@jiminy-billy-bob said: I think you missed something. In a layer-based workflow, the layers are only used to manage the geometry visibility. That's what you do with hidden geometry and scenes. But navigating in the group/comps hierachy is still done the same way: Using outliner if you like it, or double-clicking if you don't. Layers have nothing to do with navigating in the geometry and how it is nested. They're just a matter of controling its visibility. I understand your point. At the moment I only have to name all my groups and components (everything is on layer 0) and drag them into the right 'tree'. You're suggesting to use layers for controlling the visibility and, if I would like to avoid more double-clicking, use naming as well for quick picking in the outliner. That could get messy when re-arranging objects etc. I rather wish if the original problem could be fixed somehow: being able to control the visibility of nested groupsin scenes.

Well, nothing has fixed it, and since no one else seems to be experiencing the same problem I have to assume it's something unique to my computer. I'm about due for a clean install of my OS on a new HD (solid state this time) so hopefully that will take care of it. If not, it will just become one of many things in life that I will have to live with. Thanks for your suggestions

Hi I get the "importer not found" message as well. I have Sketchup Pro 8 and I'm running Mavericks 10.9 on a MacBook Pro. I've checked the plugins where you indicated and only find 11 plugins. They do not include importer for Autocad or dwg files and there is no KMZ importer either. Please help. I'm not an IT savvy guy. Cheers swell01 @bjanzen said: The palettes is a known thing (we've fixed in a future version). The importer not found is strange. It worked for me just as it did in Mountain Lion. Perhaps repairing permissions, or confirming that it actually is located at /Applications/SketchUp 2013/SketchUp.app/Contents/PlugIns I have 14 plugins in that directory. Do other importers work - e.g. KMZ (Google Earth) would probably be the easiest to test. -b

That's fantastic. Thanks a lot, Dave!

Jim's "Add Layer" lets you do this: http://sketchucation.com/plugin/832-jf_add_layer I embedded this in Layers Panel: http://sketchucation.com/plugin/751-layers_panel (Hold down the "add layer" button, it will pop up a menu)

Moved post to proper forum

I finally found a texture solution (95% ok) to depicting gear teeth visually, but not in tooth detail. Which is all I need for this model. It is not perfect, especially for bevel gears, but can be made to look reasonable. This does not mean I don't want to know why the crashes happened, but I'm posting a trial ring with the texture applied, in case anyone needs to depict gears. This way I can show gears with a bare minimum of lines drawn, and maintain solidity. As an added bonus, I can make them straight gears or (in this case) helical bevel gears by simply rotating the texture in situ. TIG's "TextureRotate.rb" Select the material "Gear Teeth" and edit it. By adjusting the aspect ratio you can adjust the gear tooth pitch. Best to break the aspect ratio link to do that. Visual (Non 3D) depiction of gears by texture.

@matt.gordon320 said: ...and is there any way to get it back? you can remove the whole OGL key of SU v2014 from the Windows registry by executing the attached REG file (see archive). Exit SU before doing this, launching SU then the OGL defaults should be restored. hth, Norbert SU v2014 only

Glad to help... Make sure to come back and show us when you're done.

I always have this question in my head: If I have a very good video card, will the GPU calculate the geometry instead the CPU? I currently have a note with a i7 3632QM, and a intel HD4000, no dedicated video card. When dealing with very large models the GPU are using very little power while the CPU is full. I understand that the CPU is dealing with all the geometry and the GPU with texture etc. In this case i no longer need a better GPU. But if the GPU deals with geometry in very good cards its great news.

Okay. Thanks guys. I am using 2 monitors. I'll check around and try to find it.

Thanks Dave! all good

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I decided to create layers for the section planes that can be turned on and off. FYI, the model I'm working has many rotated angles and the section planes seem to obscure things because they are not parallel or perpendicular to other section planes. Doug

thanks for your suggestions. I lowered all texture resolutions to 4000x4000 (there was only one bigger than 2500) but this doesn't make a difference.

