I've had a chance to play with it a little more since I originally posted the QCAD link. It is a decent little CAD program...I ended up buying a license for both my PC and my Linux machines. It seems like it bogs down faster than AutoCAD, though...not yet suitable for the kind of large project my firm does, but sufficient for ordinary domestic architecture or simpler work (in my opinion). The most annoying aspect of the program, for an AutoCAD user, is that you can't grab individual vertices...you just have to use the Stretch command very selectively. But there is a nice "auto" snap feature that is somewhat like SketchUp's inferences, except that it also wants to snap to the underlying grid...to make it not do so, you have to make the grid some insanely large size. I'll take a look at those links you posted, RegH. Thanks.

same here James but tradesmen are really in demand. A developer near me on the Gold Coast is flying carpenters up from Melbourne, 2000klms away, housing them in hotels, flying them home every fortnight and paying well above award rates just to get his project completed on time. tradesmen are making 1500 - 2000 per week and all drive around in big SUVs and go fishing in the weekend in their big power boats. cheers john

I like the roll up feature... but they don't support multiple monitor snapping for some reason...

wide format... 24" imperial over here... it would be A0 international I guess...

@jackson said: You almost never hear PC users criticising Mac users for their choice of work tool @tim said: Wow. Jackson, if you've truly never seen PC users criticising Mac users then you must have found some wonderfully polite forums.

Thanks for the info Anssi, I shall try that later when I get home

yeah Tox, that's what I usually do, just export a pdf straight from SUp or from Cute pdf, but I can't do that with templates longer than 100", that's why I need to use Corel. Is there a low cost pdf creator that will export longer than 100"??

Thanks Bruce, this will be perfect for my needs

thanks, mike and kelly. i'll take some time to consider the many alternatives in both sites. cheers.

just because something is registered in another country doesn't mean you don't have to pay for it, or taxes on it... are we sure he does this to skip some duty? or is that an assumption?

Not with me for sure (or who remembers...)

Well, Miikka (this sounds so Finnish to me! ) Animating object in SU is rather cumbersome and needs some practice either with the "face camera" settings of components or "Layers". However there is an ever developing project of "Sketchty Physics" by Chris (see thread here) but to tell the truth I don't know whether it works with Kerky or not.

I just realized In consideration to him I post his method http://www.uoregon.edu/~graphics/resources/sketchup/downloads/TheDennisTechnique.pdf

ahh, okay it was a "tone opf voice" thing. When I first read your post I read it as "... but the Nigerian Part.. "NOW THAT WAS REALLY A HOOT" ( capitalized words added by me) But when Todd read it he read " but the Nigerian Part "WAS NOT FUNNY AT ALL" So I then took Todd's reading of it, and thought maybe you really meant: ....but the Nigerian Part "ANYTHING THAT SUSAN THINKS IS FUNNY, I"M GOING TO DISAGREE WITH JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT, WINK WINK, POKE POKE" Proving once again that the internet is grand and can so easily replace interpersonal contact.

ohhhh. now I get it. Three different theatres. Three different movies, not done intentionally. Okay then.

My Maine Coon cat Fred is 17 now. He is part of my login name BTW. Before he ran away, Boo was my wife's cat. Fred is my cat and our last name is Lay. Fred is declawed but is an indoor/outdoor cat. He used to be about 18 pounds but is now only 12 pounds. His health is good but he has arthritis as he cannot jump on the couches anymore. Now he just walks up and looks at you until you pick him up. He is my monster and loves to fight. His mouth will wrap almost all the way around my wrist with teeth showing. He is a lap cat as well, loves to snuggle. His new nickname is house payment. He recently had an abcess on his side and needed medical attention. Poor boy. The hardest part of his recovery was keeping him inside before the stitches were taken out. I also find humor in cats like lets-roll. One of my favorite cartoon books growing up was this: http://www.cartoonstock.com/101_dead_cats/index.htm My favorite panel was the pencil sharpener... you can guess where the pencil goes

3D studio max... you say you want the model?

fantastic footage... cheers for sharing

@gaieus said: Mike, Don't forget to share a video of you bellydancing when youz feel you're ready! No ! I only do private dances

Well, I checked and my place also has the GMaps now as a layer in GE (it didn't use to be there). Even typing in adresses work (which did not for Hungary previously). Although I'm not exactly convinced that the position of the roads are correct. It seems that east-west it's OK but north-south there's a small distortion. I still need to check and I'll show you what I mean.