Hi Milo You might want to try posting on a forum like http://www.nicepapertoys.com/, but please keep us informed, I'd be interested to know the answer also. Cheers

Don't do it. Google themselves even say so. Depending on the distance from the origin, and simply speaking, the accuracy of the lines themselves can actually become inaccurate due to the software running out of decimal points from the origin. It's not as bad in SketchUp but all programs suffer this and some tend to be better at it than others. I know that Maya is shocking at this when you have drawings kms away from the origin.

@tig said: @glro said: @dedmin said: http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rubylibrarydepot/plugin_details.php?id=198 the text written by this plugin shows one line for each instance of a component it doesn't make the total for each component You never asked for that your plugin "ComponentReporter++.rb" produces 3 text files: *_CR-Component+Report.csv *_CR-Instances+Report.csv *_CR-Parentage+Report.csv With the included example: "essai_CR-Component+Report.csv": DEFN-NAME,COUNT,DESCRIPTION,GUID Composant#1,1,,29b53a7c-2e6c-40b9-9f78-41e4abc0a62f Composant#2,1,,2306d93d-9156-46c9-bf4a-5a4e8a2f5e38 Composant#3,4,,c969203b-e788-468f-b495-5936ea9bdd48 As you can see, Composant#1 and Composant#2 are counted once only, when in reality, they appear 4 times in the model; the problem comes from the fact they are nested within Composant#3 If Composant#3 instances are exploded, Composant#1 and Composant#2 are counted 4 times, and it is what i am looking for. But would be possible to get this result without exploding anything, using the information in your file "essai_CR-Parentage+Report.csv": 'essai_CR'<Model>,''Composant#3<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,''Composant#3<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,''Composant#3<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,''Composant#3<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#1<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#1<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#1<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#1<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#2<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#2<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#2<Instance>, 'essai_CR'<Model>,'Composant#3'<Definition>,''Composant#2<Instance>, By counting the last definition instance of each line, and produce the result in a file like "essai_CR-Component+Report.csv"? This is what sketchup does in the statistics windows, when you ask to developp for the component hierarchy, and it was my first question... nested components example

John Carmack (Quake series, Doom series, and the upcoming Rage engine) chose to use openGL rather than Direct-X -- that's saying something. Also, Call Of Duty series and Far Cry are notable games/series using openGL. OpenGL appeals to me (as an end-user only, I know nothing about programming) because it's free, non-proprietary, and is managed by the Khronos Group who also manages openCL. And openCL seems much more significant, at this point, than openGL -- using the graphics card to significantly speed up general computation. At this point it's CUDA (which is arguably better, at the moment) or openCL -- free and works on everything or proprietary and only works on Nvidia hardware. I realize this is a convoluted and indirect reason to like openGL, but I want the software to succeed that's not owned by a private company that gets to dictate what hardware we have to buy and who can use the software. Besides, have you seen smallluxgpu (openGL rendering program)? Tell me that's not awesome.

I had some issues with SU8 being very slow. But after a complete uninstall and re installation again it was fast and snappy again.

I'm not bothered, and as long as it gets the job done I'll use any version that's put in front of me (as long as my plugin's work too! ).

But if the folders are deleted or renamed the menu doesn't work.

Thank you. I guess I'll settle for that. You certainly can't be worse than I am. I have wood in my shop that has petrified before I could get round to using it.

Unfortunately SU's shadow engine does not recognise transparent areas in images thus they will always cast a rectangular shadow unless you really cut them around (thus adding more geometry though the use of billboard entourage would be to avoid this) or you can completely turn off casing shadows of these entities and use a single component for all to cast shadow. If you download Alan's tree from here and turn hidden geometry on, you will discover three, horizontal components inside. They are painted with a completely transparent png image (but as per above, this transparency is not recognised by SU therefore will cast shadows). True that they will also add extra geometry to your model but you only need one shadow caster component in the whole model (you can even put it on a separate layer and only turn it on when needed) so overall file size should not go too high. As for the pivot point; when creating the Face me component, there is a button in the dialog to "set component axes". Use that to set it into the middle of the tree trunk and it will pivot around that.

The fence is great just what dynamic is good for.

