Is it an RGB image? SU on Windows has issues with CMYK images. Otherwise indeed, post the image itself.

here's a neat case study (neat also because the 2nd page shows a plugin used internally by turner which could be seen as a bit of a preview of the type of changes we may see in sketchup itself) http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2012/01/sketchup-pro-case-study-turner.html these people are building the tallest building in usa (and i happen to have a perfectly framed view of the thing down my street ).. of course they're not using sketchup as the backbone but they've definitely found a way to integrate it into their company.. and seriously, if sketchup wasn't helping them make things happen, they wouldn't be using it. there isn't a one software solution out there right now.. even i use a two software approach for the drawings (3 if you count layout as a separate software).. i guarantee your friend could find a way to use sketchup in a way that would benefit if he so desired. (ok.. not quite with the guarantee bit.. i don't actually know what he does) [edit] hm.. maybe they aren't building the towers.. just the crazy new downtown station.. in which case, i don't have much of a view of said project..

@mk11 said: Ha... just figured it out... so.... When having this sort of licensing issue - in my case su briefly showed either a blue or red startup window and then crashed - hold down the shift key while starting su. You get to startup window -. You saved my day ! tx

@thomthom said: 160 million faces within SketchUp??? Or within the render? Within SketchUp. Twilight works inside SketchUp but since it instanced the tree it only calculated it once. The top image is in SU, bottom post-production render (SU+Twilight+PS). The PS was mostly the sky and color tweaking.

Thanks for that! Yes your second method is valuable for this sort of simple "straight object" But maybe not with more organic object With this a normal Boolean Difference should be used or your first manual method [image: eclatemoteur.jpg]

Thanks! That looks like it might work. I'll let everyone know the result.

p.s. attached is a rotation example. A-propalignment.skp

Thanks TIG.

Use several Scene tabs to remember views, layers, shadows and styles etc. When modeling use one with a simple style - with no fancy edge effects, no textures, no shadows, no fog etc and with any layers containing unneeded entourage set 'off'. You can also have a tab for 'troubleshooting' showing hidden geometry, in Monochrome mode etc. You can have style that keep the current camera, so toggling between two tabs needn't change the view, just the rendering settings, visible layers etc... Have other scenes set up for your actual 'presentation', using fancy edge detailing, full texturing, shadows, fog, entourage layers 'on' etc... When you have a SKP set up that suits your needs then save a version of it [with its entities deleted etc] as the 'default Template'. That way you always have the same set up when you open a new SKP. You will also need to remove unwanted/unused components from the Browser [delete individual ones, or purge_all if you want to keep none], also unwanted scene-tabs, layers, materials and styles can be removed from the Template before the final save: you can have a Template [or even several Templates!] with your own customized preset scene-tabs[with view/shadows/etc], layer-sets, styles, materials and components; even if they are unused initially...

@dan rathbun said: What are your goals concerning the cost per seat ? Will it require a SketchUp Pro edition ?? Will there be a more than one edition (ie, Novice, Pro, etc.) Are you planning to incorporate any extensibility that would allow 3rd party extensions to your BIM system ? Right now, we don;t have a set price, but we WILL have multiple levels of functionality, though, that is not set, either. As of now, we don;t plan on making anything dependent on PRO, though I can see where having Layout would be ideal for this sort of work. As of now, we are considering interfacing via a generic IFC format, but nothing is carved in stone. @brewsky said: Hi Aaron! I'm also working on a BIM plugin for sketchup, check out: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=34007 I just added a tutorial to highlight it's functionality! Development could be much more effective when all sketchup-BIM-developers are working together. I'm interested in your answer to Dan's question, is your goal a free(open source?) tool? If so, would you be interested in joining forces? And if not so, maybe together we could make some "BIM-guidelines", so a wall in one plugin can be recognized as a wall in another plugin... Maybe even share IFC-import/export... Cheers! Jan I have seen your work in the past and I have to say it is quite impressive! As much as several of us enjoy the spirit of open source, we are being payed by a company who will want a return on investment, so it will be secured software that will be sold. As for the "BIM-guidelines", we are using the IFC standards, right now. They are not complete and, I feel, will change in the future, but it is a start, and it is already gaining acceptance and following. Again, thank you for your input and comments, we are very excited about this product and are looking forward to as much input as we can get from the members of SketchUcation! Thanks, Aaron

It's worth pointing out that a Component would be better for multiples than a Group.

I am not sure why sketchup does not like faces with too many sides. Modifications on such a face takes forever. A single face with 65K edges is on the too much side. You can always add redundant softened planar edges to divide the whole face to faces with each one having manageable number of faces.

Yep! You got it, NVidia was repositioning my dialog windows. Thanks!! - Joel

That's the only setting there.

I'd give component spray a whirl. It is fast and polite. Try it with a simple 3d tick of the same cross dims as your balls, then redefine the component as you wish if it works out. [image: 0VbU_SPRAYBALL.JPG]

Get an earlier version of Sketchup that still includes dwg/dxf import/export options in free and pro. You can have more than one version installed. There are good download links in several posts on the forums here - search... Hint: http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60107

Thank's for the tips everyone! I'm working on getting the poly count down a bit, and converting other pieces to components. I'll let you know if it helps.

There's also Elefont from Armanisoft. It not only allows you to interactively adjust the resolution of the curves, but it also offers a range of different bevels. It exports to dxf. It's Windows only...but you don't need to install it. In fact it will work right out of the download zip file.

@unknownuser said: 3D Viewer not collada file Seems Meshlab have that @unknownuser said: import:PLY, STL, OFF, OBJ, 3DS, COLLADA, PTX, V3D, PTS, APTS, XYZ, GTS, TRI, ASC, X3D, X3DV, VRML, ALN export:PLY, STL, OFF, OBJ, 3DS, COLLADA, VRML, DXF, GTS, U3D, IDTF, X3D So load in Collada then export as OBJ

@brooksl said: I don't understand why the Rectangle and Rotate tools should not respond to the arrow keys being used to force an inference similar to how they do for the Line tool, Move tool, or Tape Measure tool: Locking an inference http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=70142 ...I think the Rectange tool and Rotate tool SHOULD respond similarly to the arrow keys by settign the inferred plane Perhaps the reason the rectangle tool doesn't work with the standard inferences is that it requires two directions rather than just one, so any single inference is not enough. They work for a line (an edge), as it may be defined in one direction, not so a face (a rectangle) which has two dimensions and thus two directions.