@adt2 said: Sometimes I start from scratch. Sometimes I start with an existing plan and trace. I'm mainly curious about setup; layers, groups, components, etc. Working in SU is so different than working in CAD that I want to make sure I'm not carrying over unnecessary baggage. for a start draw everything in layer 0. draw out the walls and make a group. push pull them up to the necessary height. fill in the floor area and group the geometry. use groups for most things, and use components for items that are repeated (doors, windows etc.). make layers according to how you want to control their visibility, so generally i would have walls on one layer, floors on another, funiture on another etc. quite similar to the way i work in cad. it'll take you a while to get your head round it. one of the big stumbling blocks for me right at the start was knowing that i would have to draw some lines twice (e.g. where floors met walls), which is something i would never do in cad.

BigHandD, I hope you don´t mind me using your post for the same reason you did- just to say "hi" to everybody on this forum My name is Jan and I come from Slovenia. I am a new user of the forum and have found about it just about ... 5 minutes ago I use sketchup mostly for architectural models and interiors, but currently it is my primary "weapon" for modeling my "diploma" model, which I hope will bi finished in about two months. So I will probably be a regular visitor here from now on Greetings, Jan

Hi Ben, hi folks. It may prove to be simpler to do it all using SketchUp. Doing this simple design might prove a good way to learn the software. In the following example, I used the default 24 segments for circles and ellipses and 12 segments for arcs. Using more may yield a better result. The completed figure comprise 1608 edges. Using something like 96 edges for the larger circles would set the count to 1896 which is not much. Even quadrupling everything from this value would yield 7584 edges (circles and ellipses with 384 segments and arcs with 48 segments). Maybe this would be OK for CNC machines. See this SU file for ideas. Ben.skp

just spent some time looking and thinking that maybe this christmas is going to come around too fast!!!!!!

"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

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..