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

I'm on mac as well , I can only guess what they might do, but would experiment instead... I'll PM you a plugin that helps set the screen to A series... then select Full Scale 1:1 and Match Screen Display try it on a simple model, first... john

@andyg said: I dont know about length tho. Ideally, i would like to just draw lines on a layer, and then have SU sum up the lengths of all the lines on this specific layer. What would also be nice, if i could somehow highlight the all the lines on this layer, to visually check if i didnt forget any parts in the model. Anyone knows how to do this? Regards, Andy If you look ½ way down this page http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23991, TIG wrote me a script to add up hedge lengths from a separate line layer I was doing in the drawing - would that work for you?

Share the obj and mtl or other files and I will try converting it for you

You may want to explode the dwg first. Just take the necessary geometry from the import and delete the rest. You may also want to check the scale is 1 to before you get started. I think Dave hit the nail on the head for the rest.

....and beer Seriously though, if I had 10k to drop on a PC I'd have gone for a proper bespoke job with someone like E22.

@pbacot said: [..] do you mean you want to be able to manipulate the textures, as textures or patterns, in another SW? Is that possible? basically, yes. i tried out the Layout's hybrid rendering again, and it's pretty close to what i would like, but the only flaw it has is that the textures (and colors!) are rendered in arbitrary regions in the pdf, overlapping (or underlying) the pdf's lines. [image: PY2B_layout-hybrid-output.png] I was hoping each 'closed face' in the pdf would have its own texture, so in a time crunch i could, say, swap every second floor's texture... The main advantages I see is the ability to edit in post processing, and being able to print at both A4 and A1 formats with textures downscaled appropriately and having the crisp vector output. (or am I behind and in 2014 edition of Sketchup & Layout this already works as I would like it to?)

There's another approach. Here is a simple example. May be more difficult with a complex plan. Using TIG's extrusion tools. Extrude edges by Vector to Object. Select all edgeds (faces selected OK) in the floor plan, extrude on blue vector, click highest point in the roof group or component. (Picture) [image: UK2m_ScreenShot2014-05-02at9.33.25AM.png]

jpg

Keep in mind you can't do anything to modify the geometry in a group or component without opening said group or component for editing. In fact that is a very important feature you should be leveraging in your models.

Back edges - default key is k, or View > Edge Style > Back edges. Also on the Styles Toolbar.

What software do you have? some point cloud files benefit from some pre-processing before using them in CAD such as SU. Have you got Excel and something that both open and save/export dwg or dxf (Autocad, Bricscad etc)? Also what is the data? will it become a terrain type surface, or is it buildings or sensor data? I ask because there are several ways to take a las file to say csv or dxf for SU import, some resulting in a more useful file than others. Goto google cache of old Stackexchange page http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache;0j5MxQQhegsJ;stackoverflow.com/questions/13425551/convert-las-file-to-csv+%26amp;cd=1%26amp;hl=en%26amp;ct=clnk%26amp;gl=nz%26amp;client=firefox-a, a useful las to csv discussion there, with some solutions.

You guys...