yep all up to date OS X el capitan 10.11.6

First off, apologies for my lack of reply. There's a lot of really great answers, suggestions and just general knowledge that I wasn't expecting. Thanks @Box @JQL @ntxdave. For clarity, the shoe aspect is more about modelling a representation of my clients product so that it can be placed within a space. And avoid having to comp in trainer products into final visuals in Photoshop. The main focus of my task is to design and iterate through options for a given event / space. Given Sketchup works to sizes accurately this can be quite quick at times. I've attached a couple of examples, using Warehouse examples, showing the approx basic level of rendering / representation that would be satisfactory. Side note: @JQL mentioned "Incredible rendering engines that render this in secs;". Can you expand on this? [image: uzDA_ScreenShot2017-05-23at20.18.47.png]

@unknownuser said: Let me see if I can save the model in V6 You can save as V6 in any version ! (of course not from the V5 ! [image: 4bOV_from2017.jpg]

@adam56 said: .HELLO, As a Structural Standing Seam panel, Vertical Seam delivers a clean, linear elegance paired with unmatched quality for a dependable, long-lasting, and beautiful roof. Structural Standing Seam roof systems are ideal for lower sloping and longer spanning roofs, or where extreme temperature variations exist. Is this an ad for metal roofs?

The faces cannot and should not be removed. They are the diffuse color of a material. It's probably a jpg image. That material should also have a clip or alpha map. Which can also be a jpg image. That clip/alpha is black and white image where black goes for the empty space and white the leaf itself. What you can do is create a png image based on the diffuse+alpha maps in an image editor. Use the diffuse jpg as base image and insert the clip/alpha as mask. Then save it as png. Go to Sketchup material editor and replace the texture by this png.

@rich o brien said: If it is custom designs then GarryK's Cabinet Maker https://sketchucation.com/plugin/1613-gkware_cabmaker Is a good place to start Agreed!

Ohh, sorry, it's true it's late in Sydney , here in italy we are still on the 21 Anyway, I erroneously thought that it would have been the same to use the original model instead than the one with only the copy-pasted part. You rightly showed me I was wrong. Soo, uhm uhm, I'll try to work on a copy-paste part on another file and reimport it on the original mode.. But that's a really crappy bug, since I am always careful to my geometry and I clean and verify my model often. Thank you Box!

@dave r said: How much more do you need? It isn't a complicated thing. As the continued discussion shows, it apparently it was and continues to be unnecessarily confusing. Sorry TIG, but IMHO the length of your excellent clarification just illustrates that. The meaning of a keyword should not change from one important dialog to the next. Yet nothing has been done in five years to fix it.

The first thing you should do is quit copying extensions/plugins from an older version installation. Always install fresh from the source. You created problems for yourself by doing the things you've described. If you use the Sketchucation Extension Store extension to install the extensions and plugins from here, a bundle will be created. The next time you update SketchUp, install the SCF Extension store from a fresh download. Then let it install your bundle of extension with the freshest copies. They'll get installed in the right place and you won't waste time trying to troubleshoot problems. Your signature line indicates you are using Vray 2.0. If that's correct, you'll find it problematic with SU2017. Vray version 3 is designed to work with SU2017.

@whitelock said: no I'm on 2017 can't work out how to change my profile thing any help with that would be good. I always put "I'm on Mac Version 2017 pro user etc" at the top of my posts now. Click on Settings. [image: JJpb_Screenshot-5_19_20175_20_34AM.png] Under Edit Profile, scroll down a bit to find SketchUp version. Make any other changes and then click on Submit. [image: 25vJ_Screenshot-5_19_20175_22_18AM.png]

"You are the first in over 10 years I've ever seen make a comment about setting UTC per scene." Well, I'll be the second one in 13 years then, to comment on this. I find it very unintuitive, that it is visually a part of the Shadow dialog box, but isn't included in the scene settings under shadows. I just stumbled onto this by mistake, but nearly did a sun/shadow-analysis with 5 or 10 scenes showing the shadows 1 hour wrong (DST). This might, worst case scenario, have resulted in lawsuits regarding loss of an hour of evening sun, as a result of a building being built on incorrect documentation. Yes, I'll file a "feature" request.. Fredrik

You know that may be the case. However, it was working then after not using it for a couple of days it stopped. Anyway, hope the answer helps some other user. Thanks for the info. Ken

Thank you Pixero.

Good info. Thanks.

I Knew it was hiding somewhere! Thanks for that!

might be an issue with the OpenGL suppor of the used video driver... intel HD/Iris and AMD Radeons are known for this.... update the graphics card driver first and if e.g. a notebook with integrated and dedicated video system ensure that SU is running on the dedicated graphics card (see 3D options of graphics card control panel). You also may want to click on the "View Report Details..." of the Bug Splat application for evaluating the exact cause of the problem as e.g. an affected runtime library (DLL) denoted: [image: bugsplat-window.png]

Thank you, Anton! I used an old plugin by Rick Wilson "fixAspectRatio.rb", but it does not seem to work in SketchUp 2017. The problem is, my original scene has no gray bars. After using your line there are dramatically changes in FOV and focal length. But there are no gray surfaces in the exported 2D-image - a first success! Edit: One possible solution is to restore the old FOV values in the menu Camera Advanced (plugin tt_camera) after entering your code line into the Ruby Console.

Try this to get you started... post.skp

your model is fine in sketchup and the face orientation is correct. i saved it as version 7 and imported in max 2014 as skp.. it works perfectly, no face flipping at all. that said, i suppose the problem can be related to newer versions of max/sketchup reader.

@pixero said: It's a bit hard to know the cause of your problem with so little information. Do you get any error messages when starting SketchUp? What does the Ruby console look like? Any info there? Some plugins need other plugins (libraries) to work (like Thomthoms and Fredos). Are you using the Sketchucation Plugin Store for installation? If not I recommend it as it makes it super easy to install and update plugins for SketchUp. https://sketchucation.com/resources/plugin-store-download Hi When I install a plugin that does not work, the plug-in has been installed and I can see the plugin file in the plugins folder, but when I reopen the program I have a load error window. The window reads: Error Loading File 1001bit_freeware.rb Error: # <Encoding :: UndefinedConversionError: "\ x9E" to UTF-8 in conversion from Windows-1255 to UTF-8> / Users / Hoodia Huminer / AppData / Roaming / SketchUp / SketchUp 2016 / SketchUp / Plugins / 1001bit_freeware.rb: 23: in exist? ' C: / Users / Hoodia Huminer / AppData / Roaming / SketchUp / SketchUp 2016 / SketchUp / Plugins / 1001bit_freeware.rb: 23: in <module: GCH_1001bit_load> ' / Users / Hoodia Huminer / AppData / Roaming / SketchUp / SketchUp 2016 / SketchUp / Plugins / 1001bit_freeware.rb: 5: in <module: GCH_1001bit_free> ' C: / Users / Hoodia Huminer / AppData / Roaming / SketchUp / SketchUp 2016 / SketchUp / Plugins / 1001bit_freeware.rb: 3: in <top (required)> ' In addition to this problem, you told me to install SketchUcationTools. I installed it and it does work, but when I choose a plugin that I want to install and I click install, the software does not respond and the plugin is not installed. Unlike the previous problem, here there is no window that appears and warns of a problem but there is no response at all to click "install". Thanks