Chuggy, I cannot comment in open forum due to agreements I made with a client however I may be able to help you, pls check your PM.

Another commercial software. I also tried Reality4D and 3dRAD. However, the trial limitations of Walkabout3D will not cripple my purpose. But, is still trial, I think I could also give a go with Crytek and Oblivion game engines or maybe IrrEdit. Guys, do you know other free or open-source softwares that do this stuff?

Hi, Install Quicktime. Then visit: http://www.go-2-school.com/podcasts Some great tutorials here. After watching each movie simply right click on the movie window and select "Save as quicktime movie". You can then build up a whole collection that you can burn to disc and watch at your leisure. Regards Mr S

Hello, Note that any geometry created in any way (using the drawing tools, intersecting, draping and such) will always be created on the active layer. So to assign any draped lines on a specific layer on the fly,just make that layer active (with the round radio button left of its name).

Ye, most of the cases it is. We often realign the axes to be able to work easier but by right clicking the any of the axes, you can "reset" them There is a different way of georeferencing in SU: go to your modl info window and set Location there

Hi, You do not have to create faces to use the From Contours tool. If you have your curves/contours drawn, you can just use the Move Tool to place them at the required height. So create your lines, move them to required height, select all and click From Contours. There is a Ruby script which I use a lot and creates a Polyline from a series of separate lines. It is called Weld.rb. You can find it here

Cool, I had that box checked I just wanted to make sure thats what it did. Thanks

@tobobo said: Ummmm..... I will keep thinking on it though. Thanks Toby to try by your way (even if what Gaieus says give us very few chance) @anssi said: \.... If that is so, you had better reverse them before applying materials, especially if you intend to render the model with some external rendering software...// Ansi you are completely right. I always draw in this grey-blue back face, which is taking the light better than white one in order to observe the shapes. But i have forgotten the rendering issue. Thanks for this yellow paper. simon

Thanks. I know about the follow me tool. What I want to know is for example. How do you bend or curve a cylinder or tube that has a profile in it, let's say like a flex duct profile.

EDIT: I mistakenly made this post thinking you were talking about making arced shapes on a flat plane. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Hi, I'm also a newb, but what I ended up doing to make sure my 'freeform' drawings were on the same plane is the following: Make a plane of any size, large enough for the shape you want to make to fit inside, make the plane a group (so lines drawn on it don't attach to the plane) draw your shape on the surface of the plane, when you connect the last point, the surface should automatically come into being like magic. delete your drawing surface plane (or throw it off to the side and save it for later) Again, may not be the best or most efficient way to do it, but it works for me.

ok, thaink you guys so much, I'm gonna try this one again.

The import probably comes through as a component/group. Yes, you have to explode or edit it (but each way is just a two click operation).

Ha, did I write something that I don't know about incidentally? BW - as I heard from Tommy, you will soon be able to fully utilize your spreadheet and maths expertise!

ok, i see. Thats probably just because of the pics. Nothing to worry about really.

When you push/pull a face you make a solid, when you go "inside" the solid you should see the faces are blue. White is the colour of the "outside" of the solid, blue is the "inside" of the solid. Within SU it does not matter, you can put a texture on the inside face with no problems. When you use a program external to SU is when the inside/outside faces issue becomes a problem. What's the point of rendering the "inside" right? You will end up with strange results and holes in the model where there should not be any. Have a look at the following model, they look identical right? Now go "View -> Face style -> Monochrome" The left block will render fine, the right will not because it's "inside out". inside-out-tut.skp

Tonto, So you got how to create the hull shape with the 'follow me' tool? If not, those steps can be demonstrated in more detail. Taff

Thank you both for the replies. My thinking was to getting into maybe somekind of interior design firm or something that does renderings often. i know learning will be a long proccess but what better learning is there than on the job. I learned more about Autocad through work than I ever did in school. In my line of work i deal with water and sewer stuff (i.e. Lift stations, well site, booster pump stations and so on) i guess I can take an existing project of ours and do it in SU and present it to the boss and maybe he will fit it into the budget for future projects. I never thought of it that way, this whole time I was taking SU and modeling house when I could actually model something that I use on a daily basis. Hmm....see thats why I love forums, so many inputs that you see things you missed in the beginning. I got the perfect project for this too. will post my progress Thank you, any and all advice is appreciated.

So sorry, James, I wanted to come back to thank you for your answer. Instead, I went straight over to SU to try it out, and you were entirely correct and I was able to make my sloped site, of course, but instead of thanking you I did the work and haven't come up for air until now. I swear, I start playing with SU from the moment I get up, and I fall asleep next to it on the couch. I'm an addict. And that's the only excuse I can offer for my apparent lack of social skills. I do THANK YOU, however! Learning new stuff all the time! Woohoo! Gigi

I am farily new to 3d modeling, dabbled with it in school. My main platform is Autocad, in which my 3D exerience has been with. I kinda have a grasp on the modeling but still alot of learning to do. I am currently modeling a house that I just decided to trace after not finding a cad file. I will post in gallery as it becomes recognizable, too see what everyone thinks.

@wo3dan said: Tonto, Your question reminds me of this thread (jan2008): http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=6890&p=44775&hilit=+wo3dan#p44775 Maybe it will help you in any way. Wo3Dan Thanks for that.