Guys, when trying top make a group/component using the context menu or trying to flip something, always make sure to select more than one entity otherwise it doesn't work (the menu items are not only greyed out but don't even appear). Make a test this way: create a sphere right click and find that you cannot make it a group/component or flip it. you can still make a group/component from the edit menu or a component from the "Principal" toolbar > Component button (I consider this not necessarily a bug but an inconsistent behaviour and keep reporting it every time a new version is being tested but so far nothing has happened) if you triple click on the sphre so that its hidden edges are also highlighted as selected, you can make group/component and flip it from the context menu. Now as for menu items that should be available but greyed out, I have no idea what causes it. Supposedly it's a plugin (and Thom also suspected that it was his selection toys at a time) but I for instance have never experienced it although I have this plugion (as well as Twilight, which was also mentioned above). Maybe it's not even an only plugin but a conflict between some plugins which of course, would make it even harder to spot.

Dont know why its not exporting properly, but as a workaround you could use screen capture to record your viewport as you play the animation through in sketchup. Something like this would do it: http://camstudio.org/

I'll be blunt: SketchUp is not for creating toons. There are plugins for very limited animation like Mover.rb, but it's nowhere near as good as a properly implemented animation system. I recommend you look elsewhere before you waste too much time trying to do something SketchUp is not designed for.

I have been thinking about the naming of components and I dont think that the name is the key. I think the layer the component is placed on is what will solve the problem ( as per tigs suggestion . Thanks Tig) of organising components for an organised estimate (BOM). We have been working on a ruby that will actuauly take off square meters, lineal meters and componets all in 1 go. It is very efficient and will do a 5+ meg model in seconds. There are a lot of bugs and things to sort out and it is not yet ready for public consumption but I think it will be in the next couple of months or so.. fingers crossed see how I go with my busy work flow (out side Sketchup that is). standardisation when it comes to layers a at this stage it is not important. Changing of names can be done by the individual user to suit there own needs if the UK and the US can not agree. Us damn Aussies will probably come up with some other rediculous method that will have some relation to beer some where. I guess the main thing is the job gets done efficiently for end users. If designers and architects dont draw custom components and use 3d warehouse or formfonts it will be necessary to re assign a layer to component anyway. The ruby I have been working on does not require standardisation as it looked as though no one would agree 100% any way. I shall keep you all posted on my progress.

There are many reasons a CAD import won't split into obvious faces. In no particular order... The lines aren't all 'flat' - i.e. coplanar There are 3rd party tools available to 'flatten' them... Alternatively move the group of lines up in the Z(blue), drawn a big rectangle below them, use the Sandbox Drape Tool to drop the lines onto the new face, erase the old lines and the new face should contain a set of 'flat' lines - erase the outer edges you don't need... Now if these don't face after selecting all and intersect with model try using a style that shows all vertices marked as 'ends' AND has a distinct line difference between profiles and other lines.... This makes it easier to see the unfaced lines and any 'gaps... Zoom into any gaps and use Move Tool [with nothing initially selected] and move the wrong line ends to snap to their intended target... If the gap is big then just try drawing a bit of new line in to close the gap... My 2D Tools include an Adjust Tool that lets you select a target-line and wipe across any lines that have a gap and they are 'healed'... Basically whatever you do to fix this you are trying to get closed loops of all lines so that they 'face'....

Thanks for the tips, all. I am just going to use Premier to do some post for this project, but this would be a neat feature to have in future versions! Cheers, Jason

I was opening a V6 version when the Updating message appeared (I have some versions 6 or 7 As nothing special arrive before that I thouth that a new version 7 was born Next time I will wait another posts

