hi! it is really wondeful to see what sketchup community is doing to improve it even with "little" rubies like this one..and for free...A GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT THANKS.

Yeah, this is definitely THE example when you'd better go with the material. Even in PR rendering apps (with the proper bump and clipmaps of course)

Hmm, yes I can see how nesting them could throw it off. But it looks like you say it works as expected Jean, so thats good. I suppose an example is needed. I'll sure keep my eyes open for one. Chris PS I've had some great kite flying days already this year Jean, the weather is wonderful here in the San Francisco Bay area!

Thanks guys, We really appreciate your positive feedback.

Just discovered the actual Ruby I required was this: HideAll.rb by Todd Burch Similar to the "Isolate" function in 3DS MAX. A compact, neat and helpful tool. Visit: http://www.smustard.com/script/HideAll Regards Mr S

It reminds me a lot of the real world construction technique of using a Monolithic Dome. Check it out. http://www.monolithic.com -Mark McCoy http://www.8-perf.com

oh, i miss that! thanks! it helps alot!!

Thanks Tig I will give it a try.

Charlie, Thanks. That’s another way that’ll work. The info that comprises shadow information and the way it is stored suggests that unfixing the “fix” or making it optional shouldn’t be that hard to do. When one clicks on a different scene tab, SU should simply use the scene’s stored associated geographical/north arrow information as it did before rather than ignoring it.

Hi, I happened to spot this thread and thought that was a pretty cool leg design......so I had to have a go at it.I've been spending some time working with Shape Bender and FreeScale this weekend. I just downloaded them both and I'm having a blast seeing what's possible. I used a combination of follow me and the FreeScale taper tool to model this leg.The taper went smoothly..........I spent more time just getting the pocket for the table apron. Rich [image: kZNK_curveyleg1.jpg] [image: IZrw_curveyleg2.jpg] curvey leg 3.1.skp

Scott, I am not a MAX user myself, but I understand that there are members of the forum who use the SU/MAX combination successfully. What about the OBJ or FBX formats? I also remember a post by Solo explaining his workflow using Deep Exploration to translate directly from SU to MAX. Anssi

Chris, Wow, thanks a lot, Chris, for your reply and with the speed of light! This is exactly what I was looking for mdlok

Well I loaded and unloaded scripts until the date error disappeared. However, right now I forget what script was the cause. I know that does not help much. I remember that I could not find out what the offending script did. I will look into my old scripts directory when I get home to see if I can find the offending script. Should be home by middle of June. One thing I did learn, that removing a script might make the problem go away, however, reloading the script may not bring back the problem. Right now, I am having problems with and error on components making, I have went though all my scripts, and found that a section of five scripts may remove the problem, note, it doesn't seem to be the same 5 scripts, but removing each one of the five will not give the same results, in other words make the problem go away. It is hard to track down an offending script. Right now, I need to get something done, so I just make sure I make the entry into a group before I make it into a component. My work around this problem. Ken

Also, this is why often, when doing the"modelling" (building) part of the work, with l;arger models it's better to turn textures off completely. If you are in monochrome model, at least you can see what's front and what's back face. This (and a couple of other tricks like turning off shadows or "hide the rest of the model" while working on a detailed component) can speed up work even with a slower computer.

@unknownuser said: we've turned down detail. (on trees etc.) What's the polygon count? Your idea of "low detail" might still be unmanagable for SketchUp. In SketchUp -> Window -> Model Info -> Statistics tab, -> tick the box next to "Show nested components" at the top (drop down menu should also say "Entire model")

Deserving winners if ever there was. Congrats all round

 thank you very much Jeff Hammond, had the problem of visualization on OS X 10.5.6, this would help much. 

Hi h4zel Forceware version 169.21 should certainly work out for you. Google search for this and you'll get the download. I had this same problem with my 8600GT & 8800GT cards in my home & office computers respectively. The problem disappeared after I installed this older version of drivers (Windows XP). Hope this helps. With best regards PRSS

Thanks for the heads up about Deep View! Question though: Anyone know how to create a 3d pdf directly from Deep View via Adobe Acobat Pro Extended? DV directly imports the .skp rather nicely, and it would great if you could simply create the 3d pdf right from DV. However, it seems that you are dependant on MS Office for the 3d pdf creation. While this works ok, you lose the scenes/model views when creating the 3d pdf. Unless I am missing something very obvious. Any ideas are greatly apreciated. C

Thank you for posting that link. It's just what I've been looking for!!! Cheers, domus.