@dundee said: The information you gave me is very interesting and it solved my problem! This is very good. There are other things. First, visit Window/Model Info (often!). Click File to see how big your model is. Click Statistics, then "Purge Unused". Back to File and you'll see that your model is 75% smaller. This is a good thing. I tried my VisMap plugin to get an idea of what was going on in your original .skp. It showed a blank window where the VisMap should have been. On digging, I found that your .skp had some odd internal damage. Your "rev1" .skp had no such problem and VisMapped without trouble. Internal damage was a common problem for me as I learned to SketchUp. How to avoid it? 1) Never make a mistake and never change your mind as you model. OK? Now on to practical advice that a human being might follow. 2) Build sub-assemblies in separate files. (Small collections of geometry are seldom broken.) If you think it through in advance, you'll be able to File/Import and click the Origin inference, to correctly assemble the finished model. (File/Import automatically makes the import a component, same name as the file name). And make your sub-assemblies just as you would do the cabinet making. That way you'll have a good magazine article, as well as a model.

Thanks to both of you for your prompt responses. Let me give it a try. Worked like a champ. As is usually the case with SU I learn more everyday. JP

Yes indeeed - and I haven't even used any of these plugins. One somehow "knows" where to move (snap to) and that's the best way to get used to SU in general, too.

@numbthumb said: Not sure if you could do anything with Photoshop Elements 7, at least in 3D. If i remember correctly elements is a cut down version of the full photoshop, so it seems unlikely that youd be able to open a 3d model in it.

Or you can download 3DShapesTool.zip from Ruby Library depot for easy creation of various 3D shapes - this doesn´t mean that you should neglect the possibilities of Follow Me tool, of course. Have fun!

Maybe you can make a twist with Fredo Scale by Fredo6 after 2 Faces + path by BTM (of course faces can be filled inside 2 faces + path ) [image: vuFl_propel.jpg]

Hi Roto and welcome. @roto said: Anyhow, I will be reading and re-reading the board and will probably end up asking questions. Well, that's what we all start with so just feel free to ask

xrok1, Thanks for the solution. T1000

Thanks for the help solo! The system comes with vista home premium so might stick with that as xp pro is a £40 extra! I was originally looking at intel , I currently have a pentium 4 2.93ghz system and hasn't been great for sketch and hasn't intel machine been historically a bad mix with sketch? Do you have any experiamce with a solid state drive for programme booting? Thanks again Daniel

Well, duh, that was easy...lol. Thanks so much...it looks great now! That's why I'm still a newbie:)

Hi Phil and welcome! There are a good bunch of landscape architects around so I hope you'll find a good companion.

Thanks for the solution. Problem now solved.

@johnpa said: I am one of those people that likes to understand why and how something works. That's exactly how one can really learn the program (and avoid running into seemingly not understandable issues)

I would place a section cut somewhere high enough to "reach" the windows, too. Then make a top view scene with this and in the Tray > SU model you can set which scene you want to display. [image: 7uHh_LOView.png] Also see the attached LayOut file and change between Page 1 and 2 to see how different scenes (with different views, camera settings and section cut visibility) of the same model can be inserted like this. (Now if we had dimensioning in LO, it would be perfect!) HouseWithSectio.layout

Hi Faisal and welcome. Although not impossible to model human body in SU, the program essentially is not designed to model organic shapes so you will have a lot to practice before you become satisfied. Nevertheless I hope you will enjoy the process of learning, too, as SU is just fun to use.

Wow, speedy response: thanks Remus. I'll see if Grow does the trick FWIW Jim's Mover2 is nearly what I need, except it doesn't do multiple iterations, or scales as the name implies. Pretty good apart from the sticky 'copy' toggle which needs to be a radio button I think. http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-mover-2.html

I'm getting closer. It turns out that ArcCurve.start_angle is always 0.0, so I made a function that finds the actual start anlge, I then add that to the end angle for output. def get_new_angle(center, point) #center is the center point returned by AcrCurve.center #point is the start point of the arc returned by ArcCurve.vertices[0].position return Math;;atan(((center.y.to_f - point.y.to_f)/(center.x.to_f - point.x.to_f))).to_f.degrees.abs end Now the problem is arcs on the y axis are not correct.

Sorry I might be late on catching the thread, but how about this two-step process? with the Select tool, double-click on the 'field-area' - the portion of surface outside of the circles. with the Move/Copy tool, displace a copy of the field to another location. Hope this helps. Cheers, . Diego .

Hi Robert, That's Weld.rb by Rick Wilson at Smustard's: http://www.smustard.com/script/Weld Note that it won't create "real" circle or arc entities (with their special features like having center points and such) just "glue" the line segments together so that you can work easier.

Good morning Remus, thank you for the advise. I will definitely download CADSpan and give it a test drive! I have a friend who is a genius with SolidWorks and can check it's viability for me. Connor