The best book for advanced SketchUp users. There is a very good chapter about components: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596155100 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Making Multiple Copies 1. Copying in Linear Arrays 2. Creating Linear Internal Arrays 3. Building a Nonorthogonal Linear Array 4. Copying in Circular Arrays 5. Creating Circular Internal Arrays Chapter 2 Following Paths with Follow Me 1. Extruding a Follow Me Face to Cut Volume Along a Path 2. Using Follow Me to Add Volume Along a Path 3. Keeping Original Objects Intact During Follow Me 4. Using Follow Me When Faces and Paths Are Not Adjacent 5. Creating Objects in the Round 6. Creating Spheres 7. Using a Follow Me Path in 3D Chapter 3 Intersection Edges: Cutting and Trimming 1. Trimming an Object 2. Cutting All Intersected Objects 3. Using Groups or Components to Create Cutting Objects 4. Intersecting with Groups and Components, Without Exploding 5. Intersecting with Both Intact and Exploded Components 6. Intersecting Only Selected Objects 7. Intersecting Within a Group or Component 8. Using Intersect to Trim Components with Themselves Chapter 4 Advanced Intersect and Follow Me Techniques 1. Creating Temporary Faces for Follow Me 2. Rounding Corners 3. Creating Lathed Shapes 4. Roofing with a Uniform Slope 5. Creating "Dummy" Follow Me Paths 6. Extending Follow Me Paths 7. Using Intersect to Create a 3D Follow Me Path Chapter 5 Roofs: Constraints and Inferences 1. Creating an Overhanging Roof 2. Creating Dormers 3. Working with Roof Intersections 4. Creating Overhangs with Autofold Chapter 6 Groups: Protect and Defend 1. 2. Ungluing Faces 3. Unsticking Edges 4. Protecting from Edits 5. Cutting and Slicing 6. Two-Sided Coloring 7. Locking a Group Chapter 7 Components: Efficiency in Repetition 1. Creating a Component 2. Using the Components Window 3. Inserting a Component 4. Editing or Exploding a Component 5. Renaming a Component 6. Saving a Component in Its Own File 7. Accessing Local Components 8. Painting Components 9. Repeating Objects with Different Sizes 10. Aligning and Gluing 11. Using Components for Symmetric Models 12. Placing Windows in 3D Walls 13. Reloading Components 14. Replacing Components 15. Working with the Outliner Chapter 8 Painting, Materials, and Textures 1. Finding Materials and Images 2. Getting Images into Your Model 3. Creating Material Collections 4. Painting Multiple Faces 5. Changing Material Size and Color 6. Copying a Material 7. Using Translucent Materials 8. Painting Edges by Material 9. Positioning Textures: Fixed Pins 10. Positioning Texture on Round Faces 11. Creating and Editing a Unique Texture 12. Using Alpha-Transparent Images Chapter 9 Modeling with Digital Photos 1. Positioning Textures with Free Pins 2. Editing a Photo 3. Adding Faces to Patch an Image 4. Using Images to Make Face Camera Components 5. Using Free Pins and a Single Image to Paint a 3D Object 6. Using Photo Match to Model a 3D Object 7. Using Photo Match to Paint an Existing Model Chapter 10 Modeling with Exact Dimensions 1. Working with Lines 2. Working with Rectangles 3. Working with Circles and Polygons 4. Working with Arcs 5. Importing Graphics 6. Using the Tape Measure for Construction Lines and Points 7. Measuring and Marking Angles 8. Finding the Area of Faces 9. Creating a Grid 10. Measuring Lengths and Resizing 11. Resizing Models with Groups and Components 12. Resizing Parts of Your Model 13. Resizing a Model in Multiple Directions Chapter 11 Presentation: Showing off Your Model 1. Working with Layers 2. Working with Scenes 3. Working with Shadows 4. Sectioning Your Model 5. Using Layers and Scenes to Control Displayed Objects 6. Using Layers, Scenes, and Groups for Different Design Scenarios 7. Studying Shadow Movements 8. Walking Through Your Model 9. Creating Animated Sections 10. Creating Staged Sectioning Animation Chapter 12 Displaying Your Model 1. Hiding and Softening Edges 2. Changing the Style 3. Creating a New Style 4. Saving Styles 5. Saving a Style As a Template 6. Mixing Styles 7. Adding a Watermark 8. Creating a Sketchy Edge Style 9. Using Styles in a Presentation Chapter 13 3D Warehouse and Google Earth 1. Finding Models in the 3D Warehouse 2. Refining Your 3D Warehouse Search 3. Uploading Models to the 3D Warehouse 4. Creating Collections in the 3D Warehouse 5. Controlling Model or Collection Privacy 6. Adding Models or Collections to Your Collections 7. Taking Credit for Your Model 8. Manually Georeferencing Your Model 9. Georeferencing Your Model by Using Google Earth 10. Getting Your Models into the 3D Buildings Layer 11. Creating a Placemark in Google Earth 12. Relocating a Georeferenced Model 13. Downloading Buildings That Appear in Google Earth Chapter 14 Dynamic Components 1. Finding Dynamic Components 2. Interacting with Dynamic Components 3. Investigating Dynamic Component Options 4. Scaling Dynamic Components 5. Modifying and Replacing Dynamic Components 6. Sizing by the Reference Point

The same has happened to me a few times. I find that opening the Disk Utility program (found in Applications/Utilities) clicking the hard disk reference and running the Repair Permissions routine does the trick.

Ah, you guys are actually right that I don't have to project the texture. I thought anything that was curved needed a projected texture. In this case I just painted the texture normal and everything looks as expected. Thanks all for the help! John

Hmm it seems that the DWG/DXF exporters can handle only so much data, beyond which nothing gets exported. Thanks for your attempt to help Anssi but I can't post as Intellectual Property presented in the model is sensitive. Thanks for your attempt to help but I fixed the issue by cutting back the amount of data. Perhaps the advent of windows 7, and therefore more ram, will alleviate this issue somewhat??......

@anssi said: I have to disagree on this Great looks like we both go back, many years. (how time flies) I used to create my own menu system so I could actually use the program. I recall v2.5 came on 6 floppies. I finally quit using it around release 14. I always thought the AutoCad Users Group was there really only for Autodesk to test their buggy releases, while at the same time charging its customers for that privilege. But the more important question is why are we still producing 2D drawings for construction in the 21st century? Some of my students ask me that question. My response is, because that's the way its always been done. Hopefully some day in their lifetime some CHANGE will occur.

Thank you guys I did find that there were several double lines in the cad file. Unfortunatley this is a project with multiple people working on it so I am getting work from people of varying skill levels. I also am unable to download plugins to this computer because it is a work computer and I dont have admin rights but I will get these plugins for my own laptop. Jim, you helped me A LOT!!! THANKS I have been banging my head trying to get this working.

Thanks, JamesD. Actually, it's not the response I was looking for because that means I have a machine-peculiar problem. Arrrrgh

thats what i like to hear

Well, "enamoured" is also a good word. I will use it then.

Bugsplat is a little program (not from Google) that tries to get useful information on a crash before Sketchup is completely closed. So the Sketchup developers may have some hints in the bug report where the error might be.

i am aware that tools on surface will do this, but i don't know how to do it with tools on surface? reading the manual now.

Ok. Lets try this Still Life Workshop at: Rendering Workshop - Still Life

By popular demand I have replaced this Exterior Houses Workshop with a Still Life Workshop. (You can still upload your Exterior renderings to this Workshop if you have made one) The Still Life workshop is at: Rendering Workshop - Still Life [image: file.php?id=36541]