@solo said: I'd like to know what it is, maybe it can be modeled fast and easy from scratch. It is going to be an inhabitable structure that floats on water (organic pier)- similar to zaha hadid or a frank gehry type form. It will eventually have material, structure, and curtain walls however at the moment im just trying to get a shell of this structure to make a physical 3d model of just the form

Hi, Tnx, yeah, I know, I don't have it. But - problem solved. I found a working version on an external drive. I think in general there is no way to solve this fully if it happens.. Tnx anyway.

I use both for work. SU is like bringing a knife to a tank fight, there is really little comparison. Although you can use SW to make quick models they are a mess and are very difficult to rework. Where it is incredible is getting to the exact thing you wish to produce that is very complex and requires high precision between them all. SU can do many things, including making files that can be 3D printed just like any other 3D CAD program. SW does not own this domain in any way, lots of students may use it as well as those who work for well heeled companies but if you are not doing complex assemblies with critical relationships, it's not worth your money. I print and machine parts from both programs, they look identical when they are done regardless of which program they are drawn in. Autodesk has a suite of free programs you can use to make files for printing you may wish to try. A well drawn part in SU will print just fine, you need to ensure its a solid to not have problems. Use the least geometry possible and you will be much happier.

TT's SoildInspector will highlight problems with things that are preventing your group/component from being a 'solid'. Obvious holes, missing faces etc can be fixed manually. A simple way to remove 'internal partitions' is to edit the object and make a temporary section-cut so you can access them for selection: click a face of an internal partition and press <delete> to remove it. Repeat, finally select and delete the temporary section-cut, and re-test for 'solidity' - 'Entity Info' will say 'Solid' in its top-bar if it is... There are tools to 'heal' non-solids - my SolidSolver is one of them. However, these will fail if you have extremely convoluted multiple issues, as fixing one sometimes creates or changes another...

The free version of Maxwell only lets you do small images of your renders. I have a $99 upgrade that allows me to do large images. I'm not sure what Pro gives you.

What style would you recommend for 2d construction drawings?

thank you guys! this will help my journey with this sculpture, this week the metal is coming and im starting welding soon

Both apps are Very easy to use. A test. sketchup w/ lumion http://youtu.be/yXkRmNi1Qco Lumion runs on my amd x6 1090 4ghz w/ 16gb 1866, video geforce gtx590 3072mb gddr5 also on my laptop with a centrino and only 3gbs with basic video card

Thanks! In the meantime I did find this other method: Projected Image on curved surface

Glad to have helped.

You could take a look at Simon le Bon's tutorial on Gothic panels: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9781&p=62185&hilit=gothic+panels#p62185 Regards, Bob

@unknownuser said: but how to join such objects into a working mechanis. What sort of mechanism? there are infinities! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdtYVq5f70Q&list=PLAD82B42694971FB7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOzrGRHAFdA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLAD82B42694971FB7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd9W89hpm9U&list=PLAD82B42694971FB7 and you can put squares wheeles if you want! etc... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeN46aFhnkU&list=PLAD82B42694971FB7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXpfO9WhlPA&list=PLAD82B42694971FB7

I don't know. It seems pretty straightforward to me. Click on the big red button. [image: ebGW_2013-10-28_05-59-40.png] Where did you come up with all those versions? There is no Google version to download anymore. Although you could still download the pro version of SU8, they have made it so you have to search a little. It's not a difficult search but they do want you to use the currently supported version which is easy to understand. As to the admin thing for installing, don't blame the software. That's coming from the OS. The software doesn't require you to have administrative privileges but the OS is trying to protect your computer from you and others who might be interested in doing bad things to it. If you are using Windows XP, there's no need for the administrative privileges because the OS doesn't care.

"Zoom to extent", or how it's named in English, solved the problem.

Thanks for the responses particularly Pilou it looks good but i'm not ready for such a big investment. I think the answer may lie in photoshop. I just hoped there would be something more automated.

Sketchup "Make" ...i still have a laugh when i read this name

Thanks Box, that is exactly right. It depends on which way you draw the line.

I just glued a bit of wood with a nut in it onto the bottom of the mouse so that it screws onto the monopod fitting. Good strong industrial Velcro would probably be all you need. You could open it up and glue a nut inside so that you can screw it off and use it normally if you want. I've no idea what the difference is, I simply picked the first link in google images for monopod. It's basically a telescopic stick. A length of broom stick would be just as good and a damn sight cheaper, but not as transportable and professional looking. The glove is brilliant, I use it all the time. The connection is strong, easy to attach and detach. I felt the same about the cable at first then realised that, if it was wireless, every time I went to the kitchen to make a coffee or picked up a tape measure I would have to not touch my fingers together or my computer would be going nuts. It's a very good on off switch. It's very durable, washable and hasn't given me any problems. If you use lots of keyboard shortcuts with your digital art you will find it very useful. It's not cheap though.

The tiny facets failing to form issue is down to SketchUp's built-in tolerance. Every modeling application must have such settings, because calculating the numbers used for points will inevitably result in some numbers that are not exactly identical BUT ought to be considered identical. Otherwise you'd snap to a vertex and the application would recognize the existing vertex point and the snapped point as being almost identical, but not quite, if there even a zillionth of an inch difference in one value from the Maths... So the tolerance used is a thousandth of an inch. SketchUp works in inches even when the Model Units are say mm. The 'displayed units' are just for user's convenience. Edges less that ~0.25mm will therefore often fail to form as the two vertices forming the tiny edge's ends are deemed to be coincident, and you can't make a 0 length line ! Without the missing edge a face can't get made because it needs a continuous loop and the tiny gap thwarts that ! I expect that 1/1000" was chosen because SketchUp is intended for modeling buildings and their parts, furniture etc, and 1/1000" is far more accurate that you'll ever need. With the advent of 3d printing and related solid-modeling many parts are smaller, and/or modeled to an accuracy that was never originally envisaged when SketchUp was first developed. Therefore, if you model at x100 or x1000 you should avoid the tiny face issue. Set your Model Units to meters, at 3dp without any length snapping or unit display set. Now model.... typing in 10 as if it were mm, when it's actually 10m... Never add a units suffix to your input. When your modeling is finished and saved, draw a line 10 long, then use the tapemeasure tool and pick the two ends of that line, the VCB says 10.000, immediately type 10mm [note the units suffix mm]... and answer Yes when asked if you want to scale the model. It now shrinks by 1/1000 - Change your Model Units to mm. All really tiny facets will continue to exist; as was said they can exist it's their initial creation that is the issue.

Some folks like to use a Wacom tablet and some like the fancy mice with lots of buttons. I've tried running SketchUp on my Cintiq and with several different fancy mice. The fancy mice are in their boxes and the Cintiq is reserved for other things like photoshopping drawings. I like my inexpensive 3-button mice for drawing in SketchUp. When it comes down to it, the tools in the program are all just single point sorts of things. You draw an edge or click on something. For my money the CMB coupled with Shift work just fine for navigating around the model.