That is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks yet again man.

Hi TIG and MtnTrails, Thank's for your advices! The hint on changing the size of the colour thumbnails made me find out how to do: Firstly; chose medium size thumbnails, secondly; let the window get as small width as possible (it cant be smaller than a certain width). Now, all colours suddenly has a logic arrangement. Any other thumbnail size or window width make the colours show up in appearantly random order.

Martin Rinehart, Yes I am a newbie, It's a good pictorial you have shown me. It demonstrates what you can do 'thinking outside the box' to use the same tools for a completely different use. I have trouble with 'tunnel thinking' so people like yourself help me by steping back and come in a different angle. I just hope I can pull the "tunnel" down so making learning easier. Thanks very much. John

Hi Richard, this seems to be the "Clipping issue". One reason for this is too large (kilometres or miles) geometry OR any geometry being this far from the origin. You can import cad files two ways; preserving the drawing origin or not preserving it. Before importing, check out the "Options" (in the file browser window) and uncheck this option so SU will place your model to the SU origin. BTW here you can also set the original drawing units so you may spare that scaling, too. Sometimes there are some stray edges or any geometry far away from the model (often drafters add this to the origin) which can still cause this effect. In this case, Zoom extents (Shift+Z) then select all (Ctrl+A) to see if anything suspicious is also selected somewhere far away from your model. Delete that bit of geometry and move everything to the origin.

Guys I swear I would tell (and / or fix) if I knew. I have never had any similar problems with the board so cannot even "try" what it is like.

@tridem said: @broomstick said: .. We are so few... ...and it's so difficult to know those few if they don't show their 'location' or use a recognizable nickname You're right! I thought I had set it

Thank you for your help everyone but no one's suggestion works. I am desperate to figure this out. I can right click on most textures and get the edit menu (scale, move...). But the one I need to move and/or scale I get other options like fredoscale, but no edit texture. I tried in the material editor. I've exploded. I turned on hidden geometry. I've tried everything I can think of and I am not new to SketchUp I actually took graduate classes in it. What are my other options? The texture is on an object that I push/pulled, so it is not just a flat object. I just need to move or scale it. do yo see in the screen capture how it is not aligned with the geometry? I need to align it.

Thanks TIG. You produced a very nice enhancement of our scheme by offering the TIG two dimension scaling formula that was really missing from our scheme: layout_dimension / model_dimension = scaling_factor To be honest: There are still a couple of fine details that we pay attention to in order to get it all right. We play with the snapping and resolution settings of the Model Info > Units property sheet while setting the guides and moving back to scaling. And yes, it is indeed a good idea to lock the group after successful scaling. TIG's tutorial sheet is excellent. I summarized our findings in Finnish on the web site of the group: http://sites.google.com/site/iivantiira3d/rakennuspiirustuksen-mittakaavan-asettaminen.

You can modify a 'cross-section' Line-set's 'profile' in several ways without scripts [note that it can't be a 'Curve' as that selects as 'one' thing, so Explode Curves - there's always a plugin Weld.rb to remake a Curve if needed ]. As well as using Move on preselected Lines etc, you can use Move with NO selection and then pick a Vertex and change its location, or with one Line highlighting to relocate that - it will stretch connected Lines to suit. You can also use Scale on preselected parts to change their 'form' - again connected Lines will adjust to suit. You can Select in several ways adding to a Selection with Ctrl, toggle membership with Shift or removing from selection with Ctrl+Shift. Also picking by fence is very useful - making it by right>left drag selects all crossed or included, whereas a fence made left>right only things wholly included in it. You can also turn Faces off temporarily by going into Wireframe-mode so then accidental face-selection is avoided... Move+Ctrl will copy a 'profile' that you can then relocate at the next 'node' as needed, and then perhaps Scale that in one or more axes to suit, perhaps tweaking a Vertex or two with Move, or perhaps Erasing a Line and redrawing it... Hand stitching between Vertices to triangulate forms and auto-make Faces Make use of the shortcut keys these will speed you work considerably [add your own extra ones as needed in Preferences]... Group geometry into sensible sub-sets as components etc and with symmetrical parts use mirrored copies where appropriate so you only make one half and the other auto-generates to match...

I use Camtasia Studio 3 which I got for nothing on special last year - it's very good even if it is 4 years old software. I haven't found anything free that is nearly as good or easy. I wish there was.

@joppermann said: Neither of which I understood before Hehe, neither did I until very recently ( thank Gaieus for the explanation )

What do you mean by a screen grab?

Here's v1.1 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=235227#p235227 It now has RayTrace AND RaySpray RayTrace traces the picked ray from a start and incident point - it then allows 'bounces' to be made if there is a 'hit'... RaySpray sprays rays out from a picked point, constrained in X/Y/Z-panes or full 3D with a desired angle of separation; there is only one reflection - no 'bounces', but RayTrace can be used over an earlier sprayed ray to 'bounce' individual ray-paths more if required... All guide-lines/points are now grouped...

If you want to draw accurate arcs/circles, tangents, intersections etc etc then you might try my 'True Tangents' - the tools in the script do various tasks, including giving you the true intersection cpoint[s] between a selected arc/circle and a line which you can then use for a replacement arc/circle and edge that will have proper intersections with the line... See here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=160780#p160780

Ok, I think I figured out a workaround to the transparent image problem. I created another face 1/1000" in front of the surface of my ship that I wanted to apply it to. I projected the decal and painted the material onto THAT face, so that when you see through the transparent bits you're seeing the 'real' face 1/1000" behind it. As long as your surface isn't extremely curved, this should work without hours of building out a new surface. I also hid the edges of both surfaces. You'll also have to decide on the color or material of the surface, because changing it would in my mind require that either you go into the model and change the colors from the inside, or you would need to delete the face with the decal on it, change the color, then rebuild and reapply the face. I've tested this in the Twilight Render plugin as well as Kerkythea, and so far so good... Now I'm off to make weathered insignia and markings for my fighters! I'm going for the battle worn X-Wing look, and on old plastic models I'd simply use fine grain sandpaper to sand through and rough up the decals a bit. This is slightly more involved, but I think I finally found something that will work for me!

Many thanks guys!!!

You have to apply the translucent material to both sides of the face to see through it from either side.

There is a marketing aspect to modeling that maybe even your client isn't aware of. Placing a model of ones business or building in GE is not about the model, and making it so that people can do a walk through, which would not be possible without making a much more accurate model for that to happen, which you have already alluded to. The marketing aspect of a simple model, uploaded to the 3D Warehouse and placed in Google Earth is that it gets premium indexing priority from the Google web crawlers. SEO is the benefit of having a model present in GE, and now if the business has a "Google Local Business Listing," that information is now tied to the models description. All of that can be present on a web page also using the GE API, so there are some business benefits to pulling up a simple model for GE.

What colour the hull is supposed to be? What if you "cut out" that white an allow the hull material be displayed there instead?

That plug in was just what I needed. Thanks!