Ok Daniel, fair enough. But I'll just add this for the benefit of anyone coming after. This is an unlicensed copy of 2018 3 days into its trial and as you see by moving the toolbar to the edge of the workspace it snaps to vertical. [image: Ct9I_Toolbar.gif]

@dave r said: How are you installing Fredo's extensions? I have tried using both Extension Mgr and by downloading the .rbz and installing through Windows>Preferences. Either way errors on startup. I have already gone through all the possible fixes, I'm going to try to install 2018 on my workstation later to test.

The RBZ file is not needed after you've installed the extension. You don't need to keep it and I would recommend deleting it. Extensions you install will be in a user directory that is not affected by uninstalling/reinstalling SketchUp. If you ever do need to refresh the SketchUp installation and replace the extensions, it would be wisest to install the extensions fresh from their sources instead of from old RBZ files you've kept. If you use the Sketchucation Extension Store tool and the Extension Warehouse to install extensions, you won't have any RBZ files to delete except the one for SCF Extension store which you need to download from here to install.

Thanks, Jorgensen! For the link, here is ClothWorks: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=69485

As part of using components, consider making very simplified proxy components to stand in for the complex components like your columns. If you make the proxies with the same relative origin and axis locations as the complex ones, you can easily swap one for the other using Select Instances and Replace Selected in the Components window. Also make sure you eliminate any unseen geometry. If details you are drawing won't be seen up close, make them simpler. The bead along the length of the crown molding doesn't need to be made of a large number of segments. Eight will probably do. If the insides of closet doors won't be seen, they don't need to be detailed on the inside. It's fun to see the materials as you go but resist the urge to paint as you build. Save painting for the end. By the way, keep up on correcting face orientation as you go. It's a lot easier to fix it as you go along than it is to go back and fix it.

Then I won't redistribute them. I guess legally if he did not explicitly allow redistribution, it is not allowed. Still, just removing all plugins distributed over years without leaving a note is pure anti-social behavior in my book.

You are using layers incorrectly. Have read here. https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000122

You are probably right. But I only trace buildings that I have to refurbish/convert, and I always double check measurements on site. The only other scenario I can think of for tracing buildings is for archviz, where that accuracy doesn't seem needed to me. All my other buildings are modelled directly in sketchup. An advice I'd give you if you want to really use CAD imports is to group it and trace over the group with the rectangle tool. That will assure the orthogonal results which sketchup needs

Looks like a pain to clean! But I guess if you can afford it you aren't the one cleaning it!

Thanks! I'll give it a shot and see how it works. Best, Chris

Either way, I'd only model half of it since it is symmetrical.

@titatonio said: It's very important to me, to be able to restore these files. if older revisions or backup files (.SKB) do exist, you may want try to recover them by using the capable "GetDataBack" recovery software (trial avail.). Don't write anything further to the thumb drive to avoid damaging hidden instances of the required files.

@mikar said: Great tips (an so much effort put into explaining)! Thank you all very much! @joe wood said: Thanks Dave! I never knew you could r click again and choose 90*! That'll be very handy! = again a D'oh!- moment for me and I join in these thanks

This is a great plugin to create terrain in SketchUp. https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=52039

百花齊放，百家爭鳴! 翻译你的工具，如果你想要我的钱 提前致谢

@juju said: @hellnbak said: I've got everything almost ready to install a new C drive (Samsung 850 Pro, my SSD of choice), I'll tackle that this afternoon. Good choice on the SSD! Please tell me it is the PCIE version and not the SATA version, it's much quicker. No, I'm just sticking with the SATA version. Yes, the PCIE is much faster, but it's speed that I don't really need. I do no gaming or anything like that. Just old-fart stuff

Thanks Dave R. Now that you mentioned it, it could be an outdated extension. I been meaning to do some cleaning in that area. I will start there and see if the crashes stop.

On a PC the model's backup files [named xxx.SKB], and on MAC [named xxx~.SKP] are saved with the model's xxx.SKP file. The model's Auto-Save files usually get put into a default location... This is set on a PC in: Preferences > File > Models - its default is ../Documents/ On a MAC it is always saved in your: User > Library > Application Support > SketchUp NNNN > SketchUp > Autosave ...folder Named as AutoSave_xxx.SKP ?

Like this: [image: hHvf_Context_Menu_Shortcut.png] open the group/component and select a face only go to 'Preferences/Shortcuts' and filter on 'select'. grab this bar and drag right to view the full menu item name (you can't modify the Preferences window size itself) select the 'Bounding Edges' item from the list enter your shortcut The main thing to remember is that to add a shortcut for a context menu item, you must be in the specific context that loads it into the context menu flyout (you can check that by right clicking and seeing if your desired item shows up in the flyout: if not, you're not yet in the proper context). Otherwise it won't show up as an option in the 'Shortcuts' list. It's not obvious that it works this way, but once you understand how it works it does make sense. Hope this helps. Doug

Maybe a method in this order Import OBJ By TIG Loos2Groups By Chris Fullmer Groups to Components By Thomthom Component Compare by Thomthom