@box said: The mathematics is beyond my skill level, I still count by stamping my foot. +1 One of these days I'm going to have to dive into trig -- it seems alot of things I would like to be able to do rely on trig... Best, Jason.

Yo, mac1: Sure wish I had known about these links earlier. Seems a lot of discussion could be answered about this 64 bit question by simply providing the link. Thanks for sharing, because the info in both links is presented with clarity.

Yes, if the geography was in scale, it wouldn't look much different than a projected image. I picture a map or globe with the mountains and seas all exaggerated and obvious. Somebody somewhere must have something.

You are right. A transparent material (with a transparent image) does not receive shadow (just casts shadow). Sorry, I was wrong. And you are also correct that it does not receive shadow over 70% opacity. It only casts shadow when it is over. I do not know why I remembered incorrectly. In this case however, I can see no way you can cast shadow on a transparent surface - unless you draw the outline of the (supposed to be) shadow and make it darker this way "baking" it in the model. But of course, that will never be interactive (like when you change the sun position).

Hi, Charlie: I am glad that you were able to overcome the issue. I can see it was definitely out of my ability.

Hi folks. For the style question, I have this answer: 1 - Open the Style Window. Normally the Select tab shall be selected. 2 - Choose the "In model" Styles (the small house). 3 - Click on the Edit tab. 4 - Click on the third icon. 5 - Click on the square to the rigth of "Background". 6 - Check that you have RGB to the right of "Picker", if not, use the pull down list to select RGB. 7 - Slide all three cursors to 0 to get pure black. 8 - Click OK then Update the style. 9 - Hide the axes and you are done. For the stars, however, you would need to add some small dots or small geometries, using different colors since stars comes in all kind of colors or, better yet, use what was suggested, using a watermark made from a nice sky photos. There are now so many nice photos available on the web. Good luck with your project. This is one things I already though of modeling, the Rama spaceship, outiside and inside. Using the extremely precise description of A. C. Clarke, it should not be too difficult. Have you read all the four books of this saga ? See this : http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c3239ab7c577d245298d8588f7bc19ff By the way, since the ship is 54 km long, SU migth have clipping problem with such a large model if you draw it at a 1:1 scale. I would try using a 1:10 scale. But, try it as you whish since you can use the Scale Tool to adjust the size at any stage in the modeling process. You could even use a 1:1000 scale, using meters but pretending that they are kilometers. Just ideas.

Ah good, thanks for the solution (should anyone else need it)!

Not entirely sure I understand the post. So you just want to bring the linework into SU? Your info says you're using SU 7.1? If you're using any Pro version you can import the .dwg file directly. Otherwise, I believe up through 7.1 free version you can download the plugin from google. I can find a link if you need it. -brodie

@philippelemay said: Anyway, I got this: Acer Aspire AX3400-E3202 AMD X2 Dual-Core processor 2,8GHz 3GB DD3 RAM ... Nvidia GeForce 9200 integrated graphics unit ...asking for possible causes on why it's been so laggy. Because I can't accept the fact that it would be insufficient hardware on my part. a cheap soho system with a shared video solution is surely not the system dedicated to 3D cad modeling (aka number crunching) with OpenGL graphics output... why not asking before buying? If screen transformations (zooming, rotating, panning) is the lagging issue, you may want improve it by inputing a dedicated mid-range graphics accelerator as e.g. a nVidia GeForce GTS450 or an ATI Radeon HD5770 etc. hth, Norbert

How did you do that ely. Imported jpeg, traced over the lines. grouped it??, then sub divide in sks is that this http://www.smustard.com/script/SubdivideAndSmooth Looks good.

True, the count you get from face.mesh.count_polygons is SU's own internal triangulation. It might not match if you try to export and compare in another 3d application. But it works as a good complexity comparison between SketchUp models.

This may go without saying, but just remember that if you're putting in 8gb, you'll want a 64-bit OS to use it all. I suspect Mac's have been onto that for some time now, but us pc users have to fret over that sort of thing -Brodie

I found the info if anyone is interested http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?10974-Sketchup-to-Vue-camera

PNG can be smaller than JPG. It all depends on the colourfulness of the image. With less, "pure" colours,png's are smaller but with more complex colour scenes/schemes (like photos), jpg's can be smaller. It all depends on what you export. If you export with image textures, I bet a jpg will be smaller. If you export in some monochrome, hidden line or even shaded (without textures), png might have the chance to be smaller.

Hi D and welcome, When SU 7.1 came out, the cad import was already taken out of the free version and substituted with a temporary solution; a plugin that Google said would not be supported in future releases. So yes, you can put it that way; it is a catch for "professionals" to purchase the pro version - while hobbyists will probably not need this feature too much. There is now another plugin being developed by a forum member here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31186 Hope it can do what you'd like to import.

I also use it. Saves a lot of real estate in my toolbar area. What it does not (currently) contain from the native SU tools (at least that I would use) are: Google toolbar Sandbox tools Section toolbar Solid tools (this is later than the plugin itself anyway) It does contain a bunch of tools that otherwise would not have buttons like toggle hidden geometry, profiles, endpoints, edges by colour, perspective/parallel view etc. I rarely use these to remember a shortcut but often enough to have them at hand and no need to dig into the menus. [image: nATq_CustomToolbar.png]

try the speed test on both your setups, 'shadows on' speeds up my mac with this test, then it stays at around 56.6 f/s with or without shadows in V8 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=20076&hilit=speed+test#p166898 john

Nick, This is a good place for that discussion....ive been part of many good SU to Max discussions on the SU forum...I didnt intend for my comments to make you feel like a noob or that they were out of place. I approached it more as a wholistic process in which you would need max as an essential part of your work flow and I can only relate that way because thats how it is with me....I use it so much that I was forced into learning about how it worked and that made working between the two programs a whole lot easier.

I rolled back to a driver that was a lot older (written before Win 7 came out) and it works fine now.... Very strange..

Cool thanks. I'll give that a try. I did do somethingl ike this, but it ended up getting kind of messy.