Also you can find the "culprit" endpoint by using the text label tool on the corners. Whichever doesn't say 0 for the blue axis (for example - in case of a horizontal rectangle) will be the one that prevents you from creating a face. You may need to adjust precision to some higher value in the Model info box. To fix this, make sure nothing is selected, hover over the wrong point with the move tool, click on it when the inference appears, hit the up/down arrow on your keyboard and move it to 0 z value (by inferencing with any of the correct corner points). Also note that SU has some kind of "tolerance" so you may even create a face with non coplanar edges (see example file - the face is created though the corner point farmost from the origin is 0.01 cm higher than the others - start push-pulling it up and see that the vertical edges lose their z-axis marking blue colour at about 3300 cm high). So you never know... Non-planar.skp

Fred thanks, I delved into the SketchUp 5 book last night and read up on TINs etc; I have to admit to being a little shy of the Sandbox tools.... thanks again! greg v.

SketchUp is fully capable of doing so. (Wrong term though -- SketchUp uses 'drape' to describe something else. If you're searching the Users Guide, you don't want to search on that term.) You want to 'project' a texture onto the terrain surface. This is described in one of the Google video tutorials here: http://sketchup.google.com/gsu5vtvideos.html (#12, "Using images as signs") I've produced several textured terrains with projection, including a tutorial: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=2ff3fe050d0f83a549a70958796b8e8&num=50&scoring=d Hopefully, one of these models provides the help you need. Regards, Taff

One sure fire way is to scale your model up (factor of 10 or 100?) as I think you're pressing the envelope with SU precision working at such small scale.

Hi, It seems you need XrefManager script don't you ? -> Add Xrefs and Manage Xrefs, Autocad-like tools to insert and manage external references within SketchUp. Version 5, requires -win32ole.so- in the Plugins folder. Documentation included. d/l here: http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/em_fil_page.htm

Thanks. . .I appreciate it. I knew it was inthere, I just couldn't find it.

Hi, Download dashes.rb here: http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/em_arc_page.htm It may help you.

Thanks for the tip on the massmaterialimporter. I have been looking for something that would do that.

SU will remember the last import settings you used. Anssi

Nothing new, but more of a reitteration based on my findings which have mainly been w/ the brick textures. Image resolution does help but it seems to be on a decreasing scale. So rendering small images will make the affect horrible. If you do images about the size of your monitor it'll be quite a bit better. But after you get past about 2000 pixels in either width or height it doesn't seem to make as much difference. The biggest difference comes from changing the scale. Make the scale as large as you can without making it so big it's obvious the scale is way off. This is also a much better option for animations since you don't want to just try and solve the problem by making ginormous image files. I haven't really tested it much but it seems logical that you'd want to use .png or tiff files since they aren't compressed like a jpg. I usually combine all of these things. Scale the texture up, have SU render a bunch of png files at 29.97 fps at a nice big size (twice the size I'll end up with is pretty ideal), then use Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 to put them into an animation. -Brodie

I only know about it because I of a ruby script, written/adapted for use with Podium, that is based on that ruby AFAIK.

this works just fine! http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/EM/layerbymaterial.rb

You might also want to check out Antics V3.1, which just launched last week and now includes SketchUp import. Antics V3.1 is a free download from http://www.antics3d.com Check out this video which showcases how you can add animation to your SketchUp models: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9ZIeEadqQ

Thanks, Didier... Regards.

Good old Ruby to the rescue! It's amazing how often they help out and make your life so much easier.

Or you can use the export function and export in a larger resolution. This is a must if you plan to use it for large prints.

Ok, jsut to warn you, this is a pretty bad way of doing it, and im sure there must be far more elegant solutions to this. Also you'll need fred06's ruby, joint push/pull, which you can find here: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=153&t=6708 Step 1: draw a circle and push/pull it in to a cylinder (i only used 12 segments to my circle to speed up the process, use more if you want a smoother ramp/cylinder) [image: 2427666689_00286a8651.jpg?v=0] Step 2: Turn on hidden geometry (view->hidden geometry) [image: 2428479614_3dd928ba04.jpg?v=0] Step 3: Using the line tool, draw a line to connect the hidden lines, also notice that ive stopped the spiral just short of the top of the cylinder. [image: 2427667087_d552812b10.jpg] Step 4: Select the spiral and move a copy up. [image: 2427667223_359db73038.jpg] Step 5: Using the line tool, close all the faces by drawing a line between the upper and lower spiral, following along the hidden line (note ive turned of hidden geometry for clarity) [image: 2428480026_8bcf616f05.jpg] Step 6: Soften all the lines you just drew, this will effectively turn it in to one big face. [image: 2427667445_e5900f7f0f.jpg] Step 7: select the face and use fred06's joint push/pull ruby to push/pull the ramp out. [image: 2428480250_967c359cd3.jpg]

Also, as a quick workaround, you can take a GE snapshot (you can toggle it off any time) and that will set your location in SU. Even "more also", Jim has created a plugin that will allow you to set the location on the free version of SU. Also he has a Sun tool and a Map Sun plugin for shadow studies. Finally, have you tried the new version of GE for shadow studies? Have a look at this thread (and the link in the first post). It seems to be really cool! And well, as it turned out that it's not a "bug", I'm moving the topic to the main forum now if you don't mind.

very cool

I always keep my Styles dialogue in my window and mainly to access this feature (and sometimes profiles as well).