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).

Hi folks. Personnaly, I would simply: 1 - Make the component from one of the group. 2 - Copy it, using the groups to help in positionning, rotating, etc. 3 - Delete the groups. Just ideas.

hmm... I was using shaded view when I tried the export...

A very marginally quicker modification of Boo's method is to just use a selection window around the face (including the outer edge) and then de-select the outer edge by double shift clicking one of the outer connected faces.

You know...? I do KNOW that... I think my brain went on vacation. Thanks for stating the "usually" obvious! Good grief...

sometimes that has something to do with layers. did you get a whole bunch of layers, when you imported? if yes, some of them may be hidden. the easiest way to get your model a bit more clearly arranged is to select them all (except layer0) and delete them. SketchUp will ask you, if you want to move the contents to the default layer (layer0). Confirm. perhaps that was the only problem...

That was the culprit! I always export large and resample down because I don't like the SU AA, but I'd never turned it off.