@ianclaytonv9pih said: Many thanks -- It worked. However I have a Mac and no right click on my mouse. How can I get to the explode menu? If I remember right, on the Mac you control-click to get the context menu. If you are using a Mighty Mouse instead of an old-style one-button mouse, it can be configured to right-click from the mouse control panel (it has two front buttons under the hood, they are just set the same. Also, pressing the scrolling ball can be made to activate Orbit instead of the Dashboard (who uses that anyway?) Anssi

i havent had any problems...cant think what might cause this though. Certainly a strange one.

Hopefully thie example will show you what i mean. Essentially, one component is constrained by parameters so that it can only be positioned in certain ways. I thought about it a bit more, though, and it probably wouldnt be hugely useful as you wouldnt be able to see how the components were constrained untill you tried to move them. edit: just had another thought, it could be used for some very basic rigging, i'll try ad get an example up and working in a while. assembly test.skp

Sorry, I don't know off the top of my head. But I do know that somewhere there was a post or a blog entry or something that Scott Lininger started to go into some quick explanation of this. I'll try to dig around and see if I can find what I am thinking of. Chris

Thanks Jim. I was not aware of that option (the shift key on the erase tool) - most of my Sketchup experience so far has been for personal stuff and I have so far gotten by with the basics and various tutorials. It's only recently with the rlease of V7 and the introduction of Dynamic Components that I have taken a more detailed interest in SU for more serious projects. I see I still have a lot to learn. Thanks again.

Thanks, just tried but to no avail.

I just got a program from here http://www.kissmyimage.com/en/download/ It will keep the pixel size of an image the same but reduce the file size to one you input. I am using it for panoramas on virtual tours and it is amazing. I am dropping files from 3mb to 900kb without any noticable difference. There is a free version with a very small water mark. Full version is cheap. I highly recommend this, the people on the panorama forums say it is way better than what PS can do.

@radorn said: I don't mind using convoluted procedures OK, since you insist Actually, there is a great free program called Vivaty Studio. The company has gone thru several re-brandings over the last few years (Flux, MediaMachines). I think they are targeting the social networking community (almost like Second Life). But anyhow... The tool is very good at parsing VRML and it's successor (X3D). It can read and export to many formats, some supported by SU. [image: piqL_io1.png] [image: 25wM_io2.png] Juan

Here are some images of it being used in kerkythea: [image: ENgt_map4.jpg] [image: HKOG_map7.jpg]

Has anyone figured this out, by chance? I know it's been a while, but I have an application for it, and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how to make it work. For mine, it's more of a "snake" component, where the user begins with one part, then selects 1 of 3 interactable "buttons" that creates a copy in one of the directions, turning the copy to fit. The link below should make sense of what I'm saying. Thanks in advance! BT http://forums.sketchup.com/t/help-making-copied-arrays-with-distinct-attributes-for-each-copy/31487a @chris fullmer said: Ahh, yes I was thinking about this Jim, and I thought it was simple. But I started playing with it and in about 5 minutes I saw just how not simple it really is. The random width means that the amount of copies will vary depending on the width of the books. That is tricky! I had a thought on placing them though. Each X should be the X of the previous (called "LastX") + the LenX of the previous (called LastLenX"). So what about each component passes its X and LenX out to a custom attribute in the parent component. So the next copy created would look to "parent!lastX" and "parent!LastLenX" to figure out its new X. Then after it sets its X and LenX, it writes its current state to the parent, overwriting the previous states and the cycle continues. So it runs like this Copy0 X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (These values will be zero since they have not been filled yet) LenX=3 (randomly chosen) <<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is 0) <<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is 3) Copy1 X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (Now this reduces to 0 + 3) LenX=2 <<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is now 3) <<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is now 2) Copy2 X=parent!LastX + Parent!LastLenX (Now this reduces to 3 + 2) LenX=4 <<<Sends X to parent!LastX>>> (which is now 5) <<<Sends LenX to Parent!LastLenX>>> (which is 4) Anyhow, its all theoretical since I am not on an SU7 enlightened computer at the moment. I hope that makes sense. In my mind it does, but I'm sure it will probably fall apart due to something I've forgotten. Anyhow, think about it Chris

LOL. Imagine the annoying noise it would make.

Don't forget to move all layers to Layer 0.

Thanks Scott, I think I am getting to understand this a little more. Please see attached, it seems to work as expected Many thanks, Bruce LenX and LenY OK

Just FYI for anyone that might come across this thread. As a workaround you can download a plugin here: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=14684&p=111254

Wow Solo, thank you so much. Your time much much appreciated... Thank you very much. ronan

@goccis said: I didn't knew that its been discussed this feature about this new version. Well, it was on another forum actually. And as said, this is the case now so we have to get accustomed to it this or that way...

Hakuna Matata

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

nice idea Jim. I was also thinking the other day it would be nice also to be able select a function so that faces do not close in. Then if drawing in 2D (eg: construction detailing) may read better and be faster to work with. This coupled with your idea may be a solution to drawing in 2D (with perspective turned off that is). Maybe a 90deg page rotation tool in the 2D direction could work also? I have to leave the working out of this to someone else ofcourse, but what do you think? CHeers Jeff