@muchado said: Can one do this in a dynamic component? I wanted to created a "troughed slab" (also known as a "ribbed slab") by repeating a depression across a cuboid, but SU does not make the cut in the surface for the copies. Sorry, it appears that this has been answered before: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=23096 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=21449 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=18651 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=17054 The problem appears to be that SU does not do this. However there appear to be at least one work-around that involves creating the positive volumes and then hiding the lines of the joins. I had thought about joining pieces together, but thought that I would be stuck with the edges, but using the trick of "hiding" the edges solves the problem.

Here's your model with some notes pointing to things that 3d printing does not like. I've been playing around with shapeways recently - they accept collada files so you don't even need to go to a .stl. In general, your model needs to be scaled to fit on print bed, be water-tight, and not have any interior faces. And no over-lapping faces. Following those rules, I can consistently produce 3d-printable model directly from SketchUp (for shapeways, anyhow.) library 11.3[jf].skp

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you try 7.1

I'm sorry to say but upfront Sketchup can't do that, maybe with help form available plugins yes. Ask some Ruby Guru's or search the web, they might cost a few bucks but that better than paying for a BIM program that costs hundreds of dollars. If you don't want to go through all of that work then go ahead and use the BIM software. I'm just saying all the knowledge I have right now, I know a lot about SU but I'm barely working with it for a year now. But the point is SU is great for beginners because its easy (five year olds really can use it) and is a great intro to 3-D modeling.

Had a few minutes to play with Meshlab. I don't really understand it all, but it's a cool result (in Sketchup.) [image: wRcc_meshlab_veroni.jpg]

Hi sorry, I got it. You used the stretch tool on only one component first.

There's 'Time Track' on Smustard's site http://www.smustard.com/ not sure if there's one floating around here?

Okay, I see what you mean and of course it makes perfect sense. You could still give a go to this plugin: http://www.smustard.com/script/GroupByTexture It was developed export issues in mind so could work. As I am seeing your image, maybe it would not even mess up triangulation after export too much (although with this auto merge function of SU 7, who knows - but there are good plugins to remove excessive geometry, too).

@gaieus said: When you buy a scripőt at Smustard, you are sent a link where you can always re-download the purchased plugin. IMO those plugins should just be all right copied from the old plugins folder however. Note that some require other scripts to run as well as many comes with other files placed in a subfolder under plugins. You need to copy those subfolders, too. Thank you. I forgot about that. Its gonna take some digging back in time to try to find that email though. Hopefully I can find it with my search. I will try to see if I can figure out what other scripts i'm missing on the other ones. Thank you gaieus. If I can't find the other scripts I will just redownload them.

I found UV toolkit, and my problem is GONE! [image: gRow_Text.Prob..jpg]

i put the link in my post: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=11224&hilit=+align_tool+ not much of a description there but if you play a little it work quite well.

Yup, a big welcome to the forum. And don't be shy about posting! Obviously there is lots of useful info here, but if you just can't find an answer to what you need, there are lots of great people around who like to help, Chris

Move the imported images to form an approximation to the correct orthogonal views, all related together. Then you can check they are all the same size so that similar places on each align - scale an image slightly as needed, or make adjustments in the modeling to suit... Now start drawing edges that outline the main forms - there are tools like weld to make them curves and extrudeEdgesByRails etc... BUT you can make the 'profiles' and then 'stitch' it together by hand and adjust the forms as you go. Make it out of manageable sized pieces [sub-groups/components etc]. Remember that a car is pretty much symmetrical so it quite easy to model one half of it as a component and copy and scale -1 the two halves together, so then changing one half alters the other one automatically... This means you're not trying to make the two sides the same all of the time... There are some good car tutorials out there - try this for a start... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDxc2wyIhY&feature=related

Well, the cinepack codec is rather sloppy. So if you want to test it, set any kind of codec - and see that anything that comes out on the other end is the same cr@p. I even tried with a different format (uncompressed mpg if I remember correctly) and then the result should not be avi.

You can of course assign a texture image to a layer (see attached below - make sure to scale it properly in the material editor, too) but be prepared that you won't get too far with it as you cannot position/orient the texture in any way and it will be something like when you paint groups/components with it. [image: 3iCF_MaterialToLayer.png]

soon enough, Rich.....

Look for the round corner plugin, if your looking for a good beveler.

you can't expect answers with such vague questions. pictures of what your trying to achieve are the best way to go.

There are scripts to 'flatten' geometry - if that's too draconian try using the Sandbox tools to Drape the edges down onto the surface a a large rectangle you've drawn below it so again then are coplanar... A little more detail about this mess-up might help us tailor a better response ?

LO is probably the most flexible... but there's also my **2D Tools** 2D Text tool that makes a 'flat' bit of 3D-text which sticks to a surface [actually a tiny bit above to avoid z-fighting], and can be in 'text'*, in any installed font, any fixed height, any standard color, style[ B/I ] etc etc... see its guide for more details. There are no leaders and the text works best viewed 'flat' in plan or elevation - but it doesn't "float around" and potentially change size with view distance like normal SUp text !!! *Note - to make line-breaks you have to include \n in the text in the dialog [until it migrates to a webdialog]. Later on you can edit any aspect of a piece of this text [componnet] my selecting it and right-click context-menu and Edit 2D Text - and entering new details in the dialog that opens... This 'text' is a component so copying it means that editing one instance changes all other copies - useful if you say the same text lots of times - confusing it you don't think it through [perhaps try make-unique if you mess up]...