thanks Gaieus! thanks all!

Check your email too, but I would suggest keeping the conversation public here so others can chime in! Essentially yes, SketchUp is capable of doing all of that. The Lat/Lon coordinates might be the toughest to get at, but SketchUp does work with geo-coordinates and a plugin probably already exists to help work in lat/lon coordinates. If not, something could be written to help meet your needs. Chris

You need to draw something for the image to project onto first. So import the image, then line up the grips and bars and stuff, then start drawing. Then you can project the image onto the geometry. Chris

Hi, lexje, There are plugins that can help you with staircase building, like http://www.1001bit.com/products/products.shtml There is also the stairmaker plugin somewhere on the Ruby Library Depot http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubylibraryDepot/Ruby/en_arc_page.htm You can set the radius, bulge distance and the number of segments in the Value Control Box.

Whoops. Sorry, Eamonn. I read your post too fast, and assumed that you had the stringer figured out. Anyway, maybe you can use the rails narrative when you get to that point. Others might reply besides the two you have received.

Hi, Nenad! I think it´s telling you that you have reversed normals - there should be no " blueish" faces, so you ´ll have to flip them ( right click - reverse faces). In other words, I think you have the back face of the wall ( the blue one) facing forward. Oh, and welcome ( dobro dosao )

To me, autofold has never really worked as desired. Often you need to manually correct/flip edges in order to get it right.

First, try to add material at the ceilling and then a transparency material at the top, so the sunlight can reach the interior. Second is to set the scene you want and make some walls to hidden groups or use section slice, to delete the walls for sunlight. Otherwise use renderapps, suggested before. For windows try the youtube videos as suggested, but also my videos on youtube called Fenster1 and Fenster2 which exclaim how to make windows in double walls. Although it is in German language you could find it usefull.

Hi shazbot, go in X-ray mode in order to view through your component (see the picture below) and check if the component is glued. If so: right click-->unglue. [image: DKMc_Cattura.PNG]

Thanks again TIG, That helped an awful lot. Will have to be less sloppy from now on. Phew!!

thanks, that's what I did, used the rectangle tool making smalle rand smaller shapes until the face was complete, then just removed excess lines. the other tools will come in handy when i make things that are more complicated, thanks!

@solo said: Now bevel all edges.. Bevelling... only with 3 segments - 12373 edges (or facets) to be created. Currently at 27% but it is getting slower. I might go out for a couple of drinks (and watch my electricity bill next time). I sected it into 4 parts however and only working on a quarter as a component (and mirrored twice). Nice model indeed and nice job, Rocky with the intersecting tip (yesterday I actually went bed instead of playing with it).

Thanks chaps, I'll check them out.

@Charly You create new material if you need it In my case I just edit the current color painted then reput color opacity to 100% at the end of the process

Ray, This is what you should see in your plugins folder (CadFathers Icons.zip is optional - another set of icons.) [image: iYj5_2Dtools.png]

I am not aware of such a converter, but there is/was a way to convert .DXF .OBJ and .3DS to .IV files - http://www.sv.vt.edu/future/vt-cave/VT/CAVESLUG/file_conv/ Let us know if this helps. Edit: and I think that it can read VRML files. Search this thread http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=24522 for some additional info on getting an VRML file into SU.

Version 3 is still pretty good - v4 has to be paid for [though not that much $], but then it does have some advantages and a nice web-dialog interface etc - I suggest that you try v3 first to understand what it does and then think if v4 has advantages you need/want... The 'Smustard' site has some more info on v4...

Delete Guides removes ALL Guide-lines/-points - even when they are inside groups and components ! However, there are several scripts about that erase only guide-lines or guide-points... and can also limit this action to 'active_entities' or 'selected_entities' - useful if you want to retain some others elsewhere in the model...

Here's one to play with. The model is too heavy as it stands and it also needs scaling. [image: SbCo_Screenshot2010-02-14at13.31.30.png] Flame finial.skp

Sorry, I just saw you needed help closing the faces too...just draw diagonal lines from corner to corner, or better yet lay the plow down on the flat face and use the sandbox tool "from contours" (from contours doesn't work on verticals well). You may have to divide the straight line at the top of your plow into the same number of segments as the arc has.