Hi, thanks a thousand times Box, it works perfectly !

Select the backwards faces and use the "reverse faces: command in the contextual menu and get all the outward facing surfaces to be "front face" Yes, it can cause problems. If you don't see division edges between the reversed coloration, toggle "hidden geometry" in the view menu. Then you can reverse faces that are backwards separate from the adjoining smoothed faces. There are plugin tools to help this process if you have a lot of it, but that's the primary way to fix reversed faces.

@westy49 said: Am surprised that Curviloft is so expensive. It is £55 a year. This is about one-ninth of the cost of buying an open license for SketchUp Pro 18. I would not mind buying a one-off open license but there is no guarantee that I will use the plug-in very much so I am reluctant to pay so much for just one year's use. Can someone design a more cost-effective plug-in to do the same job? Where did you find Curviloft for £55 a year? Here on Sketchucation it's available at no charge. No need to have someone reinvent the wheel.

@gaieus said: ...skm files are actually renamed zip archives... Thanks Gaieus and Tig for clarifying that - and for adding this new chapter in my personally D'oh Book

Or do you mean you want to start with a sloping grid? You can rotate the "from scratch" grid up (or down) to 1:12 with the rotate tool.

@dohyungkim By default, JointPushPull, Joint Tool, uses the neighbour faces to constrain the direction, even if these faces are not part of the selection. You can disable this feature with one option which is in the button palette ("neighbour influence..."). I also recommend you migrate to the newest version of JointPushPull, v4.2a. Fredo

It wouldn't be appropriate to use the scale tool nor the Tape Measure tool on the trailer at least in one go because that will resize things you don't want to resize. You're better off to use the Move tool for much of it. You could scale the main frame but things like the lights and undercarriage will need to be moved, not scaled. As for scaling the main frame, the Tape Measure tool would work however if you double the width, you'll also double every thing else. That won't get you a 20' long trailer. Stretching its length by another 4' will wind up deforming a lot of the frame members, too. There are enough dimensions that will get changed inappropriately in this model that I would be inclined start over with the frame. Or, if you don't want to do that, there's another trailer model in the Warehouse that is 8-1/2 feet by 18 feet. It is actually built so it can be modified more easily and has an appropriate tongue and undercarriage for a trailer of that size. Both models need attention to some details stuff like face orientation.

@zain01 said: Hi Box, yes tried that, turns out somehow the wardrobe door i was trying to move was the problem, somehow it got corrupted or maybe the mb count was to high, it did have quite a big psd texture on it, must try it without the texture and see if that works but i just ended up redrawing it. thanks Maybe you just didn't wait long enough. A few months back I was working on a project which included a huge component that I had drawn in a separate file. I used Copy and Paste to insert the component into the main model and it took a good 30 to 40 seconds to appear.

@tig said: Gai's link is to fix components. The default axes [aka origin or insertion-point] of a group [or component] always go at its geometry's bounds.min corner [bottom-left-front]. If you want them to be at the model's ORIGIN for a group you must include something at the origin as you can't change a group's axes through the context-menu [unlike with a component]. It is possible to code something to reset groups' axes to the model's ORIGIN... <span class="syntaxdefault">module TIG<br />  def TIG</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">originateselectedgroups</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">()<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">active_model<br />    ss</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">selection<br />    return nil unless ss</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">[</span><span class="syntaxdefault">0</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">]<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">start_operation</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxstring">"TIG.originateselectedgroups"</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    ss</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">each</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">{|</span><span class="syntaxdefault">gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">|<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">      next unless gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.class==</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Sketchup</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Group<br />      gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">make_unique </span><span class="syntaxcomment">### forced - deprecated messages are API error!<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">      gents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">entities<br />      tr</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Geom</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">;;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">Transformation</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">translation</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">transformation</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">origin</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">vector_to</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">ORIGIN</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">))<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">      gp</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">transform</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">!(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">tr</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">      gents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">transform_entities</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(</span><span class="syntaxdefault">tr</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">inverse</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">,</span><span class="syntaxdefault"> gents</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">to_a</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    </span><span class="syntaxkeyword">}<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">    model</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">commit_operation<br />  end<br />end</span> Put all of this into a plain text file file in the Plugins folder named say ' TIG-originateselectedgroups.rb'. Restart Sketchup so it auto-loads. Select some stuff including some groups and type in the Ruby Console: TIG.originateselectedgroups All groups will have their axes relocated at the ORIGIN. Nested groups locate at the container's origin - which will be the ORIGIN, IF the container was processed earlier... Ignore the make_unique error messages, you can't have duplicate groups and hope for them to both be right [Bugsplat!], so it forces all groups to become 'unique'. TIG! Thank you so much for this. Would it be possible to have the same function done for both components and groups? I tried mixing the code, but my thin knowledge in programming doesn't cut it! Also, would it be possible to target all nested components and groups?

