No, both versions will co-exist in parallel. It's relatively painless... The only complications are that v8 grabs SKP files opened by double-clicking - but you can drop-open files, or use 'open with...' right-click context-menu, or open them from within an active v7 SUp session etc; by default it will also save from v8 as a v8 SKP, meaning that a former v7 SKP can no longer open in v7 - BUT you can do a 'save_as' in v8 and specify an earlier version - so v8 can save as v7 [or even earlier] but you need to do it deliberately each time. Also remember that you will need to transfer/copy any custom components/materials/styles/plugins/importers/exporters/etc across from v7 to the equivalent folders in v8 [do not mess with anything in the 'tools' folders - the v8 ones will not always be identical to v7's]; your current shortcuts in v7 should be auto-replicated into v8 [but check after the install] and check that the v8 preferences for folders etc look to the correct v8 folders - some might still [wrongly] look for the v7 equivalents and the image-editor etc are set as in v7...

i just tried a workaround with the trial version of the new keyframe animation plugin. though its intended for object animations it has a tween feature that automatically creates all the transition frames between scenes in a separate file with a specified framrate. after creating the new file with all the tweened frames i exported the file again as an animation with transition and delay set to zero, which the plugin also does automatically. sensational result: the animation export to png with imagesize set to full screen resolution took only 15min at 25fps. the creation of the tweens went nearly instant. this is great, i think i will invest into this nice plugin. only downside, the tweening process ignored hidden objects in some scenes. i will have to see if i can find out why...

Hello Evan, thanks for replying to my thread I'll look into your software

@mitcorb said: This looks like very common importation problems having to do with long distance from SU origin... I am almost pretty sure that's the case here, too. Make sure that when importing CAD files, you do not preserve their drawing origin (this is step 1 of the trouble shooting process as there may be any stray geometry elsewhere as well as groups/components may have their origins in outer space somewhere but start here) [image: ZNQB_PreserveOrigin.jpg]

@tig said: Paypal doesn't accept beer! However, I do Could you point me to it, please? @tig said: If you ever plan to be in the NE let me know... Love Northumberland, went to Newcastle uni and lived up there for 6 years, on and off, in total. Even proposed on Holy Island. Lot's of happy memories.

@benha said: ....So I was scaling this by using the tape measure tool..... When you do this, you get weird results.... Same here, I went for the "easy" approach, the 'Tape Measure' tool and not the scale tool where you need to input 0.00333....(repeat3). So I couldn't help you out. But both methods don't seem to give the exact same results! The 'Tape Measure' method fails, while the 'Scale' tool still works (except for e few softened edges) Thanks for bringing this up.

@dave r said: Oh. The only things you can change are those you can make in the display settings under the Control Panel. You won't be able to change the button appearance though. I was afraid you'd say that! I wonder if we can add a manifest file to the .exe?

+1 on that

Hi There Following all the help I had on this (thanks again!) I've successfully modelled and completed the project. Ive posted the renderings in the gallery if anyones interested there's a link below thanks again http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=39465

@mbeauvais said: I am trying to render a scene from SketchUp and continue to get error 183 no matter how small I set the exported image to be. I have 157GB free on my hard drive. Windows 7. The file is large 205MB, and there are many components and materials in it, but it has been purged many times to try and minimize it's impact. The rendering software is Indigo, and the skIndigo plug-in. But I can't even get Indigo started because SketchUp gives me the 183 error on export. We are running SketchUp 8 pro. I have seen many forums on animations, but not on single image renders. If you can point me to a thread that covers this type of problem or if you have any suggestions, please help. Thanks, M I'm not exactly sure what error 183 means but for a scene this large, I recommend trying out the new SkIndigo 3.0 beta which is greatly improved for exporting huge scenes: http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11055 SkIndigo does not yet support Image export. You should explode any image components if you want them to show up in the render.

thanks!

Have you tried using the Autodesk FBX converter TIG suggested?

I suspect it's because the 3ds version doesn't save out the soft property of the edges. Certainly useful to know what formats preserve quads when transferring into SketchUp. Think I'll add a routine into Quad Tools to convert triangulated quads separated by a hidden edge into soft edges. Seems it would be a operation often required if people want to take quad meshes from other applications into SketchUp.

First release is out there: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=39442

@driven said: I tried boolean helper [ruby] to upscale 1000x then jpp to 250 inches seems to work... you do have some stray geometry that might be throwing it off... or try thomthom's shell john Stray geometry??? Where? EDIT---------------------- I closed the 8 slots on the base unit and put a temp cover on it to form a solid. Using SI I found some extra lines and corrected them. Then scaled up 10X. This time SU crashed at about 75% along the JPP progress scale.

@mitcorb said: Hi, rock1: Look in Plugins Index, red button at top of this page, navigate to author "-BTM", look for link to Sculpt tool. This might help. awessssssome!! didn't know such an awesome freeform deformation tool existed

View > Hidden Geometry OFF. Double-click surface to select the surface and the edges BUT NOT the 'smoothed-edges'. Use Make Group to add it to a new group - it will be automatically be made a copy because the originals are needed by the surface. Edit the Group. View > Hidden Geometry ON. View > Component Edit > Hide Rest of Model You can now see what you are doing. To make the base I did two meshes and then combined them. Draw a line across to make two halves. Select it and Divide into say 10, immediately use Weld.rb to weld it into a 'curve' of 10 segments. This is the 'profile' Draw two short edges away from the apex of each end. Select the outline's edges from one of these to the 'profile' [~1/4], use Weld again to make it a 'curve' - this will be a Rail. Repeat this for the other three pieces of the outline. You now have a straight curve - the profile - and four 'rail' curves - we'll now process these two at a time. Use EEbyRails, pick the profile-curve then two 'rails' on the same side, finish by picking the 'profile' again [i.e. there's no 'melding-profile' for this type of surface!], answer the questions with 'No' unless the mesh faces 'up' - if it does 'reverse' the faces. You now have a mesh of ~half of the bottom face. Repeat to make the other half. Select the two groups and explode them. You now have the bottom-group, explode that and it will heal with the main [original] surface. Select All and group it, so Slicer has something to work on... Note: your surface is quite small so I recommend you first scale up the group x 8, make the slices at 1", then scale everything down by x 0.125... Sketchup has problems with making very small faces BUT they exist no problem when scaled smaller...

@mitcorb said: I note that you have posted in the VRay subforum. I do not have any experience in VRay. Perhaps a moderator would want to relocate this to the appropriate subforum? Thank you very much for the explanation! and the link too! Yeah I noticed I placed this in the wrong section..doh

in my racing simulator rFactor, there is some type of formula or script that runs during the game, and when we have a wreck it morphs the models. in the settings of the game or actually the game files themselves, there is variables where you choose different vertices and then determine how far they can be moved in a wreck and in what directions. wonder if a similar plugin could be made?

I've noticed that tools are sometimes grayed out on my toolbars, but when I click them, they activate right away. So why are they grayed out in the first place? Most tools do not display grayed out. I'm not using any plugins, btw, just the free SketchUp.