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    Help! southern hemisphere users here!

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    • L Offline
      lets_roll
      last edited by

      Hi all 😄

      First up...great forum for an even greater program! We're Landscape Architecture students who use Sketch Up for all our visualisations, plans, and conceptual work. We have a burning question that maybe someone could help us out with....
      How do we change the 'shadows' settings to a southern hemisphere orientation..?? Is this actually possible...? We've laboured over fixing this issue with Photoshop (patching in shadow casts etc...) but it would be fantastic if the shadows setting could be changed in Sketch Up!

      Thanks so much 😄

      P: lets_roll

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      • T Offline
        tomsdesk
        last edited by

        Go into the "window" pulldown menu, select "model info", select "location", and then select yours.

        http://www.tomsdesk.moonfruit.com/
        2.5D Trees & Shrubs!

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        • GaieusG Offline
          Gaieus
          last edited by

          @tomsdesk said:

          Go into the "window" pulldown menu, select "model info", select "location", and then select yours.

          Note that this menu option is only available in the Pro version (as far as I know).
          If you use the Free version, take a GE Snapshot (you don't necessarily need to use it afterwards) and it will locate your model wherever you need to.

          Gai...

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          • EdsonE Offline
            Edson
            last edited by

            gai,

            unless i am very much mistaken, it is in the free version as well.

            and, lets_roll, if you do not want to do what tom suggested every time you open a new file, do it once on an empty one and save it as a template. after that go to preferences>>template and choose that one as the default file at opening the app.

            edson mahfuz, architect| porto alegre • brasil
            http://www.mahfuz.arq.br

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            • GaieusG Offline
              Gaieus
              last edited by

              @edson said:

              gai, unless i am very much mistaken, it is in the free version as well...

              Yes you are, Edson - I mean mistaken. 😄
              In my office I'm "lucky" to have the free version so have a look at the attached image to see the model info dialogue:

              http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/sas/Newbie/ModelInfo.jpg

              There is however a nifty little ruby by Jim Foltz: "latlong.rb" which works from the free version, too. He deposited it into his "uncertain" scripts (written for SU5 and haven't been confirmed to work without bugs in SU6 yet) here:
              http://jim.foltz.googlepages.com/plugins_index.html

              And this is the dialogue it gives in SU6 (I have just downloaded it and installed to SU6 with no problem).

              http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/sas/Newbie/LatLong.jpg

              Gai...

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              • TaffGochT Offline
                TaffGoch
                last edited by

                If, in the free version, you want to set a specific location without using Google Earth, you can do so through the 'Ruby Console'

                These are the four separate ruby commands I use to query the currently-set location:

                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["City"
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Country"]
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Longitude"]
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Latitude"]]

                These are the corresponding commands to set the parameters:

                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["City"="Springfield, IL"
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Country"]="USA"
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Longitude"]=-89.67
                Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info["Latitude"]=39.85]

                I used the above commands to set my current location, then saved a model template (just as Edson suggests.) Setting this template as my default now establishes this location for any new model I create.

                For your location, simply look up your longitude and latitude (in decimal format) and modify the above commands.


                Regards,
                Taff

                "Information is not knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

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                • B Offline
                  Bill Wilson
                  last edited by

                  G'Day lets_roll. I'm a Kiwi and and using SU free. This is a problem that I had to find a workaround for, but now that I have read the posts above I shall use the .rb script. If all else fails re-orintate your model 180deg and add (or subtract) 6 months and swap am for pm Works a charm every time. But if you are intending to render it in KerkyThea, and possibly other render programs, leave it as it is and alter the lat and long there.
                  Cheers and Beers,
                  Bill.
                  ps. Ta very much Taff for all of your .rb scripts they certainly make life in SU easier. Have you a tut on how to set up a script?

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                  • TaffGochT Offline
                    TaffGoch
                    last edited by

                    Bill,

                    I have only learned the basic single-line commands required to fulfill a need-of-the-moment.

                    I generally use only the Ruby Console, and have not yet pursued incorporating multiple ruby commands into a script. I know it's not a big deal - I just haven't needed it yet.

                    The advantage of a script is usually driven by a need for repeated, frequent use of commands, or when more-than-a-few multiple commands need to be run consecutively. So far, I haven't been confronted with such needs (primarily because there are so many appropriate downloadable scripts.)


