Been too busy to get back and close this.... I was able to get the copy / rotate to do what was needed. I grouped a handful of faces that had the texture properly positioned, did paste in place, and then positioned the rotate "wheel" on the center point of the arc and typed in the degrees I wanted. That worked pretty well. I did notice a couple of times there were very tiny mis-alignments... not sure if I got lazy and relied on the inference engine instead of typing a value or if the polys were mis-aligned to begin with. At any rate, I'm cruzin now! Thanks very much for the suggestion.

[flash=628,360:1k0badql]http://www.youtube.com/v/sf0LprZpe1A[/flash:1k0badql] Consider taking a great advantage of those two excellent (and highly recommended) tools: CenterPoint v.1.200 by Todd Burch & Construction Line Tool v1.0 by Jim *s

Hi Anssi Thanks for your answer. I'll try that! Other deas are welcome, or ways to do it - I can't be the only one with that workflow? Best, Lene

Rich & Mitcorb, thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. @unknownuser said: Does this help? Have i even made sense? Now that you guys mentioned the segment counts on the rails + the link, well doh! Seems pretty obvious. @Rich, what would you consider a reasonable poly count for something like this? I was thinking it seemed rather heavy at this point. Thanks again!

Hi folks. I did a test: 1 - I selected only the two arcs. 2 - I used the Sandbox Tool "From Contours". 3 - I did some clean-up (less than 30 seconds). The result looks not too bad. Just ideas.

Or IrfanView. simple little program that will allow cropping.... GIMP is great for many for functions but may be a little daunting at first. good luck.

Good on you. What a great job you have done on this. The animation is quite smooth, if you weren't so crazy (busy--to clarify) I be bugging you to describe your process and workflow.

@unknownuser said: I have the SDS but for some reason, it is harder to use than I expected. yeah, for you and me both. it does take a certain mindset. please let us know how things are going while you decide.

Give this a try too. A shortcut that worked for a simple test I used TIG's roof tool which groups and made a profile cutout for the 2nd floor intersect and grouped same. Then used BooTool Boolean subtract plugin for the cutout. (just ignore the not a valid solid message) and ++++++ Bingo. No cleanup and ready for the next step. dtr

Glad to help and thanks for the new word........EEbyRail'ed

Hi Kate, This sounds to be clipping. Have a look at the SU Help center article below if any of the suggestions wrok: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36261 (And of course, welcome to SCF!)

Even changing the Toolbar icon size will affect the viewport. I always ensure that I only have one row of small icons in my view - I'm kind of stuck with it due to the number of projects set up to match SU output and render output.

Thanks, Jean. 3 kites sounds like a lot of fun for the stimulus-needy; with a bigger bird, just one, something similar is called kite sailing. I'd like to see you manage three in a stiff breeze. A sunny day...

If you want to get the file in some other format, feel free to PM me the file.

You always have to be very careful when using this technique however as it will display all edges by material so if you accidentally paint other edges with some colour for instance (or paint whole groups/components from outside), they will also be displayed by those colours.

@unknownuser said: maybe is time to make a QuickLook plugin for showing the thumbnail from .skp files I was trying to work out how to write a 64bit shell extension - but the C stuff is just beyond me. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=25400

Where I am currently at, .... Okay, I did a small model house with working drawings as my first actual "building permit" set. I jumped into a larger two story house and got to making groups, layers, and the model... it got big fast and out of control...the outliner list was nearly a full page high, groups groping groups...and things getting buried in one layer that were nested inside another group... it got CRAZY... so what I did was create a MASTER file, that I only drop in completed, organized, properly understood layering, files... paste in place works great. I took the crazy file, made individual models for: foundation, walls, roofs etc. got them organized, then "paste in place" them into the MASTER file... a lotta work but so much easier than trying to figure out where things got buried. If this seems too crazy... it is the only sane work around I could come up with given my understandings to date.. if there are any other suggestions, I am open to ideas. Oh, I find the command E or hide function in Outliner REALLY dangerous, things can get hidden never to be found again, and when the outliner gets big, it gets really hard to control, groups, when clicked, go off into wild fits of expansion, seems like there could be a "find the group you just clicked" game that should be looked into for potential "things to do when you have lots of time on your hands" thanks, aloha red

@jean lemire said: Hi folks. See this SU file for ideas.

@unknownuser said: There are many commands that are only available in 'certain circumstances'... For example to shortcut 'Reverse Face' - if nothing were selected then there's nothing for Preferences > Shortcuts... even with a Filter for 'Reverse'... But, if you first Select a Face, then do Preferences > Shortcuts > Filter 'Reverse' will give you the command [hooray] - set it to say Shift+Q... While you are at it why not set 'Orient' to Alt+Q ? So... if there are commands you'd like to shortcut to then first ensure that the 'context' is set properly before activating Preferences to attempt the Shortcutting... I did think I had the basic context thing in mind. I'm still not with the filter, but will try o keep it in mind. And I will now go in search of prefab shortcut selections, as I know folks with good experience have put them together, acknowledging that one size won't fit all, and that whatever is implemented must be remembered to be a short cut.

Thanks for reply Jim. As I see, SU is not good for cnc bench documentation. mark