Hi Gilles, I live in France but I am English. And I haven't joined the French sub-forum, as it's much easier for me to communicate in English. But I did try to reply (in not too perfect French) to a question recently!! Thanks for your help with my issue. Merci mon p'tit loup!

Sample model?

Or you can have a set of simpler models (boxes) as components and more elaborate ones saved as skp files. Then either reload each manually when needed or use TIG's xref manager plugin.

Hey B, Did you find the answer to export wtih Proper/Smooth Step? I'm just beginning to learn plugins and your posts have been termendously helpful! Tks.

For those who enjoy fine mechanics: http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/model.php?m=689&movie=hide [image: vGL2_1357.jpg]

Thanks guys, I got it done, may have been a good thing as I found a couple of issues that I fixed in CAD before creating the mesh.

You can put section planes in a group. Then it will only cut through the object in the group or component and not the whole model.

Trogluddite! What a champ! Thats amazing what you've done. Thanks so much. The TileGrid plugin works perfectly, and the instructions you gave to install it are idiot-proof! Just what I need Thanks also to sdmitch, thom thom and tig for the tips they gave you. Trog I think you're ready to join the Axis of Awesome! Thanks to you too Box. Your input on this was very much appreciated. Cheers Mal

Hey One component already on the orgin plane this make it easy to do, if you have scaleGroupFloat_dj.rb loaded. target save and move meathod: step 1: Make one component unique. (right click to context list) step 2: 1-time left click of the component you want to change. Save target, via scaleGroupFloat_dj (press ok). step 3: 2-times left click set axes to component and 3-times more edit select the object of the component . Using the Move to target, via scaleGroupFloat_dj.(press ok), will auto aline component to orgin plain. Now select ouside of component now your done. All above steps is shown here [image: ekaF_Movie_0007.gif] If both were non aline to orgin plain then do other with step two and three too. Advance woking of this; just add the axes tool into the mix. then turning object is just a breeze, for those tools that needs to be aline to x-y plain for z axis drops . examples usesages to [Plugin] Color by Z drop sandbox.rb smartdrop.rb TIG-drapematerials.rb TIG-Drop Material onto Instances tt_component_dropper

yep. That is pretty much what I was wondering about......sometimes ya just gotta love the internet......... thanks for the tip!

If there's not enough contrast trying editing a jpg in say Gimp and increase its contrast ?

@box said: I'm not sure what you are asking about. If you are saying photomatch isn't working because the photos are different, then there's not a lot you can do about that. Photos for such things are never accurate, measurements and drawings are a better option. Photos usually only give you a way of checking exactely what is is you are trying to model. I'm working with what I have available. Otherwise, there are options available to create great 3D models from reference pictures, they are just a bit more accurate than what I need for this project. Ironic perhaps, but true. http://www.123dapp.com/catch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsBg-m2hrIM

Thanks Dave, you reminded me of the Transparency setting. I had my Transparency quality set to "nicer" instead of 'faster' and I've got the effect i want. Thanks for your help!!

Got some visual examples?

@unknownuser said: so PLEASE do install over the old software. That I made by chance @unknownuser said: Sorry... no openings in floor Good to know because I made ton of any try possible with no result! Have cool coding!

@unknownuser said: With that video card you should have hardware acceleration active. In fact, it would be a huge mistake not to. In SU - Window/preferences/open GL, you should have hardware acceleration checked. If you don't, SU will be painfully slow. Exactly. If HW acceleration does not work properly for these cards, you may wish to update your video drivers instead of turning it off.

Hi Stuart, This may be of some interest to you as well: http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/36-intermediate/115-internal-external-components#redefining-thumbnails (Read the previous explanations too if it is too "brief").

Yes, it's a known problem. See this sticky post in the plugins forum: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=47371

What you are looking for are DEMs. Digital elevation models. Most cities have ones created be synthetic aperture radar, accuracy about 1 meter, or lidar, accuracy about 1 foot. Rural areas are a lot more variable. The shuttle flew a mission that did SAR from orbit, but the grid spacing is about 30 meters, and the accuracy is awful. If USGS topo data is good enough, I vaguely recall a page on converting topo lines to terrain. Warning: topo data is not very good at the house lot size level. There is typically a semi-systematic error in the horizontal placement of contour lines equal to several times the contour interval. The shape is right, but slope inflections tend to be moved away from the centre of the photographic track. If its critical to get it right, rent a DGPS, and take a waypoint every 10 meters. If the terrain isn't too bad, you can do a hectare an hour.

@slbaumgartner said: I just exported a 10310x6650 jpeg (I set 12800x6650, but SketchUp seemingly overrode the larger dimension during export - perhaps due to the size of the screen?). I tried even larger, but got a popup saying "The export failed or was cancelled". This makes me think there is an undocumented upper limit, but I don't know what it is. Steve Hi Steve, Thanks for your answer. During exporting of multiple files I eventually also got the popup. So sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea why that is. Perhaps not enough memory. The export dimensions are indeed related to the size of your screen.