Thank you all! This is far more information than I had anticipated. On most of the other forums I go to for help, you get a one or two word response -- obscure -- or no response at all. Thank you all Fred

And the other option: REMEMBER! to weld your path first. [image: path2zl9.gif]

salsainglesa, I seem to recall that this awkward-sounding beep was due to a ruby plugin. The plugin was calling the "UI.beep" function. I've searched, and found that's the case with the following plugins: ContourMaker.rb CutListAndMaterials.rb Linetool.rb Ldraw.rb Multiwalltool.rb PurgeAll.rb SectionCutFace.rb Slicer.rb Slicer3.rb Ultiwalltool.rb VolumeCalculator.rb ZVolume.rb The culprit would have to have something to do with the layers (obviously,) but I haven't poked around in the above plugins to see if any of these access layers. All I can remember is that it had to do with an "older" plugin. I did find the following discussion, but it's unclear whether the issue was resolved to the poster's satisfaction: http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp3d/browse_thread/thread/4317cbb9f84d77d8?hl=en Perhaps someone else recalls the discussion to which I'm referring? Taff

No David, This is just a diagnostic test that there is something wrong with your video card/driver. You should update your driver to be fully compatible with OpenGL (thus SU) in order to work better on large models as well.

Sketchy Bevel by Chris Phillips and the FAQ by Smustard. Sorry for the inconvenience.

@solo said: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=9342&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=cloth Hallo Pete, that is really an impressive work! However I was looking for something more general. Think of a group of 3D letters, e.g. "PETE". If I was to drop a cloth over them, I would not really know how the final image would come out. And even if I did, I would not know how to draw it! I'd like SketchUp to do the job for me... Thanks anyway!

@remus said: That makes a bit more sense now. I think what you are refering to is a studio setup, very similar in effect to a photography studio. And theres no problems with postign links to other websites (unless its to pirated material.) yup! its just that i found out that it is called studio setup.

jantglez, Welcome to the SCF! If you're talking about longitude/latitude, or theta/rho angular (spherical) coordinates for points on the surface of a sphere, SketchUp does not natively support those coordinate systems. SketchUp expects cartesian (x,y,z) coordinates. I typically use a spreadsheet to convert from angle/vector coordinates to cartesian coordinates. I then import the cartesian coordinates into SketchUp, using a '.dxf' data file, or '.csv' file (using a ruby plugin.) Both are text data file formats. SketchUp natively supports the import of DXF files. To import a CSV file, you can download and install the "Cloud_V6.rb" plugin from this page... Ruby Library Depot ...thanks to Didier Bur. (The plugin is 'zipped' as "Cloud_V6.zip") The cloud plugin will import points only (i.e.; a "points cloud".) A properly-formatted DXF file can import points, lines and polygons, but, as expected, is a more-complicated file to generate with a spreadsheet. Note that I use these methods for geodesic dome constructions (3D Warehouse - Geodesic Collection) If you don't need to cover a spherical area, but only a small patch on the surface (such as earth longitude/latitude), then other means may be available to you. I must, apologetically, leave comments on those potential methods to others, who have more experience importing GIS and longitude/latitude survey data. Regards, Taff

Here is the final product. Thank you all for the help. It turned out pretty good. [image: 5Urq_kartell.jpg]

Alsatic, Thanks for the direction to the rudy.... It works OK for what I do. It's not much different than doing it the "manual" way using the protractor and text tools. This is because, if I'm doing it correctly, you have to do three clicks counterclockwise to get the angle, then select it, explode it, and then clean up the line and arch it added to the drawing. Anyway, thanks to all of you for the input.... (James and Chris) I'm set now,

Hi Holysky, Not a Car and not SU lines but the basics of the technique are the same; have a look at this tutorial here: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=100543#p100543 Download the skp file and go from scene to scene.

Thanks, Tom -- any clues on how to get my layer manager box back?

Now that i tested it, it tells me the same message as before except is says "plugins/defaul-settings.igs. Failed to open file line 0, column 0." This is strange, and sorry for all the questioning but this is reaaly strange:D

Giaeus also said those two but i didnt see them in the post :S anyways thank you both!

@shareck said: i don't think so. i've a model of a tiger tank in the warehouse, it is 10mb and it shows shadows. I said it was a guess.

It's a zipped plugin. Unzip it (and don't change anything) into the Plugins folder in the Sketchup program folder (on windows). Restart SU and activate the toolbar under the View > Toolbars (it will be some "On surface operations" or something.

OOPS! double post.

thanks remus--I will do that. D

Hi Andrew, Check this tutorial out! http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11222