The one thing that will stop Makefaces dead in its tracks is if there are any stubs of lines inside the overall outline shape. (Think of a simple case like a circular outline with a tiny stub of a "spoke" heading from one of the nodes on the edge towards the centre). If you are sure the outline is compltely closed and planar, then that's the most likely reason. You may need to fill it in by progressively drawing lines across the shape between obvious points...then delete them once the complete shape is filled.

Here is a sample (although needs better foreground) with IDX. Did anyone mention SU's watermark, or photo match (sort of). [image: r4ZQ_RenderMakai01.jpg] [image: O4Uu_temp01.jpg]

If you give us examples of what you try to achieve and tells us a bit about your background in computer graphics, we could help you better. Being myself a bit of a computer geek, my recommendation goes to Kerkythea, as all you learn with it will serve you as a foundation for learning other rendering engines. And it's free.

Thanks Paul! Middle button it was. I remember I had changed the mouse batery around the time that happened and for a few minutes the cursor was frosen. Now the mouse wheel was set on 'universal scroll' . This is going to save me alot of time.

It'"s not a question of "deserving" or not but really just of time. @wathavy said: (I love those emocons.) And we even have SketchUp icons, too! Like these ones (and even more - I just cannot insert all into one post):

Question, in my maya list of meshes, i have like 99999 meshes.. each building FLOOR is seperate to another, i.e it is not grouped as one building object meaning that each FLOOR is one mesh..which creates a whole lot of hassle for me. if i group each building and then export it from sketchup as a 3ds (which works fine for me now on maya for some reason..its just slow though :/) will that mean that maya will regognise each building as one mesh? including the wireframe skin? thanks for your help guys as far as the FBX thing im not bothered much as i got a 3ds plugin for maya and its ok now, even took the colour by layer from sketchup

hint: [image: VwXO_Capture.jpg]

Thanks a lot! Now it works. Best regards higgins

Hi Roy, If your problem (after placing the moved item) is that it is still selected and whatever further thing you do with the Move tool will still move (and distort) objects,just press Esc(ape) to get rid of the next move and select the Select tool to click somewhere else so that you deselect what you have just moved.

Id say have a play around with the sandbox tools. You need to turn them on first: window->preferences->extensions. Of specific interest to you is the smoove tool.

Great Thanks Chris

If you have a look at morisdovs proper animation plugin, it sounds like it should help with what you want.

Thank you for the tip Wo3Dan, I'll keep those tips in mind for the next time. As my file kept crashing by using the drape tool, I handed it over to a colleaugue who did it in 1 minute using Rhino. The trouble with the sketchup drape tool is that it is basically a ruby, and thus has difficulties with large amounts of geometry....and in a lot of cases, DWG site imports are full of it. Friday was really a day of Sketchup frustration. Anyone sells a SU stress ball?

Thanks, Gents! That will help me keep what little hair I have left! Cheers, Caoimhín

Thanks !!!

Yow! that curved deck link is worth a look folks. Masterful work. It looks like the deck is more value than the house. I do worry the pine is too close, though. I designed a curvy deck for some folks, but I don't think it ever was built. You could've handled it, no problem. Thanks for the instructions.

Good Job, Jeff! In this case the texture would've been probably the last thing I'd've checked.

Ah yeah, good that you put the picture up! That's definitely this camera thing you somehow succeeded to insert into your model (I would wonder however how you did it). Use the script Remus suggested.

@chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: A entity can only be on one layer. Yeah, but groups and components are entities. And a group entity can be on Layer 0 and all its contents be on Layer 100. Or its contents can be split up on all sorts of layers. I wondered about this; by (my) definition, entities are primitives. That is they can not be broken down into more basic elements. What do you think? @chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: Groups can not share surfaces. That sounds mis-leading to me in that they can have faces in the exact same 3d location. Maybe they can't share entities sounds better in my mind. Tried it. Couldn't make two groups share the same surface. However, two components can share the same space. @chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: A component instance are entities that comprise a component definition. I'd reverse the order of these. First comes the definition, then comes the instances (sort of). The definition is aptly named because it is the base "definition" for the instances. The definition is what is shown in the components browser. Once you select the definition to insert into the model, you then have an instance inserted in the model. So all components are instances (except the definition shown in the comp. browser). Let me think about this. An instant is part of the model, a definition is data noted in the component browser and outline. @chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: Component properties are common to all instances. Instances actually can have different properties than the definition. The X,Y,Z location, any changes in scale, and materials applied to the outside of the instance, are all properties that are saved uniquely to each instance. I was thinking of the things that an instance of a component share with other instances of that component. @chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: Component instance comprises of its definition. Yes, as a a starting point. Like I pointed out above, the instance when inserted into the model is an exact copy of the definition. But scaling it, applying a material to it, or moving it will change properties to that instance. Oh, and all these properties can be changed without making the component unique or different than its definition. S***, when I scale a component, it scales by itself, but each instance's common surface, can share common property (like color). So we have properties that are shared (like color), and those that are unshared (like scale). Is scale a property, or should it defined in another way? @chris fullmer said: @honoluludesktop said: A scene (among other things) is a collection visible layers. A scene is a collection of visible layers (among other things) And I would love to detail all those other things, because I think that scenes are much more useful than many people realize. Its all in the "among other things" that there is some great functionality. Perhaps too complex for elegant definition?

Sounds like you went in to xray mode somehow, try going view->face style->shaded with textures.