Sure Red. I set up my scenes in SU to reflect typical layouts; Site Plan, Floor Plan, Elevations, Sections, etc... SketchUp Setup Each scene has layers that are specific to those scenes for such things as dimensions in plan. My Floor Plan scene is the only scene that has the layer DIMS-FloorPlan active, all others this layer is hidden and so on..... That way each scene has its own designated layers showing..... Layout Setup Another thing; my title sheet is just set up as follows: Title sheet linework - locked Title sheet text - locked and shared across all pages Title sheet Project text - unlocked so i can copy from one page to another and alter to suit Model import - I set up a layer called 'MODEL', it is located at the bottom of the layerset to ensure it is under all other linework [LO recognizes layers visually as they are sorted in the layer dialogue box] Text / Arrows have their own layer as do drawing symbols such as section syms, title syms, etc... I've also made a scrapbook file of the typical symbols I use for each job That's pretty much it.

I created and use DC's all the time. They are incredible time savers for repetitive tasks and common components. I use them primarily for residential construction detail drawings where components get reused constantly. Simple DC's can be built with very little investment of time. For instance, I have "smart lumber" components where I can quickly insert the needed lumber dimensions (2x4's 2x10's, etc. and length) The component takes care of setting the proper true size of the component so I don't need to remember the conversions from nominal to actual. (2x4 to 1.5"x3.5" etc.) The options are set up as picklists which are far faster to set than browsing through a large component library looking for the right size item. Another good use is to dynamically change the dimensions of joist hangers, etc. depending on the lumber. More sophisticated components would allow building fully framed walls with options for spacing, openings, etc. but these require more thinking and investment of time. Constructing custom roof joists are another perfect example and there is an example of this on the 3D Warehouse. DC's do suffer from one MAJOR limitation though. (which I hope the SketchUp guys will address in Currently, there are no DC values for rotating or scaling textures. If your DC changes the dimensions of an object, the texture is scaled, much like using the scale tool. But in the case of lumber textures for instance, you want the texture to remain unscaled when dimensions change. (like how the push-pull tool changes dimensions) Until this limitation is fixed, it's better to apply textures to a DC AFTER it has been dimensioned. If SketchUp fixes this one major limitation, DC's will become even more powerful and helpful.

If you can't get that to work you could try opening the .skp in DoubleCAD XT (free), and save it as a .dwg. If your 2D views are saved as scenes in the .skp DoubleCAD will create a paper space with viewport for each scene preserving layer visibility settings, view, and 2D or perspective camera properties. It might accelerate getting your design into AutoCAD. -- William

I think i understand what you are talking about. From following your advice ive managed to drastically reduce the poly count thanks all

No of course not, i don't mind. Move it everywhere you like.

@unknownuser said: Ah the good old days of pin bar drafting and mylar and rapidiograph, and sepia although I don't miss the smell of sepia eradicator...I'm sure that stuff killed a few brain cells of mine. I found out that the active ingredient in the eradicator was acetone. We quit buying the expensive special purpose eradicator and went to the paint store for our mylar eraser. And, we opened windows. Otherwise, everyone used Exacto knives for small corrections.

In the past I've used terragen and 3dem to help make importable TIN files too. Didier has also written a greyscale.bmp importer that will import a greyscale bmp file in as a 3d terrain mesh. I think there are lots of exciting fun things to do in the TIN area of SU. I have not used global mapper before though, I should like to check it out. Thanks for the info on it Charly, Chris

I've been getting this a lot the method I've been taking is to delete the face I'm dividing then draw the dividing lines in, then selecting each subface to remove any extra faces using the delete tool. at times I've had 4-5 stacked faces that I've had to remove before I started doing the above. oh and an easy way to find stacked faces other than the Xray face mode (stacked faces show up darker) is with the paint tool.. if a face won't paint, it's stacked...

Your Latin is good and Dante Alighieri never wrote such inspired verses.

you can save single workspace, but can't save multiple workspace..

This is really strange, indeed. Can any of your keyboard keys (or mouse button/wheel) be stuck?

Oh, good. I "hoped" the answer was going to be so simple (you can imagine I've made this mistake myself so that's where I know it from)

I was working on something like that. But it wouldn't update automatically - you'd have to make it recalculate again. But it's ended up in the back-burner for the time being due to other projects taking priority.

Sorry Guess the question didn't make a lot of sense but yes the plugin does what you said jackson, it just does all the repainting for you. Saves a little time. Thanks, TeamSDA

Andrew thanks for your experienced perspective and, Spirit is on a PC, I spent 1/2 hour with one of the Spirit reps trying to understand which version of Windows to download and eventually we both gave up. Just what I want, a pig in a horse race. I keep looking aloha red

Got it, I have to delete the software. Rusty is right. Delete and restart helps. Thanks all.

In Style Builder you're limited to stroke widths of 6, 16, 32 or 64. You can make up to 10 strokes for any given length. You could try drawing some narrower strokes and adding them to the template. An alternative if you want your lines to show thinner is to export the images at a higher resolution.

Excellent! Thank you that worked. Daniel

Baking is a generic term used whenever you save out some data on a model. In graphics, Baking can mean Lightmaps (like LightUp uses) or it can mean saving lighting to vertex colors (as you can do in Maya), or saving out skinned weights for an animation. The general gist, is taking some 'ingredients' (aka parameters) and 'baking' (aka applying some process) that saves just the end result eg LightMaps, Vertex colors etc. Adam

Yep, that's it! Thank you Ken I'll use the as_pluginloader.rb to recall set.rb and svg.rb when I need to import some svg files.