i think the better way to go with sketchup would be sub-d modeling, instead of nurbs... maybe a combination of both like t-splines. But i think a clean polygonal model would be better for most of the sketchup users. But you're right, this is a thing that should definitely be improved in Sketchup and i really hope to see sub-d in sketchup's future...

Thanks for the replies. I realize I've got to be systematic - set up some tests in SU and in Layout and work through all the advice in this thread, labeling everything as I go. I do wish it was more straightforward. I don't have to do anything to get a crisp print out of AutoCAD - it's not something I have to think about. I wish SketchUp was the same - hit print and get an acceptable result.

Voodoo? Edit: re-upload and it works.

If you use a tool like thomthom's 'Solid-Inspector' it will show the issues.[image: Capture.PNG] Other tools like my 'SolidSolver' can try to fix issues... BUT these tools can often fail because the errors are often too convoluted... a manual fix is then needed... Your form has several such difficulties... A manifold 'solid' is best be thought of as an object that contains only faces and their edges, AND those edges ALL have two faces - no more, no fewer. So that excludes all faceless edges, single-sided faces that will end up somewhere as a 'flap' with an edge with only one face, punched 'holes' in faces that will inevitably have an edge with only one face, internal 'partition' faces within twin-skinned 'walls' that will have some edges with three or more faces etc... Your form has several problems like those listed above... You can see them using Xray mode, and Section-Planes to cut the object etc during using 'Solid-Inspector'. Then you can select+delete to get rid of unneeded edges/faces etc. There are also a couple of tiny very narrow internal flap-faces, because not all of your faces are exactly 'axial' - use a Style that shows edges 'by axis color' to see these better, zoom in and erase them... If you make it a group and select it then 'Entity Info' says 'Group' BUT IF it's manifold it says 'Solid Group'... Here it is fixed [image: Capture1.PNG]

Thanks a lot for the help, I stopped working on the model for a while but now I continued. I tried various approaches to the problem, including the ones suggested here, but soon discovered that there was more to my problem than I initially thought. I made a new thread about it here. Thanks again for your help .

great help---- i love Sketchucation......

You could have also simply opened the group for editing and done it.

I thot it resembled one of the blueprint like styles.

Hi folks. See this SU file for ideas. how.skp

Hi folks. If you want to try it with SU's native tool, see this file for ideas: Finding endpoint that is not coplanar.skp

Thomthom's Selection Toys (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=14975) is indispensable for this. It's a one-click operation and one of my essential plugins. When you have a renderer which renders instanced components, using 3d trees becomes feasible, as long as you use some form of proxy object in SU to make performance acceptable. There are many 3d tree applications, and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have instanced leaf components when imported into SU. Sometimes you can use plugins to regularise these things. Thom also has a plugin called Component Comparison (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=30143), which might also help with components which aren't quite identical.

Even I learn something new every day, cheers

This is a delayed response and slightly off topic (now..;-), but I wanted to clarify my earlier post about the “mutiny” of sorts I suggested with G-SkUp and this forum. My thought was that most of what is really valuable about SkUp comes from the original core code in the very earliest versions of SkUp plus the plug-ins and adjunct programs produced by third party providers. We’ve even tweaked SkUp for our purposes with plugin overlays to this code – thanks to Brad Schell’s farewell gift to his users with V5 updates before the @Last departure -- and we're admitted light-weights compared to some of you guys.... When you think about it, that code sits as a virtual open source and is exactly what Google and Trimble find so valuable -- and paid handsomely for (see Trimble SkUp? Good Enf, < http://insitebuilders.wordpress.com > )

Look at the linetool.rb example that ships with Sketchup. All you need to do is use the two picked points and length=point1.distance(point2) without drawing the line at all. You can then 'format' the result as desired...

I think the issue is that if you have hidden-geometry ON the smoothed edges on 'Layer0' belonging to the surface that is otherwise on layer 'object' are visible and also they are selectable in either fence direction. If you have hidden-geometry OFF then only a right>left fence selects anything all and then it selects the 'surface' as the edges are 'hidden' [actually they are 'smoothed']- this is because it is actually selecting the invisible edges belonging to the surface which are on an ON layer, when the surface's layer itself is OFF ! In a way this is a 'bug' as you can't select hidden objects if hidden-geometry is OFF, but since it only manifests itself when layering has be used inappropriately mixing faces and edges across different layers that are ON/OFF it is hardly a show-stopper... Don't expect a fix any time soon...

@pbacot said: Styles window. Choose the style for your scene: EDIT, under the "Modelling" tab (last on right), at the bottom, "Match Photo", unclick "Foreground Photo". Thanks alot pbacot, it worked .

Use the 3ds format! Texture files must be in same directory as the 3ds file. Texture file have to have max 8 digits names. 3ds file, when a single mesh is included has to be less than 64K faces. However, 3ds file may include lot of groups-meshes, each of them less than 64 K faces. Under macOSX, in newer builds of SketchUp8, 3ds importer is broken! I wonder when devs will have a look on this. I import using SU7 free. You may face difficulties related with the scale of the model, in general, make it 10x bigger before exporting. After you successfully have imported the 3ds, with UV textures, you can still edit the texture file (probably using Ps or Gimp) In cases like using png transparent textures for leaves-foliage, you'll have textures assigned on the outer face-normal. Use the "UV toolkit" plugin to "frontface to backface"

If you are looking to match the perspective distortion a human eye would see (which is different from cone of vision/field of view) then I created a DC that will calculate that -- however you will need to know the pixel dimensions of the SketchUp viewport. AOV calculator.skp Bring this DC into a scene as a component (do not open directly) and then choose "Component Options" from the DC toolbar. Best, Jason.

That is ..... AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!