Hi all! We have been developing/testing primarily on Mountain Lion. We have done some testing on Lion, and have not seen huge issues, but we cannot guarantee that it will work 100% on Lion. As for the cursors (having the orbit or arrow cursor while drawing, for example), this is an issue in either version fo OS that we are working on. Please let me know, either in this topic or via PM what you think, or if you see any problems. Thanks! Aaron

@unknownuser said: it'll never be able to make it a solid object with Sketchup's native tools.. That's not really true, any shape can be made solid using nothing more than the line drawing tool. The trick is to think of the surface divided up into triangles (or quadrilaterals where you can make four coplanar edges)... [image: Manual Triangulate.jpg] ...you can see here how I am adding a surface to the top of the uneven curve by simply drawing in triangles one at a time. Once they are all drawn in, you can use the eraser tool (with Ctrl held down) tool to smooth those lines into a continuous surface. The many skinning and lofting plugins available do make this a lot quicker and simpler, but doing it by hand can sometimes give more control over the triangulation so that the "undulations" of the resulting surface are as you would like - and doing a few manual ones will also give you a feel for how the "skinning" plugins works for a better understanding of the variables in their setup dialogues.

I don't exactly understandt what you said, but I tried exporting from su importing blender and exporitng from there. Reimported into SU the mesh is as it should be but imported in max it's still no good...but anyway apparently a solution has been found in max.

maybe you can use that But seem it's only outline shadows you can colorize the ground

OMG...Living proof there's more than one way to skin an ellipse. Thanks a million. That's great. fitZ

I meant there's no Option button like there is for importing CAD files and some others. You can import JPG files.

All, You may be able to use section cut(s) to demonstrate an assembly sequence. Remember, you can have more than one active cut per scene.(show sections in attahced model for example) See attached example please. Charlie Tank_Assembly_Sequence_Wsections.skp

another method Draw the red line from the middle of the diagonal to anywhere you want (you have an inference straight) ! [image: diago_scale.jpg]

@john2 said: sorry for posting this topic. No, this is very important. Group/component materials often trick even experienced users so anything that helps other "remember checking" is very useful.

@unknownuser said: Why not the free Meshlab ? It's the Mesh doctor! [image: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn;ANd9GcS-mYuW4N9e40Tk4nIQEuhyDIlBTW-QWa-SZaD3Sz7IBoLxorUActDqle9e] downloading as I type

Thanks for all the suggestions. I ended up using CorelDraw Essentials X5 which I discovered was pre-installed on my (Aldi) laptop. It worked well. I was able to Copy in Corel and Paste-Special in Word, which is where I actually wanted the data to end up. Even re-sizing in Word still retained crisp lines without any anti-aliasing etc.

Worth doing a "purge" also before saving as a template, to remove unused stuff. I got this wrong when I made my first template - all my first projects had +many MB of file size from the components I made to give the new styles a workout. Doh! The template is really just a regular SU file, so you can include anything that you find useful; components, layers, styles etc. - even geometry in the workspace if you wanted, say, a grid of guidelines always present.

I use Maxwell on my Mac setup: http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/maxwell_for_google_sketchup Best part - it's free! And integrated into SketchUp, so you don't have to port it to another program. If it isn't rendering the way you want, stop the render, make your adjustments in SU, and press the render button again. I also use VRay, but Maxwell can give me a quick render without a lot of work when I want to show a progress image.

If it worked, here are some examples of the surface problem Im describing above... [image: cobra clamp.jpg]

Well Ryan, actually this would be great if you can...like other modelling software that you can layer your materials.....maybe in the future...

And colors more in deepth Color edges by C Plassais

For triangulate use the Sand box from contour with the 2 different circles but the center is some curious so kill it [image: humhum.jpg]

Thanks for the feed back guys. As soon as I can get my hands on the slate I will give a report. Probably not until October.

So, the suggestions above don't give you a good way to do it? I can see if the points are not enough for a good mesh, it is probably no use to place each on in SU 3d. For that matter a CAD app might be easier to layout the contours with. Good luck. We would like to see how this process develops--although I usually start with contours from a Civil myself (new stuff has to be made up on top of that).

If you are importing these from other file types make sure you get the options 'units' set right. For example, importing in 'mm' when the original file is in 'm' will make the SKP model 1/1000 its proper size - Sketchup/OpenGL can't create very tiny facets, so some bits might be 'lost' in translation. Similarly importing in 'm' when it's originally in 'mm' can have the equivalent issue, with very enormous geometry failing to form too. Assuming the Units size is correct... The clipping-plane issue can also results from having geometry that is far away from the model's origin. Importing a DWG/DXF and 'keeping the origin' in the import-options can put the imported objects miles from the origin, then OpenGL can fail to render it properly. Even if you import CAD data ignoring the CAD-origin then it can still have issues. For example, if a 'Block' has been made in the CAD file it is imported as a 'Component' in the SKP. That Component's origin is the same as the Block's. Some sloppy CAD users make blocks in their files with the geometry miles from [0,0,0], BUT accept [0,0,0] as the Block's origin. Therefore although the Component's geometry appears near the SKP origin its insertion-point id miles away - this has the same clipping-plane effect since the bounds of the model are unnecessarily enlarged. Zoom Extents will show weird model bounds issues. This can be resolved by using Model Info > Components > Show axes ON. You might see axes-markers miles away from the origin... Select an imported Component-instance, right-click context-menu and use 'Change Axes', pick a new logical insertion point for the axes, probably on the object's geometry corner etc. Changing the insertion point does not shift existing instances, but new ones will now attach to the cursor sensibly as you place them... Recheck with Zoom Extents and/or the clipping-plane issue... if it still exists try changing the axes of other components until all are sensibly located and the issue is abated.