Thanks TIG, for the very detailed information! I'm still very new to modeling, so I have a lot to learn, but those pointers sure put me in the right direction!

Works perfectly! Thanks a lot! Take care, Nicolas

Welcome, mightybluehunter, This is a great place to learn, and discuss anything you can't find an answer for. Someone knowledgeable is always here to lend a hand. Good luck! Gigi

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36261

Before such plugins and only using manual methods; http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=1e5fdb89c7a74110a3ecfc61555240da

Perhaps I should back up just a little bit, and paint a little more of the picture of why I'm here. I have created a piece of hardware that will allow oneself to fly. This is not new, it has been done by many individuals before me, using various means to achieve flight. What is novel about my approach is that I would like to start forming a community around my design. In my mind, the community would help with things like the modeling, parts substitution research, finite element analysis of the basic structure, testing etc. In return they would be, well, a productive part of the community. I am basing this project loosely on what is being done in the embedded microcontroller community; http://www.arduino.cc/ whereby anyone has available to them what is needed to create an embedded programmable microcontroller. For example, they can download the mask and create their own circuit boards if they wished to do so. There exists commercial entities within that community (http://www.adafruit.com/) that sells pre-printed circuit boards and component kits. That is precisely the relationship I would like to have with this project. I would like to be the kit supplier. It is very important to me for various reasons that the plans be available to anyone that wants to use them. I would like the 'wisdom of the crowd' to have an influence on the design as it morphs and matures. This really makes little sense if I end up doing the whole thing. I have already completed the design and construction of what I expect will be a flyable prototype. I realize that anyone that wants to copy my design and build their own is going to do so with or without my consent. I would rather them have actual plans in the hope that if they make some incremental improvement, we can incorporate that into the on-going design. I am capable of learning the SketchUp tool, but at this point I would really like to turn this portion over to someone else. I feel my time would be better spent writing use cases and doing actual testing of the prototype. That why I am seeking a recruit; so I won't have to learn everything from the ground up. I've never never reached out for help like this before, its my nature to try to do everything myself. I really want to try to let someone else contribute. Since I've never really asked for help before, I am sure I'm probably not doing it right. I don't even have a good idea in my head HOW this person or persons will create the models. That is also an area where I am looking for advice. Where do we start? What should be the first piece of the craft that gets modeled? Should I take pictures, or just try to describe it? Will video work? Is this forum the best place to work from, or should we use another mechanism to collaborate? I think whoever steps up to help stands to gain a lot of knowledge that they otherwise wouldn't, beyond that I cannot promise anything. Mike

Also search this forum: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewforum.php?f=40

Cool! Thanks TIG. [image: 5200775567_16187f31b0.jpg]

Ya, I'm sorry about that Pilou. I'll do that from now on.

It appears from your OP post you have the 3ds file. If so try importing to mesh lab and you can then reduce the number of vertices. Do it 1/2 at each step and take a look at the model to see if it is of the quality you'll accept Select re-mesh simplification and reconstruction Quadratic edge collapse decimiation Select optimal position of simplified vertices, post simplification cleaning , quality to 1 Note you can input the number you want

Normal use is click some arc segments of ruins of circle then call the Plug Works fine for me [image: l3IM_arcexplode.jpg]

Open Entity Info and select the curves and any other segments in the path. The length will be displayed there.

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60107 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31204 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31186

Couple thoughts. You could try deleting/hiding parts of your model until it's able to export. That could give you a better idea of where the problem area is that's causing the crash. If you think it's a memory issue (and it sounds like it may be), then the question is how can you optimize. 120 mb is a very large SU file. Where is all that memory coming from. Typically it's going to either be geometry or textures. Unless you have loads of 3d modeled grass in that large lawn of yours, it's almost definitely coming from textures. You've probably got a number of high resolution textures applied within your SU model. SU saves the texture within the .skp rather than just referencing it like most programs would. So if you have a 10kb model of a box and apply a 20mb texture to it and save you'll end up with a 20mb .skp file. I'm not sure how Vray for Su works in this regard but you may need to optimize your textures somehow. With Maxwell render I can save a super low resolution file with a lot of compression and use that in my SU model, then tell Maxwell that this LowRes image relates to a maxwell material which contains high res textures - at export time, it replaces my low res image with the high res texture for rendering purposes. If that's not an option in Vray, you may still need to use some lower resolution textures and maybe save them as .jpg's with some compression to them to get the file sizes down. -Brodie

Now I'm left wondering who Builder Boy?

Well, I keep approving your posts (welcome, by the way) but I cannot answer your first question. Regarding the video, it rather look like the lot of work kind.

I worked on the 'quarter' form. I un-smoothed/un-hid all edges in it. Then it's easier to fix. I tweaked the Style to have a distinctive back-face color [bright-blue]. I started by trying to tidy it up by moving vertices + Alt... BUT I found it easier to erase most of the really messy bits - lots of short edges etc. For example - I erased the 'radial spokes' on the corner and exploded the two top curves so that I could see the vertices. There were too many vertices so I then drew in new edges from the bottom common point to alternate vertices in the top 'curve'; I then erased the edges of the top 'curve' and drew in new edges between the ends of the 'spokes' - these faced. I also dis some adjustments to the 'prow' end of the 'keel' to get a simpler but equivalent faced form. Once I was happy I copied the group [Move+Ctrl] and used Scale -1 to mirror them as need; snapped the together grouped the four and exploded them together. A check for 'water-tightness' proved OK so I use my Volume by Integration tool to find its volume - I did 0.5% accuracy which took ten times longer than 5% accuracy BUT in sqm the result was the same any way!

One more flattening technique that works if you have SU Pro: Export a 2D DWG (from plan view, parallel projection, full scale) and re-import. Anssi

Thanks for the information