I did not have too many, but can I remember a work-around that I think I used. This may not be the one that worked [when traveling, I always remember the route to how I got lost and end up getting lost again] I set up a new drawing using styles, model info, ect to get it how I like, I than used Mass Materials Importer to get them into the drawing, Save as template, use for default. Then one by one over time, when I used one of them in my models I saved them into my materials folder. It means you have to use colours in models a lot for a while and it's annoying if you purge your drawing and then need one that you haven't moved, but you can always open a new drawing from templates and import the model over. anyway without being able to check my memory...

Menu Window/Components/Shapes or load from 3dwarehouse some geodesic volumes [image: iJxu_ball.jpg]

http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/en/products/arplugin_su/info.php perhaps

Yes, I used only the line tool - but then also deleted all the edges that could be deleted. If an edge cannot be deleted without losing the face with it, it means that it divides two, non-planar faces therefore necessary. At times like this you have two choices - check where the model went wrong (it could even be the elevation import) or silently soften that edge and don't talk about it.

@steved said: " There is a new program that allows the user to write award winning movie scripts! it is called microsoft word" Hi Steved. Pardon my ignorance, but is there an even better, and freeware application called "Open Office", which unlike word, won't cost you a penny? Or am I missing something here? "Movie Scripts"??? What's "movie scripts" got to do with SketchUp? A nifty little viral marketing plug for Microsoft perhaps?!

Hi Kirk, What I suspect is that you have some issues with your graphic subsystem. In SketchUp, open your Preferences panel from the Window menu and Go to the OpenGL settings. Here disable ("uncheck") hardware acceleration to see if this is the case.

@jim said: The mesh in the first post isn't very clean - there are many edges that are not connected to anything, and many that do not actually intersect. You really need to get in close to find them, but they are there. It might explain some of the results of using some of the plug-ins. Is this sort of thing a use for TIG's manifold plug-in? All of the rail ( cline) profiles do not intersect( except some places at the ends) with the bulkheads and if one uses a cutting plane and tries to create them there are points that look obviously out of place. Trying to fill in with a bezier curve can be done but the hull then is not correct. Working with the orginal post model with out correcting the profiles and itersection will probably result in problems just getting worse IMHO.

Welcome to SCF.

Pilou - as we say 'I let the cat out of the bag'

@chris murphy said: Thanks guys. I think SU is going to be fun, and i look forward to all our interactions. Thanks again. Chris And good luck with your house!

@edo said: Hello all, just got in this forum...so im gonna need your help ... Ok, i want to make a soccer stadium about 30.000 seats and i would like if is posible invite in this stadium on each seat a fan that's interested in this stadium and i would like to put there names in seats ? is it posible with this software or i need look for another software. any help with this i would apriciate, thank you all Edo 30,000 seats? Each with a different name? OK, you can do it... but what for? It takes a lot of computer power to just display the seats, let alone the stadium...

Last November I put it on my IT wishlist for this year. So I am hoping to get a copy to play around with soon. It oes look intersting for visualization. Chrs

Hi Rod, Every component has an insertion point. This point is the component's axes. Normally, the axes is placed at one of the component's corner. Use this point as the focus when placing a component to your model. When you place a component and the insertion point seems placed in the middle of the component. Most probably, the axes is still at the component's corner, but you view it from the opposite side. Insertion points in Dynamic Component behave differently though. Harrynov

My 'true tangent toolset' only works on coplanar arcs/edges etc The no coplanar edges need a twisted curve - perhaps the bezier tools would be best ?

I have the rounded corners plugin but I can't get it to work. I for got trying follow me. Thanks for the help. Todd

Yes, with LightUp you can "bake" shading effects on your materials and export those in certain formats. There is a fully working, 30-day trial of it - give it a "trial" (Sorry for the terrible pun but I could not resist )

@gaieus said: @3dbuilder said: ...When saving a model, Sketchup should automatically purge the model of unused components and materials... No way! I constantly work with models where I keep things only in the "browser" and such. ... this should at least be an Options option.

Well, if it works only without hardware acceleration, it means that your video card is not fully OpenGL compliant. This also means that it will not "share the burden" of displaying the model with the processor so when you get to the limits of the processor, you will experience problems with bigger models sooner. All in all - your SU performance may decrease. Best would be to upgrade to a better card (well, sooner or later). Have a look at the Apple OpenGL Chart for a comparison. Otherwise I would recommend to upgrade your SU version to 7, too - although the Hardware requirements may even be a bit higher (especially OpenGL version - I think SU 6 needs 1.4 while SU 7 needs 1.5)

Thanks for everyone's help on this issue. What this was all about, is that I wanted to show the effect of using a 360 Panaromic HDRi image as background for rendering, and a smooth dome makes it easier to see how the HDRI is reflected. I wanted a good tool to make a quick, smooth dome - especially for reflection examples. The image below uses a Free HDRi provided by Bryan James. He made a 360 photo of the interior of St. John's Cathedral in NYC. The Sketch Up model is a reflective ground plane, and a reflective dome. Everything else is generated using the HDRi for lighting, shadows, background and reflection. [image: Z7Y9_stjohnsHDRI.jpg]

I like the "rectangle the bottom" approach. Keyboard shortcut R gets the Rectangle tool. Start to Rectangle the bottom of the board. Type 14',1.5 (if inches are your default, you don't need an inch symbol). This assumes you want a fourteen-foot, 2-by-something. Once the bottom is modeled, Bucket with your chosen material or color, then PushPull up (to 5.5 if you are modeling a 2x6). If you bucket first, all six faces of the board will be finished.