Thanks for that tidbit. That'll get the dimension above the arrows. One could also type \n<> or \n\n<> to put the dimension on the other side of the arrows. I learned about that once but didn't use it and thus forgot. thanks for the reminder.

The whole OpenGL dialog box belongs IMO to the "if it works OK, don't touch it" category. OK, the different Antialiasing options might have an influence on how your SU screen looks like, but even with them it is mostly best to stick with what works. Anssi

Two suggestions that sometimes work for Mac users: Delete, move or rename the SU Preferences file so that it creates a new, clean one. Repair your disk permissions. Anssi

Thansk Remus, but no that doesnt work. Here is the complete problem: I have some terrain I mapped manually by tracing topographic contours and offsetting them in altitude and then used the from contours tool to make a surface. I then took a sattelite photo, placed it on a rectangle above the topography. I exploded the rectangle then sampled it with the eye dropper and painted the topography with the photo. So now I have the photo on the topography. For the animation I want to use the picture. For the renderings I want to not show the textures (the photo) and just use the colored surface, but the colored surface when in the shaded view is very dark, a dark grey. Probably something Sketchup is doing, maybe as pmiller says, taking the average luminosity of the whole photo and extrapolating a surface color. If I follow what you are saying remus nothing happens. Although the one thing I dont know how to do that you said: "Click the front face colour box, change the colour, click ok. Go view->face style->shaded" ....there is no "ok" to click. But the color sticks in the little box anyway so I think I am doing what you intend me to do correctly. It does work on new stuff, any new face that I create will be that color, but it doesn't change the existing selected face on the topography. I have another problem pmiller, if I edit the texture in the materials window, I can only edit the original texture, I cant edit a copy. If I duplicate the texture and edit that there is no picture, its just becomes the solid color in the materials window. So I am limited to editing the original one and if I wanna change it back I would have to reimport the picture I project from. Forgive me if I am misunderstanding you guys and just missing something stupid, I really appreciate the help. Probably the easiest work around would be just paint the surface the color I want to do the renderings and then paint the photo back on to do the animation. It wouldnt be that hard. I was just wondering if there was some little simple thing I was missing. My hope was that I could quickly toggle back and forth between the surface color I want and the photo texture while I am working because I am using the photo on the topo as a guide to help position the plants and trees accurately. Thanks again -Andrew

Skinning is making a mesh sort of pliable, like skin. It involves taking the skin and matching the vertices to bones and giving them weight. So each and every vertex of the skin mesh is associated with a bone object. And even associated certain percents to different bones. So that way when you animate the bones of the model, the skin knows how to follow and bend and shrink and stretch, and still look like the original shape. SU can't make a true skin. The best you could probably do is make the geometry and export that to a separate program that could then turn it into a skin. So at least you could model it in SU. Chris

@rabbit said: On an only slightly related topic, a mate of mine has a computer that sits in the corner of the office and all it does is dial up the bank every day at a certain time and download statements. A few days ago a guy opened it up to put in a network card, and he grabbed a screen shot of a windows 95 message saying it had been running for 3760 days!! I have asked him to send me the message screenshot, but that must be a record for a win95 machine...? Not sure if I'd trust a Win95 machine with my bank statements...

Many thanks ! I found out what I needed to know.

@august said: ...At your suggestion, and with the indulgence of the rest of the group, I'll repost my question over there (since this was the only response I've gotten in the general area). August I could even have moved this thread... Jon,interesting idea with the lines and vanishing points. In SU you can use guide lines to create a similar effect (I used this technique with fine art - more exatly painter - students to set up perspective scenes with them).

@fbartels said: ...a general presentation tool? you might be interested in Wink too. hth, Norbert

Pete, nice hut....yeah thats the one.....how did you do it for sketchup? or do we need render engines to amplify (or bump) the texture so it would look realistic and not flat? Tesmeko

now theres a challenge. Hard to say how feasible it would have been without seeing your model, but i think a lot of your problems could have been solved with some constructive grouping. As for the circles not lining up, if you make sure you always line your circles up to the same point in your model and always use the same number of sides you shouldnt have too many problems. The thing to remember here is that all geometry in SU is made from straight lines, so with your circle youve got to make sure all the lines match up. A cleaning tool would be very useful, although i believe there are a few rubies that already do some of that. A healing tool could be pretty dangerous in the wrong hands. I've got images of shoddy house models with thousands of healed faces everywhere... And lastly, the zoom issue is a known problem called clipping. I think its something to do with openGL, although im very rough on the specifics.

AutoCAD 2010 wants to be Sketchup, scary http://autocadder.blogspot.com/search/label/AutoCAD%202010

yes, doesn't it say coming soon on their website?

you can also use the mirror.rb more powerful

Thanks Tom, I think Ive worked it out, Ive been a bit lazy with component axis til now.... Re the fires: we are ok here, but about 50 miles away its horrific, death tool is now 220 and climbing, several small towns have literally ceased to exist, places that I know, I'm having trouble getting my head around it. I was in the 'Ash Wednesday' fires of '83 where we had a firestorm moving at 68mph, what happened on Sunday was worse, people just did not have time to get away. And it's not over yet. baz The Age newspaper has the full story. http://www.theage.com.au/

Tip: If the "start from scratch" Sandbox tool doesn't draw anything, try typing a lower number for the divisions.

Sure, just assign each scene a different style in the scenes tab.

Is this where you click Move and then Shift to make the selected move off axis? or does this apply here? Just an idea. mitcorb edit. oops. I meant select items, select Move, and then ALT to release from axis lock. Still, is this the appropriate procedure?

Thanks Jim and Remus. I don't use animations that much, so didn't think about this. But turning off transitions as Jim recommends certainly makes a difference. Jeremy

Well, if you don't want to hassle too much with them later on, you can just intersect the face they are on and delete all the holes. Should be faster than with the new components.