thanks again marcuus 99

That could be the case. 3D Warehouse sends a slightly different variant to the SketchUp-embedded view than to the normal browser. The new year has just started, so if it is a website bug (instead of a IE cache issue), it will be fixed in the coming days.

You're welcome.

@rosesinthebush said: and sketchymick i actually wasn't aware that that option was even available, that i could just delete the excess around my circle.... It'll work for any shape. One thing I forgot to mention is that if you do use the smoove tool in this fashion, take care not to lift or lower the edges of your circle, otherwise the edge of your hill won't be flat anymore, and won't join in nicely to the rest of your model(although you could use TIG's drop vertices plugin to drop all the edges back to the same elevation again if you wanted to do it that way). You can of course modify other geometry using the sandbox tools. For instance, make a dome, then use smoove on it to deform: [image: 7Q1n_domes.JPG] or even make some custom domes using the cross-section of your choice: [image: GE2O_saucer.JPG]

Hi Gaieus, Thanks for the reply. It did work with Safari on my mac and then I transferred the files accross. On my pc, with IE it doesn't work although it doesn't sign me out when I move between pages, only when I try to download a plugin. I tried looking for the IE security settings but can't seem to find them. Thanks again, David. P.S. Fantastic plugin, Tools on Surface!

@gaieus said: Cool, glad it helped. @unknownuser said: Wow, thank you guys! I'm not used to such quick and helpful responses! I really appreciate it Welcome to SketchUcation! +1 ! One of the best (if not the very best) online communities here!

Can this help ? http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=45177

it sounds as if you've imported the file into a template that you're not usually using.. are you saying you were using a template that functions as you want (units, line color, etc) then brought in a dwg at which point, all the settings changed? that, scenario seems very unlikely to me.. try it again but make sure your drawing environment is the way you like it prior to importing.

@bep said: Hi, Try this one http://www.doublecad.com/DoubleCAD/DoubleCADXTv3/tabid/1100/Default.aspx Bep another good free altenative to AutoCad is DraftSight. as for preparing cad drawings before importing to sketchup, see daniel tal's Google Sketchup for Site Design.

@gordy_z said: I'll also check back here for a couple weeks to see if anyone says "Don't waste your time, your wall phototextures won't render well because of x,y, and z - fall back to option "2," "3," or either "2" or "3." yeah, i think i'm confusing the matter by not talking about what you're really asking (and hey, maybe i'm i bit unclear on what that is exactly ) but your textures look fine.. good in fact.. and they look good when rendered as well.. (i.e.- with a render engine, not only will you achieve better lighting throughout, you could give the walls and what not a little bump or displacement which will mimic the look of depth.. the bricks will pop out, the mortar lines recessed.. etc.. plus add gloss/sheen to areas if needed.. less reflective for other areas (glass = shiny & bricks don't).. and on and on.. you have a lot more options like that for textures in a rendering app..(meaning textures that are imported photos -and- textures that are created in sketchup itself).. within sketchup, you don't have any of that type of control..

In that case, it may just be a matter of having to model it by push-pull offset each face then "manually" fixing all the connections. With such a shape it is certain no tool would know the exact decisions you wish to make on these intersections. You could do something with "follow me and keep" plugin to get a top portion, but clearly no profile will represent all portions of the wall.

@dave r said: There is no Mac version of the plugin you're after nor of most plugins. just to clarify a little on what dave is saying.. there isn't a Mac specific version… the same plugin (same files.. same download.. etc) will work on both windows and mac..

THANKYOU!- the double click fixes the issue! I don't know what about manually push/pulling the second punch face down to an inference makes it weird -- BUT, double clicking it with the push/pull cuts both faces cleanly AWESOME- THANK YOU!

oh god, it's actually pretty embarrassingly bad this time! alright i might, for the sake of the community and all

As per Pilou, draw the circles you want. Note that when you draw them (by entering "(integer)s" or aftewards, in the entity box you can change the number of sides. Use Push pull to pull them up. You pull out the radius, click, then type in the proper radius. For the horizontal tubes move your view so you are looking at the horizont, choose circle tool. hold it up in the "sky" till you get a red or green circle. hold shift and draw your circle. You can then pull a cylinder that is parallel to the x or y axis. Make it a component. How to position? I would go to an overhead view and turn on hidden geometry. Move your small cylinder from the top edge up or down until you see z axis (blue) indication and press shift. Move up and down and align the top edge with the top of the fat cylinder (a component) (leave top face on the fat cylinder for now). Then with move tool hover on the top edge of the small cylinder and find the "Midpoint" of that edge. Click down move the cylinder to the top edge of the fat cylinder and hover, then move to the center of the top face of the fat cylinder to find "Center" inference. When the move snaps to that point let go or click. Similarly you can use the edges and points on the cylinders to snap / move the small cylinder down to the midpoint of the fat one. Use the rotate tool (with option key down for duplicate)to rotate a second component at 60 deg. Get a blue protractor with the rotate tool then press shift. Hover on the top circle edge of the fat cylinder and then move to the center of the top surface to find the center. Then you can click down to establish center of rotation. No need for shift key then, but use option key and rotate a duplicate component at 60 deg. What is this for. If only for a model or picture that will be viewed as-is. I would not explode the components or affect their geometry. I would not make holes in the cylinder. Instead I select the three components and context menus intersect with selected. this will give the appearance of holes by placing edges in the model. Group these edges for security. If for some reason you need to make holes. You will have to work inside the components. Holes in the side of cylinders in SU can make messy geometry and also may not look smooth, depending on how many sides they have. Main things are rotate and move. Learning to use inferences, and constraining movement on an axis.