It only shows up if you have plugins installed and or enabled. Go to Preferences and look for Extensions. Then turn on everything in there. One of those is installed in the plugins menu, and will therefore add it. Otherwise just copy all your plugins from 6 to 7 and the menu will appear on its own. Chris

Thanks modelhead. Are you familiar with the Trim feature in CAD? If so do you know how to do this in SU. It seems in SU that if you make a mistake and try to change it later it causes more of a problem and ends up deleting more than you want.

Thanks for your patience, subscriptions will be back open this evening. Cheers, Wayne Ashley mr_ashley@little-something.com

i have 6.0.515 which is the pro version but it will allow you some hours of use without the license number.

Dear All, Nick Johnson of Cadsoft Solutions (http://www.cadsoftsolutions.co.uk/) recently sent me this video and message regarding the use of ViaCAD as a 2d drafting aid for Sketchup: Although ViaCAD can import 3D models from SketchUp, owing to the polygon nature of Sketchup files these files are not much good for making automated 2D drawings as all of the polygon edges are displayed. However, if you export your SketchUp model as .DWG then these can be imported into ViaCAD without issue and can be fully dimensioned and placed in scaled drawing layouts. I have knocked up a quick movie which illustrates these 2 approaches for you... http://www.cadsoftsolutions.co.uk/movies/sketchup_2_viacad.mov You will need Apple's QuickTime Video Player to watch the movie which can be downloaded at no charge from the following URL: http://www.apple.com/quicktime I hope you find this useful. Kind regards, Bob

Thank you so much for all of your help. It is all singing all dancing now.

Nate, I suggest you download and install the plugin, UVtools. See this discussion about the tool, and how to use it. Note that it may still be a work-in-progress. Be sure to read all the posts in the discussion, to fully understand how to get the tool to work, as there are no other instructions. All issues are, however, covered in the discussion: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=10404 It's a great tool! (Thanks, again, Whaat.) I even added, to the above discussion, one of my experiments with mapping a globe. Regards, Taff

@johnsenior1973 said: @nomeradona said: thanks alan. yes solo that was good. im relly thinkin galong that lin ehow to make procedural texture even...but looking directly the effect in Sketchup after editting. btw im surprise that now photoshop CS4 has also 3d stuff, where you can import 3d objects and project texture unto the object like sketchup.. my hope is CS4 could open SKP file too.. i have nt tried i just only watch video... CS3 also had 3D features. I think they've extended the 3D features a lot in CS4 though. There is a plugin to import models from the 3DW straight into CS3: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Photoshop_CS3_Extended_Plug-In_for_Google_3D_Warehouse you re right mate. i am actually using CS2 thats why i dont know. but this CS4 seems worht to fetch.

anssi, you nailed it!!! the templates are located in user/library/app support/sketchup 7/sketchup/templates. i was looking for them in the program folder. thanks! one problem solved. now i am left with the problem of how to get the same toolbars to open whenever i start SU7 up. regards.

Hi there again. I have found a way of sketching the 3d book, with no external app. Hance I'm filled with satisfction. On the toto list I'm searching for a way of describing how I did it. [image: 1018589_my_3d_book_09.jpg] Regarding your reply, being a newbe this something new to me, and I must explore it. Lots of thanks.. The file explaning my method: [url]http://www1.freepdfconvert.com/export/777422805/result/3d_book_Tutorial_09.zip [/url]

this did not work. i saved the file carefully with the toolbars i want open but it opened the way i did not want: the wrong toolbars and all around the place. the second strange thing is: the templates i saved to SU7's template folder do not show up after a spotlight search!! how could they have become invisible?