I'veused VW since 2005 (currently on v2012). Due to it's odd way of handling 3D I've only used it in plan view (except for cut & fill ops) - compared with Acad it's a step backwards, whereas SU is yards ahead of both in 3D. In a nutshell VW is like having a dog and barking yourself. I do everything in 3D in SU and then export to VW for say plant counting or area calcs as VW has a good internal spreadsheet (but it's NOT excel and VERY poorly documented). VW does NOT work with Excel despite what you may be told about ODBC linking. I also send images out of SU for layup in VW. I've found SU LO to be too slow but it's probably my machine. I also show my clients live 3D models and plans over the web from SU - I've tried screencasting VW but client screen output is black(screenleap works but not join.me). ASFAIK VW was written (in Pascal) for macs, and appearsto have been ported to Windows - it is also absolutely dependent on the version of Quicktime current @ time of release (this is not well-documented and can cause genuine stress). BEWARE of auto Quicktime updates. My work is landscape architecture and planning (from courtyards to coalmines - mine reinstatement surfaces), so I work at both very small, and very large scales - VW in my experience doesn't perform very well when a site gets very large (>3km across) or very complex. When I have more money I'll switch to Rhino3D plus a few of it's plugins - which will still make it only 1/2 the price of VW. Also Grasshopper is going to push my planting plans to new levels. Some things: can be very hard to achieve small email-size pdfs, due to inefficient data handling, and putting bitmap info outside the viewport into the file - the only solution is to tile and class each tile separately! That said I've just finished a complex planting joband seven sheets come to 6Mb and the client can zoom right in to small groups of plants, which I'm happy with. VW has plugins but they are scarce with poor backward/forward compatibility). There are some great plugin writers. But the support https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm site is looking tired and visits seem to be falling off. There are occasional scaling issues where metric/inch conversion seems to be going on seem to be the core problem - The layer class idea is good in concept; but poorly implemented - Rhino has sub-layers, whereas VWs layers and classes are separate. Each layer can have it's own scale too and when you make a layer it can default to anything - be aware (lack of validation is almost a theme with VW) Depending on your field there can be very few people using it seriously. In a word I'm still ambivalent - with landscape architecture and software you often have to take what comes.

@goga63 said: Hi, when create a Dynamic Component encounter this error. Local axis component now not 90 degrees. ... I don't know why you mentioned the DC fact in your question. This result is common for all groups an components axes when scaled with other geometry included in the selection. When does it happen? (axes not at 90 degrees after scaling) If you have a group or component that has axes not aligned to the current drawing axes and you scale it, then the 'Scale' tool uses the local axes ----> result is: all axes stay at 90 degrees. ---> correct! However, when scaling the same group or component together with any other entity in the same selection, then the 'Scale' tool uses the current drawing axes and your component may get skewed. When? If you use a green middle side grip of the bounding box. Say local red and green are not according to the drawing axes. Then any of the middle side grips (except for the middle top one) will deform the local Red/Green angle if you scale more than just the group or component in a selection. I don't know the benefit of such an operation with skewed aces in the result.

@unearthed said: Don't you mean .skb file extension ~.skp is the MAC equivalent of PC's .skb - it's the backup file... personally, I have them turned off in Preferences, so they don't clutter anything, and Autosave, I only use occasionally... but I 'Apple S' [save] regularly... why? it seems the occasionally SU will attempt to do all 3 at once, updating the ~.skp, the Autosave-.skp and the .skp, it takes a disproportionate amount of time on even a simple model... the more Plugins with 'Observers' or open 'Panels', the longer this will take... I can redraw my changes with a fresh eye quicker than that, so I use 'Save' instead... I do occasionally come unstuck... I don't recall any way of setting it to a different folder... john

@pbacot said: Each situation is going to require more intelligence than a plugin IMO. Unfortunately Seriously, I can solve it manually. I just ran into some situations and thought maybe there was something available to ease my pain. thanks again for all your inputs.

@tt_su said: @notareal said: Don't recall if Thea for SU had actually crashed SU for me (but I am using a old SU8), still there been reports (at Thea forums) that v-ray for SU and Thea for SU together may result a crash (SU 2013 & OS X). If just Thea for SU where used, everything where fine. Tomasz probably do know better, if there further details on this. Multiple render engines together has historically been known to increase chance of crashes - usually due to competing observers working at the same time affecting the model. Sounds feasible. Maybe some more robust method than observers is needed (if not already exist).

Here's another tank that did come out symmetrical for whatever reason using the loop-subdivision plugin from guitar-list. [image: CUlt_2014-05_15.png] [image: 4d1w_2014-05_16.png] fuel-tank2.skp