@remus said: Could i ask what a global is? It's like an infinite plane or a skyglobe background image. Thrax; watermark are the only "real" solution for globals in SU unless you want to build a skydome of real geometry around your model and apply some sky texture for instance. I can imagine that many of the models you've seen were applied some post processing in PS or such.

Okay, glad to hear that (and indee the best way to learn and never forget again) but for the sake of others, could you share the olution?

So, Ref; Default layer zero; It's a greedy DEFAULT layer that you cannot delete ... zero cannot delete anything, or move its contents into your current layer. Solution; - Keep the 'entity info' window where you can see her. (Always! ... not unlike 'properties' in AutoCAD) Ditto layers window. Again, always there. So: Go to your model; define components by select-dragging top left to bottom right over just one component. Go to your newly opened 'entity-info' window and click on the drop-down arrow, by layer, and choose the (appropriate) layer, (Not Zero,) With each. If in doubt - go to Layers and type in an 'add' to make a descriptive layer. You'll see what we mean when you get there. But just in case it's even more complicated ... maybe you have inherent components that are not entirely sure which layer they belong; If you don't mind exploding and re-componenting (although expensive on file size,) the ultimate fail-safe is to have absolutely everything in the layer you want; if its got confused; 'explode' and re-layer. Anyway, ref your question; Is there logic re secondary layer ... yes.

Thanks. I forgot to mention, I put a better version of it in the Scripting forum (Plugin - Surface Plotter). Among other things it fills in the surfaces bounded by the lines. I am also working on a plugin that can do parametric surfaces (like spheres, spirals, etc.)

Hi Mike, As for the image distorting in the pool; Jakob is probably right. If you project the an image on a curved surface, it always stretches on sides. If it's due to s ditorted scaleing, right click an choose "scale definition" (or what).

Hi Angelina, Yes,that is exactly the problem in 3ds - it cannot "recognise" back faces so the only way of handling this is to keep your model consistently "clean" of them. The reason is that SU is a surface modeler and "pretends" or "fakes" solids by making hollow objects always with their normals out. This is also the problem with to sided materials.

This is due to the segmented nature of arcs in SU. When you offset a SU arc, the result is strictly speaking no longer an arc, because the endpoints of all the segments are no longer on the same arc, as the start and end segments of an offset arch are shorter. Arcs and circles in SU are determined by the vertex points of the segments, whereas the offset command is offsetting the segment lines. Note too that if you offset a circle by, say, 1 meter, the distance between corresponding points on the two circles will be more than 1 m, whereas the parallel distance between two corresponding segments will be 1 m... Anssi

I dont think anything noticeable was done to the style builder, so the version youve got at the moment is probably the latest one.

I'm running OS 10.4.11 and will be for the forseeable future.

@kwistenbiebel said: Colours of the trees are odd though. That is why I asked you earlier on to have the option to produce 3D trees rather than billboards, so we can alter the textures of bark and leaves ourselves. I love the plugin you made, but I can't use it currently in my renders as there is not a lot of control on the textures. Having 3D trees with seperate textures would allow that... You can change the colours of the bark and leaves before you create the tree. They are alpha-png images stored in the application. You can load them, change them, and save them with a new name (or save other images) and make the trees with the new images. See: http://wiki.renderplus.com/?title=Rptreemaker#Can_you_change_color.3F_If_so.2C_how.3F_This_would_be_very_important.Changing color [image: http://wiki.renderplus.com/images/8/8f/Yellow-leaf.jpg] You can also change the brightness of the trees with the Brightness tab before you save the image. You can also, vary the illumination of the tree by rotating the HDRi sky which illuminates it on the Advanced tab. All that said, we do intend to produce a 3D version. But we haven't gotten around to it yet.

I am sure they know that for a long time. The interview of John Bacus is off course a sales talk. He would never admit that the polycount thing indeed is an issue. The thing is that it will probably take a lot of effort to fix it, and it would not be so visible to a lot of people. But it is in their intrest to start working on it. The people that use Sketchup on a daily basis in their jobs, like me, will feel a hugh difference.

Well, note that may of the attributes of DC's are set to the axes so when it comes to working with DC's, it is more important to watch the axes than ever.

it all makes sense now, cheers.

Thankyou very much, cant believe I forgot about that tool! i hang my head in shame ; ( ; )

@tig said: Also look for the Proximity ruby ... From what I saw of MatrixProximity (http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/MatrixProximityGuide.pdf), you provide a set of components (say, "tree+", "tree~" and "tree-") which range in level of detail, then the script places them according to distance from the scene. Do you know of any method or script that would assist you in making those components? In other words how to simplify (or remove details from) a component? Say you have a highly detailed Dorian column, and one setting would return a cylinder, while a stronger setting would return a cube (similar to a bounding box). Thanks

Jim, this looks like EXACTLY what I want. Thank you so very much. How did I miss this?

Hi Jeff, (and Gaieus) when you're fine with hand stitching you can also use plugins to do that for you on larger models. Like this one http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/skin23.zip I tested it on your boat and it works just fine. You could result in more facets than by hand and of course it will increase your file size. But the aspect of your curved surface is smoother. Just unhide the geometry to see the difference.

Thank you very much. I have spent hours trying to figure it out and it was right under my nose. Thanks a lot.

But you can directly upload a kmz file to the WareHouse from its front page (somewhere top right). True that the skp file won't upload with it.

In fact, if you save your file in which you created the table on layer "dining room", the model file itself will become a component in which your table (still sitting on the layer "dining room") will be wrapped. You can always import this file as a master component into your model.