That's absolutely fantastic, thanks very much chaps.

thanks guys tis why I'm growing to love this forum thanks you all, the mental block on my Library project is gone take a look and please please comment http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=26035

Glad I could help.

You have to "import as texture" in order to make it a .skm (sketchup material) If you search in the Plugins forum, I believe there is a plugin to help with mass importing materials but I can't think what its called now...

Jean Thanks for taking the time to describe the Autoselect feature in such an intelligible way for me and explaining the way it would help in my initial query regarding creating a stepped circular array. Being able to miss out 2 elements from my current 4 element sequence will certainly allow me to be quicker and more fluent in Sketchup . Thanks again Jonas Mac

Hi, You have some options: Print a PDF in 1:100 scale, and open that in Photoshop. A method I sometimes use: set your background to pure white draw a visible frame of known size around your model, so that nothing goes outside it. If you need a partial elevation, draw the frame as a hole in a large face, and place it in front of your model. If you need several views, make the frame a face-me component zoom so that the frame almost fills the screen export the view to a high-resolution image file open the image in Photoshop use the Trim command in Photoshop to crop away all white space around your frame lines. use the Resize command to resize the image to the scaled size of the frame, and the desired resolution. if the file needs further cropping, you can do that now. Anssi

Why not use the Protractor for draw an Helper line So you will can snap any volume on it! [image: J37l_cylinder.png] You can also just copy move the previous cylinder follow inference centers and use the Scale tool

OK, got it working now... what an idiot!!! (me, most def not you) Instead of extracting the zip files, I saw and pulled only the toobars.rb file. No wonder your instructions appeared so confusing regarding moving the "folder." Makes no sense that something as fundamental as this isn't included with SU or why it doesn't follow the same customize toolbar procedure as in layout? Anyway, can't thank you enough for creating this and your help!!! BTW, is there a command for displaying components or the same as: Window > Component? Many thanks again...

@numbthumb said: What about SketchUp to Oblivion? I remember seeing some tutorials on that. You did mention nifskope, right? And there are also some tools to convert SU models into Left4Dead levels. That I did, Oblivion and FO3 use alot of the same features...worth a search...duh.... thanks for the tip!

Thanks for your reply. I have stumbled upon this video tutorial and it seems to be about modifying the sun radius and changing render presets in order to increase quality of soft shadows, so let´s see if I can wrap my head around it. http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_openwiki&Itemid=75&id=soft_shadows

You need Jim's 'Unfold' tool - here - http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-unfoldrb.html

I tried to upload the file here and also at the 3D warehouse. But it is taking a lot of time and also I cannot be sure if it is fully uploading or not mainly because there is no progress bar showing the progress of upload. so I am posting a new link. http://www.4shared.com/file/218831844/7b0b0912/contour_trial1.html I hope this will work. Thankyou.

At this point, it is not possible. TBD did make a plugin that does this, but he still has not released the plugin or the code. The only way to do it by using another software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro on the Mac. You would essentially make the tv Monitor green, like a green screen, then add the video on top of the green in post processing in the other software. Some people have done it and its quite cool. Chris

Sorry if i was unclear - I mean a break point in bounding lines of a closed 2d shape but with no gap. a bit like the following example in autocad - http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/modifying-objects.php (scroll down to 'The Break Command' but instead of P1 and P2 being two different points or coordinates on the 2d shape outline/polyline they are the same point (P1=P2). Though as after looking it up on the net i couldn't find an exact example of what i was looking for, perhaps it's not possible. hope that makes more sense and thanks for helping!

Hey, Thanks for the tips guys! I'll give the sketchy physics plugin a go... cheers, donny

Vray is just one renderer, and although it can produce very nice results its not particularly easy to get the hang of. If your just starting out with rendering id recommend having a look at twilight: http://www.twilightrender.com/ and podoum: http://www.suplugins.com/ And no, your model doesnt necessarily have to be very neat, although you will need to do certain things to make it look reasonable, for example making sure all the faces are pointing the right way and making sure the right bits of line work are smoothed.

In "Box Modeling", the method is to pushpull a face (without it creating an internal face in other modelers), then scale the new edges as desired. Then pushpull again and again, scale some edges. Then pushpull and do this over and over. Dozens, hundreds of times very rapidly. Until you have a boxy pproximation of a curvy shape (like a plane or space ship). Then once you have all the boxed made, you subdivide and smooth. So it is a very fast, repetitive process of pushpulling. having to delete each internal face is a major showstopper for this modeling method. This project is still on my mind. I am working on some groundbreaking UI stuff (well, sort of groundbreaking - someone else already beat me to the punch, but it might still be cool). Once I work out some stuff, this plugin might well be one I release in the next few weeks. Chris

I stand corrected - I can see that as a good application, and also do-able. I was thinking resistors and capacitors, etc. But that won't change my answer much. Panels can be looked at as simple batteries, no? So you have a layout of panels connected in series or parallel. Assuming the panels are SketchUp Components, you can loop over the Model to find their quantity and location, and probably determine the connection based on position, type, and neighbors. Components can store attributes like their electrical characteristics which can be retrieved and used in the calculations. That part seems fairly straight-forward. The shade analysis might be troublesome. There are no built-in methods to determine where a shadow lies. We can get the model geometry, and the sun position and angle, then do some ray-casting; but I wouldn't know where to begin making the calculations.

In such a case, SU is trying to guess where you want to place that rectangle. As there is nothing else in the scene yet, it will infer to any of the major planes. To which one, will depend on your view. Most of the templates come in a way that you are looking down mostly. If you orbit your view to something horizontal so that the horizon will be lower than your mid-screen, you can get that inference. Yeah, Chris beat me but essentially the same.

Theres a plugin called SU animate that does just that, if you are willing to spend a few bucks. I'm currently looking for a different alternative for your problem, a way to assign a different transition time for each scene to make turns more "smooth". Finally theres Chris's camera recorder plugin where you can walk around corners and everywhere yourself, you need another program to convert the data export into a video file though.