@jim said: Chris, look for it in the Outliner window. Thanks Jim, but I suddenly realised that SU might not put elements or components in order with the last on top like HTML. This seems to be true. There was wrong data in a js array but it didn't show up as I expected. I see that more people are using web dialogs. I hope this revelation might be helpful for them. Thanks again, Chris

@msm said: I've been looking around at some of the work people do on this forum. If I want that hand-drawn look, I wonder if it's better to put the trees in my model on Sketchup or in Photoshop? I ask because I've noticed hardly anyone uses Sketchup trees in their models... Assuming you are only concerned with producing a 2D illustration you need to consider that once you move from the 3D model to 2D you are committed to things like perspective, light and shadow etc. Which means that any objects you source and add after the fact must conform. I always try to include as many 'ornaments' as possible in Sketchup before it goes into Photoshop or Paint. Tip: The secret to working in Photoshop is 'layers' - these work differently than layers in Sketchup. Always make a duplicate of your master and call it something like 'master working copy'. Now create a layer called trees or whatever and make sure it is the overlay layer. You can now use the pencil or brush tool to add freehand strokes over the 'master wc'. If you don't like the effect just delete that layer and you have the untouched working copy underneath. When you are happy with the result you can merge the layers and take it into a filter like watercolor or play with some of the light renders. I also suggest you check out a pen/tablet for drawing instead of a mouse. Wacom makes some good inexpensive ones. Play around... be happy. DE

I don't think you were "unfair" with me, but perhaps you are using that word different from the meaning I understand. I am always happy to learn something new. However, I don't quite follow what you are trying to say. I followed what you said step by step and I still get the same results. First, I did NOT ask you to look at the model in "mono" mode. I simply said that in shaded with texture mode when you first make the model it is in default color and to leave it that way when you make the component. Next. After painting from the outside of the component,I assign the component to layer 1. If I edit the component the internal geometry is still on layer 0 but the texture has been been applied to the inside just as I said. I close the component Next, I switch to Mono mode as you suggested. I switch to color by layer. The component takes on the color of layer 1 If I edit the component the internal geometry still registers Layer 0 (not what you said in your commentary) and the external layer color is still applied to the inside, just as it is when we paint a texture on it from the outside when it is in Shaded mode. this is entirely consistent with the behaviour I describe in Shaded mode. However the geometry inside is still on layer 0 If I explode the component it behaves as it did in the shaded mode. The geometry is on layer 1 now and the colour is still the colour of layer 1 as it was before I exploded. If I change to shaded mode it is still the same If I turn off colour by layer and look at it now, the colour is of the texture I orignially painted. The colour by layer colour does not over ride that. So I don't quite understand what you are trying to point out. So sorry. Perhaps I'm not understanding properly?

got the graphic problem too (on laptop with NVidia Gforce 9650). model is nice indeed

hehe thanks for the help but its good now, i did uninstall intellimouse but that didnt seem to do anything so i completely uninstalled sketchup and reinstalled it and now it works fine!

@gf.greg said: ...In fact I'm thinking that maybe I'd like to generate a new thread based on our discussion here... One focused on "workflow" and how people combine different tools and how they integrate SU in their design process... I think I'll give it a go, might have to repost some of the stuff I've shown here... I think that's a stellar idea. Let's see what people who think 'outside the box' come up with. Architects are welcome. DE

you may be able to reenable the thumbnil using nirsoft shellexview. its a tool for tweaking the windows shell. its a tiny file. download it, run it, and broswe to thubnails. you'll see the "sketchup shell extension class". if its disabled, you can enable it from there. hope that works out. cheers.

@raduzik said: Thank you for answer! But that is not exactly what I need. I am going to explain it again by help of picture which I hope realy helps....... ...... Rado, you asked for chain dimensions and that is what we gave you. What you are after isn't chain dimensioning at all. %(#0000FF)[For all dimensions you are after use the same reference point on the left, starting at o(zero), building up to the length overall.] To do this with Su's dimension tool is tricky. I mean to be able to have them nice looking on screen. The Text tool might help but for your convenience you then need to position your object with its reference point (zero) at the origin (temporarily though). The Text tool returns X,Y,Z and you still need to adjust the text which will not update when you make changes. The best option is to apply dimensions only for showing the value in text at the right spots. So just dimension-text that you can alter (alligned to/color/font/height etc.) (edit: file attached) Wo3Dan Chaindim.skp

yea got a 8800gtx card, got also an intelli mouse. Yea here in SA is this the most common thing in the shops...so we just grab that. But 90% of the time its fine...then one day just come and it gives you this...kinda funny..never ever happened to me till one day...boom. su 7 do the same thing. Havent check my home pc but office wise it looks like it might be only here, thanx will have a look at that