Cool house! Some bigger images would be better (for details). 800 pixel wide attachments are allowed...

I thought of something like that, but the options tab is greyed out when I select kmz as the file type.

super cool! thanks a lot!!

@starwarsknower said: You don't need a new graphics card at all, go on to Window>Preferences>OpenGL>Correct reversed picking driver bug. Easy fix! AFAIK doesn't help with Intel cards, but has worked with older ATI ones. Anssi

I have found that exporting polylines from Vectorworks to Sketchup causes errors in display, the lines seem to have been 'smoothed' and the reality is you lose a lot of detail Im new to vectorworks so assume it is an export setting, has anyone had this occur? Tracing over polylines with lines seems to fix it but its not really a fix... Any ideas appreciated thanks EDIT - FIXED Decomposing polylines under the edit menu allows export normally

Here’s the finished product. Just what was needed to complement the fence gate. Next step; make a real one with wood. Actually, the proper nomenclature is: “Post cranium cover” Thanks again, gentlemen. Harry [image: LsZ8_Postcap.jpg]

As far as I investigated, using components in SU does not affect the size of the resulting KMZ file that much. In fact, I have just made a test and exported a SU file (with lots of components) into kmz. The one using components came out bigger than the one that I exported after exploding the components( and purging the components from the browser). See attatched file. I'm not too much in scripting but to my understanding, xml format (simple text files) cannot support components at all (Tomasz could confirm this - or anyone who regularly export into Kerkythea). Rename your kmz file to zip (that actually it is) and you will see a kml file in there. That's the geolocation info only. Now there's also a folder in there called Model or what (I'm too lazy to check) inside which there's a collada file (with dae extension) and the images if you used any. Both files (the dae and the kml) can be opened in a plain text editor and you will notice that in the collada file there's no info about components or anything. So as a final "verdict" - with excessive geometry instead of photos you cannot keep the size of a kmz file smaller when it comes to a certain level of details and complexity. I made some Gothic churches with ribbed vaults and window tracery and ended up with GE almost being unnavigatable when playing around with placing them. When a model loads, first the geometry loads and then the images (sometimes one by one). So you are already able to see things and navigate around while it is still loading. If you use excessive geometry, this will not be the case. A colonnade however should really be modelled for instance - you cannot substitute all detailing with images. You need to find a healthy balance between them. I hope I haven't been too exhaustive doric_coloumn.zip

@gaieus said: @unknownuser said: ...As I get to know everyone around here, I'll tell my real name... 4k+ members will take a while to get to know... On my... that's a lot of people.

Bookmarked and thanks.

so i broke down and made one [image: vym9_splitrail.png]

Yeh!

Thanks Guite, that's exactly what I need. Now to figure out how to place the houses and fences on it...I'll give it a go.

Pompeyfan, There can be multiple reasons for your speed issue - so it is hard to be too specific. But generally speaking - the following might help, and are based on some broad assumptions. While working in sketchup: - the video card and memory are critical, as your processor should be sufficient. All of the comments regarding the on-board intel accelerators apply. A seperate nvidia or ati chip based video card with dedicated 256 mb of memory would make a difference. More than 1 Gb of ram would help for larger files. While rendering with the V-ray plugin: - the video card play no part with the exception of showing you the progress and end result on the screen. There are a couple of potential causes and solutions 1- Vray likes to take all of the processing power of the chip - so you will not likely be able to do much else while rendering with a single core chip. also - Vray can take advantage of running multiple cores to help with this. 2- Your memory of 1 Gb is low for rendering - jumping to 2 Gb should help your system with some breathing room 3- Vray has some very efficient pre-sets for rendering that I would suggest you stick to till you get more comfortable with what can and should be tweaked. 4- File optimization can never be over rated, all of us can always do better. Hope these help - I know how frustrating it can get waiting for the renders at times! Bytor

..and to think that when I posted this question originally I thought it was just me being silly and that I'd get an easy answer that's make me slap my head and say "duh!"...

Are you importing models via the File > Import > 3D menu? Also it is possible to open the file you want to import, copy the geometry, switch back and go to Edit > Paste in place. This is very helpful if you want to insert objects into the same place (to tell the truth, I never use the real import menu in my workflow but it should work like inserting any component: "stuck" to your cursor and you can place it with a click).

Thank you very much for the beautiful books.

sorry sapper545 no way to get to open it maybe if you contact Trimble support ... salud

To avoid the boxes being greyed out ensure you have on one of the pre-defined views obtained with the little 'house' icons at the top of the page. You would use the top view for a plan view for example. Secondly on the menu along the top ensure you click 'camera'then 'parallel projection'. You can't print to scale in perspective. It should work for you now. Kenny

Charlie / Anssi, Thanks very much to both of you for your help with this. I tried both methods and they work really well - just what I needed. ... Regards Howard Leslie