Solved thanks again Bjorn !

hi, thanks to all for valuable tips and ideas! best of luck ! note: the metal riser looks like round one, but it´s actually square. [image: zujcp1.jpg]

Sorry to respond to my own thread, but NYC SketchUp has breaking news, and I thought it'd be of interest. Regarding out upcoming meeting on the 16th: Google has just given us the all clear to announce that we're going to be joined, via video conference, by John Bacus, Product Manager for SketchUp! He'll be holding a Q&A session for those attending! This should be terrific for SketchUp fans of all stripes. URL is in the first message of the thread, hope to see you there!

@unknownuser said: for curves and odd shapes, i'd suggest these two plugins by fredo curviloft for creating complex meshes: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=28586 and bezier spline for complex curves: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=13563 that said, those are a couple of the more powerful plugins which will help generate shapes that are nearly impossible to make without them… some of the more useful plugins though are the simple little ones that just make certain drawing processes quicker/easier.. such as the mirror plugin by TIG: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31410 ..and many more.. basically, your best bet would be to post an example of something you try that takes a while to do in sketchup and see if anyone can suggest a plugin to speed it up.. in other words, find/use plugins that adapt to your style instead of just installing plugins then you adapting to them.. Thanks a lot!!! I'll try to find some old models where I need some modelling help... Thanks again for the help.

Hi Simon, Thank you for this hint, it will be very useful, too! Luca

module ROB menu=UI.menu("Plugins").add_item("BBcpts"){self.bbcpts()}unless file_loaded?(File.basename(__FILE__)) file_loaded(File.basename(__FILE__)) def self.bbcpts() ### paste the main code here... end end Copy/paste the code into a file in the Plugins folder called ROB-bbcpts.rb Usage: type ROB.bbcpts OR pick "BBcpts" off the Plugins menu etc...

This one is free http://www.smustard.com/script/SceneExporter They also have a $10 'better' one... search their site...

Hi Pavan and welcome! I will have a look at the surveys (ATM my wife is pestering me to go shopping with her...)

As for creating spirals,this one might also come in handy: http://www.armanisoft.ch/webdesign/spiralizer/Spiralizer.html

It does!!!

Anyway, you might want to check out iichiversii´s posts, like this one: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=40854&p=362700&hilit=rigging#p362700

I'm just starting to learn Sketchup and I utilized it also for a photo match made for After effect (but I had this export plugin for After Effects): Now I'd like just to import a Photo Match data in Maya... and I hope you have a solution! Many Thanks!

I use this method frequently to help keep file size down. Here are a few hints for you. [image: 5890226823_22c8458c07_z.jpg] In this image I have drawn a gear made up of smaller segments. In the background you can see the before hiding. In the center I've hidden the edges but you can still see the back face color bleeding through because the vertical faces are still there. In the foreground, you can see that I've deleted the internal faces of the segments and so there's no bleed through. Also, these segments are components so hiding the edges on one hides them on all. [image: 5190512797_5e0876427d_z.jpg] In this closeup view of the top of a turned post, notice the hidden radial seam edges intersect the circular edge at the midpoint of the edge segments. This results in coplanar surfaces on either side of the seam line. The benefit to this is that there'll be no shading difference at the seam. Play with dividing a simple cylinder at the midpoint of edge segments and also at vertices. Look at how the shading occurs. [image: 5190404813_6dcffb137d_z.jpg] This shows the entire turned post. As you can see, it is made of eight instances of the same component. Neighboring pairs are mirror images of each other. [image: 4284864786_6e320fc9e7_z.jpg?zz=1] These bin pulls were created using this method of mirrored halves. I used the idea of the coplanar faces along the center line. The faces don't have to be very wide to make this work. [image: 4782683811_1fc61907aa_z.jpg] This applique uses the exact same method. [image: 5018580153_82e977bd99_z.jpg] As does this chair seat. And in this case, with the wood grain texture ends up with a book matched appearance.

Watch your poly's, careful UV mapping, components and symettry.

KT support normal mapping (I don't know about displacement maps, anyway, displ. maps take long time to render). Normal mapping is the best choice for that kind of pattern. There are several software that can do normal maps from photos. If you can model a segment of that pattern (it doesn't need to be concave, because you will map the texture that way, on the ceiling ornament), you can use this plugin to make a normal map from SketchUp directly http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=33183, then map it on the concave surface and make the KT material

I understand wanting to stick with it until you get it right. Good luck doing so. As to KT being easy, well, I'm probably not the best one to ask. I think it is easy but I only ever do very basic stuff and I usually do essentially the same thing every time. These renders only took a few minutes to complete and other than making some adjustments to the material using a preset, I didn't really do anything special. The background in the last one is just your concrete material inserted as the background in KT. A few seconds to do and I think it really improved the way the ring looks. Keep plugging away and you'll have it.

If you don't mind sharing the model, I'm sure the plugin author would like to use it to figure out what the issue might be -- but for feedback from him you'll have best results posting here: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=107 Best, Jason.

ok got it. thanks. never heard of that term before.

Since I found this an interesting discussion, at least for me, I made this video, showing how I drew the molding door on Jeff's hints. I hope it will be useful and interesting for someone. [flash=800,600:7ro5mgri]http://www.youtube.com/v/D4yh_df7flo[/flash:7ro5mgri]

Trees from 3D Warehouse: http://sketchupland.posterous.com/best-3d-trees-from-3d-warehouse