Thanks for keeping the discussion alive guys. Interesting. As an update, I have forked out and got AutoCAD and Revit as a suite. Big bucks, but for a business that needs to work as seemlessly and efficiently as possible with other consultants that are using that combination, I think the cost will pay for itself over time. @jbacus said: Maybe it would help if you were to describe the data you want to exchange with Revit users. Here's where I show how green I am regarding BIM. I'm a structural engineer that started in an office that drafted on the drawing board. The office went to AutoCAD but the drafters I've found (even recently) just use ACAD to draw lines on an electronic drawing board. They don't seem to use some of (what I understand are available) the powerful features of ACAD to make their daily grind even more efficient and fast. eg Sheet Set Manager, Layer Managers etc. While I'm an engineer, I also have an interest (and Graduate Diploma) in IT. If I were using software like ACAD all day long, I'd spend some time learning and implementing every feature in there to make my daily use more efficient. But the drafters don't seem to have the same drive, and the company I work in wasn't big enough to have the knowledge/time/money/resources to get the standards to that level. An excuse maybe, but what's done is done. Now BIM and Revit are here and I've started my own company. From the ground up I want to use BIM mostly and ACAD only where the project would find it more applicable. I know a fraction of what BIM is capable of. Most consultants we work with (I believe) are just using Revit as a drafting tool. Not many use all features, 4D etc. I think most are modelling in it for plans and sections to 1:100, maybe 1:50 or 1:20 type outlines, then drawing the rest in 2D. I'm yet to decide how far I go with it. I'm meeting with a local Revit guru to assist setting up my new company standards and families, and I'll discuss with him a practical line to draw in the sand of what gets modelled.

@unknownuser said: @shannakae said: Would you mind telling me what the plugin library is so I can decide if I need to install it, (or maybe I already have it??) LibFredo6 is mainly Ruby code shared by all my plugins. It also drives the start up of the plugin. So you'll need it and you may already have it installed. Always check if you have the latest version. Beside Fredo, Thomthom uses this approach for some of his plugins, too. So watch when you install something and it does not work: it is very likely that you overlooked something and need TT_Lib too.

That's it! Dank u thomthom. That was a quick help.

Send to me.

I rework it and now it's a closed shell volume: by these steps I started wuth the car body draw with line tool and close the volume [image: QUms_pic_0157.jpg] I copy and offset scaled by 1/16 inch as before with scaleGroupFloat_dj scaleGroupFloat_dj will create an offset call "shell". the settings shown ealier above 4 ) I then vector push-pull the wheels acoss [image: 9SJc_pic_0158.jpg] 5) right click and used context intersect face to model cut away [image: qXVC_pic_0159.jpg] and then cut the bottom interial face of the car [image: EKWf_pic_0161.jpg] @unknownuser said: by marvins_dad » February 27th, 2013, 9:36 am Is there a ruby out there that will create an offset or "shell". I have a car shell... 1/6" thick lightweight ... The problem is ... the programs won't simply print along a plane with zero thickness. and now marvins The Answer: yes- Use scaleGroupFloat_dj.rb and a vector push-pull tool (=to SU push-pull then one end exploded face move by the move tool) by the process above you get this car+body16_dj.skp

@unknownuser said: Maybe at the end you will need something like that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXS6_WdXZ3s Yes and I have been wanting to explore Sketch UV (I have it installed but have not really used it yet) Have not heard of roadkill yet...When I am done modeling I will see about using this tut to help me learn those two plugins. Thanks!

THanks for your input guys. that profile/rotation thing came to my mind shortly after i posted the above and so i did it. apart from that it is interesting how to solve such issues and it's interesting to know that sketchup has issues with smaller objects. Thanks for that hint @voljanko. Also thanks to the other for pointing out things. I'll try that out.

@liam887 said: @cjryan said: Just out of curiosity, what was the "Windows Experience Index" number? The fact that I don't have SSDs, always has dragged mine down to the mid 5's. Processor, memory, and graphics are in the high 7's. I know this is a more or less arbitrary assignment of numbers, but does the SSD, bring your numbers up to the high 7's? I will check when I get it back to my house, currently in a taxi My number was 8, but I still havent had all the drivers installed and running two 32" Tv's as monitors, not sure how those things can alter the results. Here are a few pics of the machine too. [image: qcUg_1.jpg] [image: hFJK_2.jpg] [image: GSlG_3.jpg] [image: mpIZ_4.jpg] [image: ARXe_1600.jpg]

@unknownuser said: With TIG importer try to put all files OBJ and Mat inside the folder Plugins of Sketchup it is still won't load anything sir.. the loading process is very fast, but no object was created..

Curvishear by Fredo 6? Careful plugin generates only curves! You must use Curviloft (or others) afterfor have surfaces! (in the image top left corner, the 2 curves are the curvy curves! ) [image: file.php?id=50238]

Like some animation plugins' animation can be rendered in certain rendering apps - even if they cannot be rendered (with the native animation export) in SU itself. Keyframe animation (one which would be ideal for your example) or SketchyPhysics can be rendered as animation in Twilight Render for example.

Thanks all for your help, and thanks Mitch for your plugin, does exactly what I need. And it looks like I'll be buying vertextools soonest thomthom, that's a cool tool. cheers, nigel

Wow that's awesome! Definitely go post that in the gallery. I think lots of people would be interested in seeing that and asking about your workflow. Very cool!

@edson said: with the huge amount of plugins available for sketchup the only remaining problem, in my opinion, is sketchup's difficulty in handling high-poly models. one alternative for the unhappy user could be bonzai3d. Bonzai was ready to capture some SU users, then what happened??? Dead? No updates! What?

Kid's room great! Living needs some pop! Color? I'm just a beginner, so just my opnion. Nice work!

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday. I've inquired of the smart minds but haven't gotten a response yet.

@dave r said: [attachment=0:3d51qsvi]<!-- ia0 -->Newel Better.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:3d51qsvi] Beautiful work Dave. Thanks again for the tutorial!!! Thanks as well Jean. Great info here!

Paul, there'd be room on the boat if you wanted to do some drawing work while you're sailing.

All, Thanks for the advice on the .csv file. I'm pretty familiar with excel and its capabilities, and what I have works OK, but I have to do a lot of fiddling with the spreadsheet before I can get it into a useable state. What I found works really well is to pre-format a blank worksheet with all of the headers and column widths the way I want them, then hide the columns that I won't use. I then copy and paste the data from the .csv into the blank (cntrl+shift+end from the first cell of the .csv, then cntrl+V into the first cell of the .xlsx). So, no problem with getting the results I want after a few steps. I was just wondering if a plug-in existed that would do all of that output management up-front so I could export exactly what I want into the spreadsheet and save a few steps. Thanks, again, for your help! Frank

@gisdude said: @drafter x said: I can tell your working with architectural drawings. I'm going to say what most will not, and that is that architects are some of the absolute worst when it comes to drawing things precisely in autocad drawings. I beg to differ - engineers are the absolute worst at snaps, trims, etc. Not to mention there redlines on drawings... Agreed. Although many Architects are just as guilty.