                    Regards,
                    Taff

                    "Information is not knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

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                    • L Offline
                      lets_roll
                      last edited by

                      wow! fantastic response...thanks sooo much guys! as i'm using the SU 6 Pro version (my colleagues are using a mix of free-ware and Pro versions...) I had no problems finding the location selection from the drop-down menus.
                      This solves the basic problems we were experiencing and we're very appreciative of your replies! Thanks so much.

                      and g'day to you too Bill! nice to see another fellow NZ'er using SU!

                      and thanks Gai...the template has been saved!! 😉

                      P: lets_roll

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                      • S Offline
                        santiagom
                        last edited by

                        about edson´s post, the mac free version does have the ability to change location and solar orientation info.

                        http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/sas/Newbie/Location.png

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                        • GaieusG Offline
                          Gaieus
                          last edited by

                          Wow, that's interesting! Thanks for posting it! (Edson uses a Mac version though the pro one).

                          Gai...

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                          • EdsonE Offline
                            Edson
                            last edited by

                            @gaieus said:

                            Wow, that's interesting! Thanks for posting it! (Edson uses a Mac version though the pro one).

                            yes, but until april i used a free version, and i remember having no difficulty in setting the location to porto alegre. you sounded so secure when you said there was no location feature for the free versions that i thought i was confusing things. thanks, santiago.

                            edson mahfuz, architect| porto alegre • brasil
                            http://www.mahfuz.arq.br

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                            • GaieusG Offline
                              Gaieus
                              last edited by

                              Well, as you can see in the attached picture by me that in the windows version there is really no such setting (in my office I only installed the free version for I don't want to hassle with the system there and install the net 1.1 framework and thiongs like that).
                              I could not imagine that they give out so different versions for Mac and Win.

                              So sorry Edson! 😄

                              Gai...

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                              • EdsonE Offline
                                Edson
                                last edited by

                                no problem. it is curious that, in some applications, the mac and pc versions differ significantly. microsoft entourage (the mac equivalent to outlook), for one, is quite different from its counterpart.

                                cheers.

                                edson mahfuz, architect| porto alegre • brasil
                                http://www.mahfuz.arq.br

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                                • B Offline
                                  blahman
                                  last edited by

                                  Good to see some kiwi's on the forum

                                  Just starting learning the program with the aim of eventually using it for work (Detailing houses for precut)

                                  Has anyone read the Dennis Fukai's book on construction for sketchup. I wonder how relavent it would be to our metric wood based construction system down here.

                                  P: blahman

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                                  • EdsonE Offline
                                    Edson
                                    last edited by

                                    in case you do not know them, the best two books on SU are:

                                    The Sketchup Book, by Bonnie Roskes
                                    Google Sketchup for dummies, by Aidan Chopra (videos from the book on you tube). beware of the fancy edition wiley just published: same content, 3x the price.

                                    cheers.

                                    edson mahfuz, architect| porto alegre • brasil
                                    http://www.mahfuz.arq.br

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                                    • I Offline
                                      idraft
                                      last edited by

                                      Yes another Kiwi here form WELLINGTON...

                                      I use SUPro6, happy to send you a model which you can down load if you give me the co ordinates you want , then just save as template...I use the shadowing a bit now for Res Consent applications.

                                      Cheers Jeff
                                      jeff.rae@xtra.co.nz

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                                      • J Offline
                                        Jim
                                        last edited by

                                        Ack, that's an old link. Here's the latest:

                                        Link Preview Image
                                        Plugin: Model Location

                                        * This plug-in was made for SketchUp version 6 Free because it lacked the dialog (which Pro had) to change these settings. This has become ...

                                        favicon

                                        (sketchuptips.blogspot.com)

                                        @gaieus said:

                                        There is however a nifty little ruby by Jim Foltz: "latlong.rb" which works from the free version, too. He deposited it into his "uncertain" scripts (written for SU5 and haven't been confirmed to work without bugs in SU6 yet) here:
                                        http://jim.foltz.googlepages.com/plugins_index.html

                                        And this is the dialogue it gives in SU6 (I have just downloaded it and installed to SU6 with no problem).

                                        Hi

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                                        • GaieusG Offline
                                          Gaieus
                                          last edited by

                                          Thanks Jim, I know already that you have the new place - I have just not been able to go through every post of mine to update the links. 😉

                                          Gai...

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                                          • I Offline
                                            idraft
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi Gai..

                                            You could try this for any dead links? Youve probably sorted this by now! 👍

                                            Link Preview Image
                                            AM-DeadLink - Freeware tool to detect broken (website) links

                                            AM-DeadLink - Freeware tool to detect dead links and redirections. Supports many file formats: website including links, tab-delimited files, CSV files, HTML files and browser bookmarks.

                                            favicon

                                            (www.aignes.com)

                                            cheers Jeff

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