For something like that I would prefer to draw the outlines on a flat plane directly above the terrain, then drape the outlines onto the terrain. It works very nicely normally.

Hi Adam, You will have to "wrap the texture around" a curved surface like tha. Import it as texture on the table top with hidden geometry displayed (View menu). This will allow you to position the texture accurately (you cannot access the texture positionng tools on curved surfaces or groups/components). Once you applied this texture, right click > Texture > Position. If you are happy with its being positioned, don't do anything but press Enter (or right click > Done). Now turn off hidden geometry and while holding down the Alt key, sample the positioned texture from the face with the Paint tool. With this, you not only sample the texture itself but its UV properties (mapping), too. Now theoretically you should be able to click on the untextured areas with the Paint tool (Alt released) and they should receive the whole positioning. Sometimes this is not perfect though. Then turn on hidden geometry again and sample+paint, samlpe+paint the facets one by one (always sampling from the formerly painted one). Sounds painful but can be entertaining...

From your OP image it looks like the roof truss does not extend to the garage end which I question. However, I assume this will probably require permit and code compliance but again it is not clear if this will be condition space ( code requirements different) which I think it will not be since it is an add on. I would first find your the local requirements , if any , in regards to code. Even a visit to the local codes and inspection office ( city engineers) may get you some helpfull input before going to the expense to hire a PE. Some of those offices will even have hand outs showing you what the design requirements are for their local area. These may have the regional climate conditions factored in. My guess is a beef up in some of the beams will be required

Hi folks. Another possibility of jitter that is often overlooked is when the model is very far from the origin. Open GL has a hard time with that. But, you will notice that during the modeling phase since the jitter effect would manifests itself when orbitting, panning and zooming. To see this effect, try this: 1 - Draw a cube near the origin. 2 - Move it 100 km (100000 m) along the red axis. 3 - Use Zoom Extend to find it. 4 - Orbit to see a bit of jitter. 5 - Move it another 100 km. The jitter increase. Just ideas.

Well, how would I know that?! Was there anything you imported by any chance?

@pbacot said: As you probably know, it is dangerous to base the work flow of an actual project on software you are not yet proficient in. That's the truth. Though, I seem to learn the most about a program while under pressure to produce. (condundrum) So I imagine there will be a lot of experimentation/learning/backtracking/etc on this. But it's not really my first effort either. All this mailing is in prep for the final which starts on monday. So I will study all weekend, then when I start I will largely work in a 'safe' file and then copy successful work into a clean file. that seems like safe way to go on this first reasonably big effort. thanks for all the advice. very helpful. - Greg

Ah yes. Good point.

If it doesn't look good in Sketchup, photoreal rendering will not fix it. Photoreal is not real, it is "realistic like a photo". I use it primarily to add shine, reflection, and texture to the image of a scene. In my case, ninety nine out of a hundred renders are the result of post processing that come with real time adjustment of dynamic range, gamma, and contrast. It cuts down the time required to get a desirable photoreal render by 50 to 90 percent.

@gude said: I wanted a 2d view with my components kept as block ah sorry - my method just exports lines

It seems that (only) some file associations went wrong. In this case, you could have just right clicked on an skp file, go to Properties and define the path to SU 8 (instead of the removed SU 7). Whether to leave it or keep it... You can of course keep it, no harm. Especially if you use the free version, keep it as the plugin that was provided for dwg/dxf import for v.7 no longer works in v.8. Also, georeferencing (GE snapshot) is completely different in v.8 and you may want to keep v.7 to be able to grab a rotated view for instance...

