Hi folks. The "Follow me" Tool can be used to make a profile follow such a path. Just make sure that you do not generate facets that are too small to fill. If this is the case, draw larger and scale down when done. Just ideas.

@sketchyarchitect said: hey you probably already know this and it may not help you, but you can compress the size of a sketchup model by copying everything in your sketchup file (ctrl a) and pasting it in a new sketchup file.then save the file. you'll notice the decrease. Depending on file size this can reduce the size to a tenth of what it was. that sounds like a weird round about way to purge your model (basically, gets rid of all unused materials,component instances, etc).. window-> model info-> statistics -> purge unused

Tyrant! Yes, you can set it to zero and it'll work.

Nope, I thought that too. No luck. I also loaded it in 7 in case it just doesn't work with 8. No go there either.

draw a rectangle on the ground sufficiently large so that you can develop a large grid with say 2'x2' or whatever measuring system you are using inches milimeters cubits parsecs whatever. The grid should already be a group. right click. edit group. mouse over grid. look at vcb to see radius of influence. type in preferred radius. mouse over grid. left click hold and drag upward or downward on screen (assuming you are in normal 3d view and not in some ortho view).

How can i change all the pictures to one picture?

thank you TIG for your info. dean @tig said: Also remember that Sketchup/OpenGL doesn't like to make tiny faces <0.1mm or so, so FollowMe and similar tools can fail at these sizes. If you Scale up by 10 do the 'small faces' and Scale down by 0.1 it should make and remain OK afterwards - it's the 'making' not the 'existing' that's the bottom size limit.

Victoria, This may be of interest - SpiralStairCaseBuilder http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=29484 .................... A DC to help you model spiral staircases and handrailing. Whole staircase can be modelled in minutes. Includes PDF Tutorial with some Top Tips ..................... Hope this helps Regards Howard Leslie

All done, and all the better for the experience. [image: 6BV8_image1.jpg]

Layers in SU are NOT like layers in CAD. In SU layers only control visibility -- they do not separate geometry. ALWAYS draw on Layer 0. If you want, say, to make the floors appear one by one in a buildup. Group the first floor, THEN move that group to Layer 1, Group second floor, then move to layer 2, etc. Make scenes where the appropriate layers are hidden or revealed as you move from scene to scene.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'm progressing in this model and I'll show a pic or two as soon as I have something to show.

Ely is right. Here's a short tutorial for a little more detail. Intersection tutorial.

Of course I didn't think about going back to previous scenes! I've used exterior materials brick, stone, wood, and yes some 3d trees. I will try purging components but have been quite careful to delete what's not needed. Its almost finished now as I don't think it can cope with much more. Thanks again I found your suggestions useful.

Thats it! Thanks, TIG. I had Gordon Technique in my head, so I was right that it was a first name!

thaks guy!i'll try

Thanks Chris. The Orbit tool worked fine again when I turned off the V-Ray plugin. But why this just when V-Ray is acitvated? Is there something in V-Ray that I could change to get the Orbit tool to work more smooth? Thanks!

It was my Graphic card. Thanks for the help!

You are missing the second step in the Tutorial... Get the mesh face THEN make it a Solid - to do this draw some vertical lines down from the four corners and then some horizontals the form a faced solid object. Move the flat bottom face up so the minimum height corner is quite small otherwise you'll get lots of rectangular slices at the base! A flat-ish cuboid with a 'wavy top' if you will... NOW group it all and use the Slicer tool on that group. It should now 'slice' OK... Slicer won't make slices of a single surface mesh because there is literally nothing to slice! There is Slicer's stablemate 'ContourMaker' that will make contours lines through the mesh... but these aren't 'slices'

I second Unity! Just export an fbx file from SU, then make a folder called "models" in Unity, drag and drop the fbx folder, then drag and drop that same folder into the main model view window in Unity. Add a collision mesh and a First Person Controller, and that's it! So simple, I could cry with joy!! Oh yes, you need to make a floor, or you will keep falling off the edge of the world- which I suppose is a bit like falling off a 1750ft transmission tower- but with less pain!

...and remember the Search box at the top right is your best friend to find the heaps of treasures hidden here