You need to read up on Groups and Components. But triple click on the oval to select all of it, right click and select Make Component, then use slicer. [image: tA5I_Slicer.gif]

Thanks Box.That looks like a good solution to my problem.Much appreciated

So, it looks like you need to talk with your IT dept, and get them to allow Users, like yourself, to install SketchUp properly ? Or at least get them to do it properly on your behalf...

Update: It got corrected by itself, I don't know how; might be Windows 10 update. Thanks for your support

I draw airplanes with details of parts. EVERYTHING is either a group, if used only once, but always a component if used at least once or twice in the drawing. There are NO "free" entities in a drawing. Then I organize the collection using LAYERS. I number each layer in a hierarchy, and assign whatever appropriate groups/comps to a layer. Where I have components that move (ie: landing gear up or landing gear down, I create a layer for each, and a copy of the comp assigned to each. You can orient/move/rotate any comp. and retain its entity integrity. Only if a secondary comp. has a minor entity change would I make it unique. But that dissolves the link back to the original. One other important detail. Every single entity in the drawing is on LEVEL 0, whether in free space, in a group or in a component. Only groups and components bounding boxes get assigned to a specific layer. It can be layer 0. That way, you can easily control visibility, create scenes and do other neat stuff.

If one or both objects are either a group or component, there is no entity interference. The objects remain whole, and can be moved out of each others space. The trick to moving components against other objects, without moving them into the other objects space, it to click on an edge, preferably an endpoint of the component to be moved. Then move that component to the target, carefully. As you approach the target, the moved component will snap to the edge/point of the target. Release the component at that point. You can then fine tune the position after that. But there is no restriction to move an object into the same space as some other object. If you grab the component anywhere not on an edge or endpoint, there is no snap to, and it will move freely. To move entities, groups or components INTO another group/comp's space box requires you to select it, clipboard copy it, then edit the group/comp you want it inside of and Paste-in-place. Then move it where you want it. Delete the one in the original position.

Will do - right now the boss has me working on this and waiting on some changes so will send honeycomb as soon as I am finished. Thank you [image: 7vg7_CirqueDreamsNG.jpg]

I used an old plugin by Matt666 that removes all materials that have been applied to the Group/Component as a whole rather than to the faces. https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=Remove_CG_mat

Explode All by SU4you Loose2groups by Chris Fullmer

Corona for Sketchup is dead... https://corona-renderer.com/blog/corona-renderer-for-cinema-4d-beta-1-released/ @unknownuser said: SketchUp plugin Let’s admit it, the last year was not that successful for our SketchUp plugin: we had two developers who came, did a small amount of work, and then left. For the past few months, there has been virtually no progress on the plugin. We also hit some roadblocks in development, which did not help. By the end of the year, we were faced with a tough decision on what to do with the plugin. Should we scrap it? Or maybe reboot the development from scratch? All the while, we had to evaluate if any of that made sense, especially now that our colleagues from ChaosGroup have released their strong V-Ray 3.6 plugin for SketchUp (please check it on CG’s website , it’s worth it!) Our conclusion was a tough one, but after a lot of soul-searching we have chosen to end development of the SketchUp plugin for good. We have decided that it makes most sense for us to focus all our efforts and manpower on the Cinema 4D plugin, which is really promising and very close to the finish line. I know that this kind of news is always hard to read – and even harder to write – but to be honest if we compare what V-Ray offers for SketchUp and what we have now, we have to be realistic and admit that they did a far better job than us. So, now we would rather focus our time and effort on the Cinema 4D plugin where we think we can offer more. I am sorry to those who we have disappointed with this move, but we sincerely think it is the best possible one.

that simple THX