@tig said: =begin > (c) TIG 2010 > Copy/Paste code into ../Plugins/modelXYZ.rb > Usage; type 'modelXYZ' in Ruby Console > =end > require 'sketchup.rb' > def modelXYZ() > model = Sketchup.active_model > bb = model.bounds > ### NB; 'bounds' xyz values do NOT follow model axes logic > x = bb.width.to_s > y = bb.height.to_s > z = bb.depth.to_s > ### message in Ruby Console > puts("X = " + x) > puts("Y = " + y) > puts("Z = " + z) > ### text into File > if model.path != "" ### SKP was saved > filepath = File.dirname(model.path) > filename = model.title + "_XYZ.txt" > file = File.join(filepath, filename).tr("\\","/") > f = File.new(file, "w") > f.puts(x) > f.puts(y) > f.puts(z) > f.close > ### Tip; to make a 'spreadsheet' file change suffix to ".csv" or ".tsv" > ### and then 'puts' one line only, thus; f.puts(x+","+y+","+z) > puts("XYZ values written to file;") > puts(file) > else ### SKP is not yet saved > UI.beep > puts("Save this SKP to write these XYZ values to a file...") > end#if > puts() > end#def > Thanks man, this looks exactly like what I'm after. Now I just have to work through and understand it...

@tig said: It's not a 'feature' it's a known 'bug'!..... The Geometry could be just a tiny line 0.1mm long and 'hidden' AND on a layer that is 'off' - the text is still visible...... All true. But the existing geometry, whether visible or not, must be in screen area. Once you rotate the model where the geometry is out of camera sight, the screen text still vanishes. Jean reported this bug (already in SU7, maybe even before) quite some time ago. Wo3Dan

Hi folks. If you neglect the opening, that can be added later, there is an 8 fold symmetry in this kind of plan. See this SU file for ideas. Fort with bastions.skp

Thanks Karina, you’re right. That’s an option. The problem is that if I set more cameras the video will go slower. But I’ll try to manage it making a different movie and pasting them later. I’ll look anyway for a plug in and I’ll let you know if I find something, don’t hesitate. Thanks a lot.

@hellnbak said: do you mean that if I make three copies of an object, there's no way to apply a material to just one of them, that it automatically applies it to all three? There's got to be a way around this, it just makes no sense. No, that only applies to components. They are special "entities" inside your model. Make a cube for instance then select all, right click on the selection and make it a component from the context menu. Now select it again, select the Move tool press the Ctrl button and this way move a copy away. Now you have two instances of the same component in the model. If you edit one (double click) and make any modification "inside", the other instance will "repeat" this modification. This is a good way of having lots of geometry of the same kind in a model. Say you have ten similar windows on a house or four wheels on a car and you decide to modify them - this way you only have to do it once. If you want to modify only one (or two...), select it/them and right click again > make unique. You can add/detract to/from a selection by holding down the Shift key. Now back to your problem. I am not sure why everything changes the material, I have to confess. Could you attach a simple example? As for the material dialog: you can open it from the Window menu. In there, you can browse all sorts of different materials as you know. The default material is the one that you see when starting to model something and have not painted it yet. Generally it is some light colour (and the back face is some bluish/grey) but you can change these. The "In model" materials are what you have already used. They are displayed when you click on that small house icon. [image: Materials.jpg]

The image shows three separate corner configurations. Why not use the power of components to your advantage and make three corner connectors. Given the fact the component definition is invariant under move, scale and rotation you should be able to use these in a number of different loactions without the intersection etc each time??

Below is the link to the first page of the plugin thread. While reading all of the release notes in the first post by Fredo, I noticed that he said something about removing pre-existing files that look like this: "BZ__xxx.rb". I cannot be sure, but if you have any file with this generic form, I think he is saying remove it before deploying the update. Please, someone else verify this for buckeye1. http://www.forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=13563&hilit=Bezierspline#p100509

The link below may get you started. There are other threads concerning graphics cards, CPUs, and so forth. Google has a minimum and a recommended configuration suggestion in one of its Sketchup specific pages, I do not have the link right now. http://www.forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=30007#p263092

Yes, and the only available "Outer shell" for the free version should also do it

Thank you for your quick response Tig I wanted a cleaner 2d geometry generated from sketchup with all my section cuts and finally to work further on cad. I would like my su model to be usable and export 2d dxf each time i update my su model. can i get something like the exportlayers2dae for dxf so that i can merge together the files to a single cad file with layers. @Tig I just Saw that you already have witten a nice script export_by_layer.rb is it possible to make it export 2d dxfs in different layers ? Thanks again.