What do you mean by more 'efficient' exactly? Both locations are on your hard drive so they're exactly the same. Only difference I can see is that SU knows where to find the ones in your Components folder whereas you'll have to point it to look in another location if they aren't there. Same with textures. Regarding the speed of SU, the only time that the amount of components/textures will affect performance is when you open a components/materials folder that has a lot of stuff in it - ie. it may take a few seconds to load. Other than that, it won't affect your orbiting around a model or the size of the model so long as they only exist in your component/material folders. Once you start putting a component/material in your scene then the file size will increase accordingly. -brodie

Ecuadoran— Wile the answer to this and many other questions remain shrouded in the realms of mystery, you can select an object, Scale, start to move a control point, and then type in the percentage or size you want to end up with. If you are shooting 0.1% (or less, say 0.01), just grab a control point and move it a bit, then type in a number. Less than one shrinks, more than one expands, negatives make mirror images. If you add a unit of length afterwards, it scales that dimension to the number you typed, as in 1mm; 3.5"; .7m; 42'. Best, JIm

hellnbak— WIthout seeing the geometry I can't say, but I just had success with a similar issue when someone posted the technique for making edges invisible without erasing them: —Find the inner edge that's bleeding through —Open the group or component that contains it —Select the Eraser tool —While holding down the shift key, click on the line that bleeds through You still see any color or texture, but without the hard line that ends it, and the inner color does not bleed through. Best, Jim

You're exactly right. Up until now we had to login with our personal Google accounts at work to be able to use the 3D warehouse. Now you can use your Google Apps account. Pretty sweet!

@tig said: using components for repeated geometry/objects, and the small overhead of importing it into another model is inevitable because of the additional data needed to describe it within its new home Yeah, as I just told Gaieus, I've accepted that this is going to happen. I don't like it, but I accept it. @tig said: You can achieve the level of detail in other ways - e.g. apply a 'tread texture' instead of modeling every indentation into its faces in 'reality'. Actually the treads are a texture (until I can get around to putting in the real things ) @tig said: you need to remember that the instances and the number of displayed facets and edges etc that you have in your one tyre/wheel is more that a whole complex building might include. This WILL have affects on the performance of SUp panning/zooming, exporting and rendering etc Actually it has not affected panning, orbiting, zooming, anything (so far). And I am coming close to reaching the dreaded 10mb limit. Occasionally my textures will start to blank out when doing something, but all I need to do is purge (even if there's nothing to purge) and things are back to normal. Any idea why this is? Probably won't have the nerve to upload the dang thing when I do finish it. But this has been my learning model, so it was worth it. @tig said: be aware that detailing every last bit of an object is often unnecessary - especially when you won't ever be seeing it, or might never expect to see it so close up so you'll never notice the simplified form. I have kept this is mind, and I don't include detail that likely won't be noticed or benefit the model. As I mentioned before, tires and wheels are very important to the appearance of a car, so I did splurge on them. Overall I think the benefits of this have justified the extra edge count. Wow! Screws under the chairs, with full threads! Can I have her phone number?

Here's a picture of my first attempt. I'm referring to the carved worm between the top and bottom turnings. The extra lines above and below them I left in for editing purposes. Thanks in advance, Jim [image: L07U_Knop.jpg]

You are not alone. When I went from 7 to 7.1, my home system failed to utilize the OpenGl spec. Because my home graphics adapter was an older model, the manufacturer did not provide a driver upgrade. However, my work system continued to function with our problems into v8. What graphic adapter are you using? If you are unwilling to turn OpenGl off, you should consider a upgrade to a newer card. It doesn't have to be the best, only compatible with SU. Or you can continue to use the older Sketchup version that works with OpenGl.

@gaieus said: If you project the texture and only project it on the face(t)s you need to project, it should not tile. Have a look at this topic. It is not about a car and logo but a bottle and label but the idea is the same. Download the models attached and have a look at how they are composed. I have tried that too. I jus dnt understand why it tiles. I only need one logo lol Thats it.

Hmm- interesting. I'll contact Martin who makes Cheetah3D, ask him how to get around the problem. I'll also drop the Unity crowd a note too (the perfect excuse now to join their forum!). Thanks Tom

Thanks, Tom- very helpful. I'll pass the offending object on to our testing folks to see if they can reproduce your problem in the lab. john .