TIG, thank you for taking the time to produce such an expansive reply, it's thoroughly appreciated. I do completely see the disadvantages to producing geometry with individual layers, it seems a good precise habit in CAD, isn't so helpful in SU! So far using the (wrong) technique I've been using, it hasn't caused any problems, but I completely appreciate it could create insanity. Herein I'll use Layer0 for geometry and layer names for components/groups and see how I get on - thank you again for clarifying this, really very much appreciated. Going back to my original question, I guess the request for this feature is mute by using the Layer0 technique - so that, answers that! Thank you again for your help. All the very best, Chris

You can find plenty of objects on the 3D Warehouse. But it is indeed hard to find free or cheap quality content. Take a look at the SketchUcation store, there's some really good stuff there for very little price (or even free if you're a Premium member) We're working with big content providers to bring their libraries into the Sketchup world.

@miikka1978 said: For some years ago there was DoubleCad that was free to use but it seems that it is no longer available. Its still there. https://www.turbocad.com/content/doublecad-xt-v5

@pilou said: Does the lights linked with any renders ? From what I can tell it is aimed at being a productivity / reporting plugin. I have sent the author an email with a number of queries, one of which was whether or not the components used can be customized. If this is the case, you should be able to create custom fixtures possibly with IES files linked or with settings saved in the custom fixture component which can be read / understood by your rendering app.

Sure!

There was something I didn't like about 1001bit, but I can't recollect what it was. I'll give it a try again to see what it was. As far as VisuHole, it just makes cutting the holes easier. It doesn't do the framing like HouseBuilder does for doorways and windows. I was looking for something along that lines. Now it does look like if I have to use it, it would be a lot easier to design the framing parts manually, but it will still take up more time than what a computer can figure out and do the stuff for ya. Edit: Found out what I didn't like about 1001bit: Doesn't do framed arches, just standard door and window frames, which HouseBuilder already does and IMHO does easier.

Yeah, I'm on a rush job and just found out it's not a default behaviour of Sketchup... This ThomThom guy really deserves 3 exclamation marks... Thomthom, I think I love you man... !!!

Sure would!!

@tig said: It's an "IF". BUT, it begs the question, why have 'they' done this AT ALL ? It wasn't asked for, as far as I know, by any users OR authors... I suggest you ask pertinent questions in the appropriate quarters/forums... I have so far escaped becoming a "persona non grata" - but only barely... But I'm none the wiser... [Homeland Security] The bean counters at Trimble are prob preparing the ground to generate income somehow from plugins.

seems like someone at CryTEK regretted the decision then... by the looks of it you'd have to export your SKP to FBX and import it then

Thanks Rich I am on SketchUcation a lot everyday. If nothing more, just trying to learn from the posts. My initial point was that I think this is confusing for users. I should have captured the URL's before. I want to be a contributor when possible. I think SketchUcation is a great site for anyone who uses SketchUp.

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=107%26amp;t=44002

It's pretty amazing the things this program can do!... if you're ever able to figure it out. Jesus. I've been struggling so hard for the past 2 weeks trying to get a simple presentation to work. It's scary to see that people have had some of the same problems for years now. I've got my money, in hand ready to shell out a whopping $4200 a year ($600 to use the program, $300 a month to display unlimited models) but I'm having SO many problems trying to get it to work! The tutorials only cover so much, and you're left fending for yourself to figure it out. Also, Good Luck contacting Customer Support, I've gotten 2 responses back out of ~6 emails? According to the website they're only even available 6 hours a day, 4 days a week, so support is obviously not much concern for them there. Oh, did I mention, it crashes mercilessly? Seriously. I expect to reload the browser no less than 5 times in a 2 hour period (mostly when attempting to preview). Oh God, and there's no undo button so be careful! I would pay for customer support, if that's what it took! I want this program so badly, there's nothing like it. This program could be HUGE in the design world, if it wasn't so buggy, hard to learn, or as expensive (though, I can deal with the price). Unfortunately I really don't think it's near ready. I love this program. but I'm trying so hard to make it feasible, and getting nothing in return from the program, or the company. Hopefully there is a community out there for tutorials, or just other users because that is the only way I can see me moving forward. My boss has given me 2 more days to figure this out before he scraps this "venture" completely. TL;DR I love CL3VER, but CL3VER "wants to see other people".

