HI Gull, hi folks. A quick way to find the center of an exploded circle is to trace a diameter between facing endpoints. The midpoint of this line is the centerpoint of the circle. Use it and one of the endpoint on the exploded circle to redraw a new circle. Its geometry will overlapp the segments of the exploded circle. You will not have these in double, dont worry. Delete the diameter and then you can use the Dimension Tool to get the diameter or radius of the circle. Just ideas.

Something like this? @me said: When you change the Scenes (Stone and Brick), the texture of the walls will also change. Examine the visible/invisible layers (and the groups on them) associated with the scenes. The texture on the walls will change with the scenes. There's no "transition" however. Made simply the same way you generally make "changing" geometry with on/off layers and scenes.

Then you need to find a renderer that you like. Many people like Podium, kerkythea, IRendernXt, V-ray, POV-ray, Indigo, and on and on. But SU does not do true lights and lighting effects. It does shadows, but no more. Chris

Well, this question is just "right at the perfect time". There's a new plugin called UV Toolkit with which you can easily do this although you'll ne3ed "special" textures for this as it will stretch the whole texture onto the individual facets of a curved structure. If you look at my post there (second in the topic) and my second, tubular arch there, first, before I rotated the texture, the stripes ran "lengthwise", nicely following the curve. Of course, it is not desirable with a brick arch but is with your grain example. It's just a matter of segments in the curve to be nice.

Thank you all for the help!

Hi modelhead, Johnny, Gaieus: Thanks for sharing your insights to my question on the SUF, which I just now accessed after a few days. Very interesting -- and very unlikely for me to have stumbled upon on my own. Much appreciated. .. ss

@petekangaroo said: Sorry, I think I mistakedly just reported this instead of quoting it No problem - you are not the first one to make this mistake. I've closed the report. But like the others suggest above; get the virtual model from somewhere and then get a physical model made from that.

Try going view->hidden geometry to see if youve inadvertently hidden it. It would also be worth going window->layers and checking theyre all turned on.

I just tried painting the texture using the same RGB value as the color from SU, but the colors turn out a bit off and you can see the border of the logo against the rest of the model. [image: xLK4_4.jpg]

Use a Style where the profiles are heavier than other edges, perhaps with line end markers. To make sure it's all 'flat' use a v.big rectangle below it all and then Drape it onto the rectangle using the Sandbox Tool. It'll form a flat copy below on the face... Move the original stuff out of the way, or hide it etc till you need it no longer. Now any edges that are faced will be thin and the problem ones shown thicker. Try drawing some diagonals between junctions across incomplete [unfaced] areas to roughly triangulate them and you should find that slowly they face and the number of visibly fat edges reduce. Delete the unneeded temp edges as you get a stable face; however, if deleting an edge removes the face(s) there's a problem with the adjoining 'faced' area - undo and retry... Zoom into the edges around any stubborn 'gaps'' in the faces or edges drawn over faces that remain heavy and don't split them - it might be that you have some small gaps or overlapping edges - heal them by drawing new edges or moving line ends so they touch another line. Sometimes overdrawing some edges is the quickest way to fix it - particularly if it's a really rubbish CAD drawing...

Indeed, that would be the "average" use; to end up with one object and delete "unwanted geometry". I see that you practically needed two different objects and this means two different operations - but at least can be done this way.

True, thanks. I amended my reply above accordingly.

Thank you, Bep and Gaieus. I hope my brother-in-law will adopt sketchup for his business. It would be a great design and sales tool for him. We shall see. Some day I may have a go at creating some geology-realistic rocks. When I do I'll put them out here for anyone to use.

Hi Sam, Combine layer visibility with scenes.Make sure your workflow is this: separate what should be separated with groups (layers won't separate geometry). put version 1 of say a wall on layer 1, set it visible (but turn off version 2 - see below) and add a scene. now insert version 2 of the wall, put it on layer 2, make it visible but hide layer 1 again, add a scene. now when you switch between scenes, you can once see version 1 then in the other scene, version 2. Obviously there may be several things (like floor) that are present in each verion - they should have their own layer but always visible. Something like this - except that I made it to present different textures but presenting different geometry works the same way. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3168ed68fce69cf154cbada1da0df134 You can even play with scenes in Google Earth: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=569332372733870556fd3af0ddd0a84f

If you go to your Component browser > In model and right click on any component, you can select "Properties" which will open the exact same window as the one you are in while creating the component. You can make all settings there. Note however that if you change the gluing/cutting plane, the already inserted components, though "inheriting" these changes, may not behave so so you may need to re-insert them.

The Sandbox tools (and a couple of other ones) are still marked as "Pro only" features in the SU Guide for version 6 but that's obsolete and for some reason, they have never changed the "Pro only" tags although almost all those features are available in the free version, too (see below). Note that you may need to activate the Sandbox tools (and some more) in Window > Preferences > Extensions. In version 5 (when there was an original, @Last SU Pro and Google came out with its free "Beta" version after the acquisition), these features were different - i.e. "Pro only" (I know, I started with that): Sandbox tools 2D raster image output larger than screen resolution Print to scale Animation export 3D and 2D vector export formats (other than Google Earth kmz) In version 6 everything but the last (vector exports) was made free but then LayOut and Style Builder was added as Pro only In version 7 it's still the same as 6 except the additional possibility to edit Dynamic Components. Now as for Plugins not working in the fre version,I had such experience with ado by Didier but that was back in version 5 where the features of the free version didn't allow some of those (OR I was too lame to make it work). I haven't tried ever since but that was the only one that didn't work for me.

If you mean guide lines and points (aka construction geometry, the dotted ones), you can always delete all existing guides in the Edit menu. Then just use the Tape measure tool or the Protractor to set up new ones.

Yes, Hypercosm is something that's the closest to a SU interface. It needs a plugin on client side however. It has a free version which is great and fun and you can navigate all around although everything that you mentioned (and some more like making annotations on client side) is only available in the pro version. Also note that it won't run on every browser however the very major ones are supported and there is already a Mac version (for viewing) which used to be badly needed.

I'll do that

Take a look here! You have some plugs (not free after 10 days) Seems that can help you