An RBZ file is an archive containing a loader-file and a subfolder of the same name containing all of the other files needed to make the extension/plugin work. It is actually a ZIP file with a different suffix. But do not worry about that ! Since v8M2 SketchUp has had a built-in tool*** to automatically extract the contents of an RBZ and install them into the correct Plugins folder and load them. After that SketchUp automatically loads extensions from the Plugins folder as it starts. ***Open SketchUp's Preferences > Extensions and use the 'Install Extension...' button. Find the downloaded RBZ file and choose it. Answer in the affirmative to any prompts. Extensions can be activated/deactivated from the same Preferences > Extensions dialog. Most extensions are set up by their author so that they are active and therefore load their functions when first installed. However, in v2016 there is a known glitch, whereby any extension is deactivated when it is initially installed - irrespective of the author's wishes. It will hopefully be fixed in a maintenance release. So in that case you simply need to activate it in Preferences > Extensions. If it has a Toolbar you might also need to activate that too. The activated state of extension and toolbar should be remembered next time SketchUp restarts. The two main sources of extensions are the Extension Warehouse and the SketchUcation PluginStore [see the Resources menu above]. These both allow you to download RBZs. The EW only supplies 'extensions'. There are also many 'plugins' available which do not appear in the extensions list, and always load as SketchUp starts - these are not available at the EW. The PluginStore has many plugins AND extensions - some of which are not available at the EW. The EW should be able to install selected extensions from within SketchUp, without the need to download an RBZ file at all. SketchUcation also has a toolset - its RBZ is available from the Resources menu above OR the PluginStore itself. Once installed that has several tools. These first three are usable off its Toolbar. An SCF PluginStore dialog - this lets you AutoInstall chosen extensions/plugins - again without recourse to actually manually downloading the RBZ. It also has an Update option and Bundles to allow syncing across versions and/or computers. An Extensions Manager which acts like the native preferences-dialog, but with a much improved user-interface and experience, and other tools let activating for this session only and saving 'sets' of extensions to activate/deactivate en mass. A Plugins Manager which acts like the Extensions Manager, but this one allows you to disable/enable non-extension plugins too. The SketchUcation submenu also includes a Plugin Uninstaller and an Archive Installer [RBZ or ZIP], and some other utilities to list shortcuts, open your Plugins folder and so on... So I suggest you first learn how to install a downloaded RBZ using the native tool, then get the SCF Toolset and install that. Thereafter use that to AutoInstall Plugins/Extensions and use the EW for those few not available there - e.g. those authored directly by SketchUp staff, or a few 'paid' extensions for other authors which might arrive as RBZ after payment, or got from the SCF-Shop etc...

Thank you for your swift response. Appreciate it.

Thank you for the feedback team, I will study this more very shortly and report back soon!

@juju said: You can try LightUp for creating baked textures, you'll need something else for the 3D PDF though... I tried Lumion RT (as they have a free version), but indeed i can't take the model out from there... i will look to that composer thing

Thanks! Actually, after I sent my post, I rebooted -- again -- and that seemed to take care of the problem. Go figure! But I will also check my preferences to see that other extensions I install will have a better chance of installing properly. Thanks again.

Thanks for a good words, we just upgraded for version 2.5, now brdf's have got its own colors. http://www.brighter3d.com/blog/ Best Regards, brighter3d

Thanks solo for the thread a good read. I'm just going to take a look at the latest version. will include my thoughts as well coming from sketchup and C4D background.