@dan rathbun said: What are your goals concerning the cost per seat ? Will it require a SketchUp Pro edition ?? Will there be a more than one edition (ie, Novice, Pro, etc.) Are you planning to incorporate any extensibility that would allow 3rd party extensions to your BIM system ? Right now, we don;t have a set price, but we WILL have multiple levels of functionality, though, that is not set, either. As of now, we don;t plan on making anything dependent on PRO, though I can see where having Layout would be ideal for this sort of work. As of now, we are considering interfacing via a generic IFC format, but nothing is carved in stone. @brewsky said: Hi Aaron! I'm also working on a BIM plugin for sketchup, check out: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=34007 I just added a tutorial to highlight it's functionality! Development could be much more effective when all sketchup-BIM-developers are working together. I'm interested in your answer to Dan's question, is your goal a free(open source?) tool? If so, would you be interested in joining forces? And if not so, maybe together we could make some "BIM-guidelines", so a wall in one plugin can be recognized as a wall in another plugin... Maybe even share IFC-import/export... Cheers! Jan I have seen your work in the past and I have to say it is quite impressive! As much as several of us enjoy the spirit of open source, we are being payed by a company who will want a return on investment, so it will be secured software that will be sold. As for the "BIM-guidelines", we are using the IFC standards, right now. They are not complete and, I feel, will change in the future, but it is a start, and it is already gaining acceptance and following. Again, thank you for your input and comments, we are very excited about this product and are looking forward to as much input as we can get from the members of SketchUcation! Thanks, Aaron

I hadn't noticed before, but it seems to be true. The reason seems to be in the way the offset function works. Arcs are just open curves with all the segments the same length, and with all the vertices being on the same arc. When you offset it, this no longer applies. The offset command makes the end segments relatively shorter, and a line drawn between the endpoint of the original and offsetted curve is at 90 degrees to the first segments, and does not cross the centerpont of the original arc. It is more noticeable if you make an arc of very few segments. Anssi

And that's a great scipt, too. See the thread about it to get more ideas (like it remembers a selection set in a group that you have closed since the selection etc.)

It's been said... You can't edit the SUp base materials in the browser. BUT you CAN edit the model's materials (see 'little house' button in browser). IF you have made a material in a model that you want to be accessible to any future models - via the 'base set' - then do a "Save_As" of this new material (in the model's material browser window select it and right-click to get a context menu...). Put it with only similar materials in your Materials folder structure... New models get access to it...

thank you all. now i can see possible uses for the color by layer setup.

Only if you have profiles on. I never have them on unless I have some difficulties with separating faces and need to see which line is the "culprit".

Actually, Remus, with AA on at anything much above screen resolution you won't get anything at all...it'll crash the program. I ALWAYS have AA switched off. If I need that extra quality, I export big and resize in Photoshop. The answer to the original question is yes, people have exported stuff from SU that's fit to go on a billboard. Use Tiff or png...they use lossless compression...jpegs don't. Actually, SU will export a tiff completely uncompressed...and it will be HUGE. You need to open it in Photoshop or something then resave it using LZW compression to bring it down to something reasonable. If you do decide to use a jpg, make sure that the quality slider is at about 90%. You'll get some artifacting but it ought to be acceptable.

Now just add a urinal and a bidet and you have one stop shopping

Wow, thanks alot bytor for the additions to this collection, very nice. Mike

Yes, I would use .png files with transparency. You can use other people's styles with textures as a study guide by going to Style > Edit >Watermark then clicking on the specific watermark and save as to your computer.

Here's one I made earlier - for a lighthouse model. A simpler slab than used here but the nested components/groups show how it's put together. Bob [image: mOsT_spiral_staircase.png] spiral_staircase.skp

Hi Solo, hi folks. Here is a trick I was once given in the old SU forum: When saving a multiple scenes tutorial, make sure that you save when viewing the first scene (usually Scene 1). This insure that the tutorial will open on the first scene instead of anyone including the last. This also save the final punch for the rigth time Just ideas.

I've got to chime in on this one. The book by Dennis Fukai, "3D Construction" is excellent! It is a couple of years old, but that in no way diminishes the impact of the book. If one wants to learn Sketchup this is one of the best ways. This book not only teaches the "program, or software", but also teaches one how to approach the problem of designing and building a project. That is, the methodology is as, if not more important than knowing which tool to use to get which effect on the screen. I also want to say that not only is the book an outstanding resource, Dennis is a prince of a man. I was having a little trouble with the videos included with the book, and so I emailed him for help. He bent over backwards to get things straightened out, (it was a combination of factors which caused the trouble, and I wouldn't have solved the problem without his help.) regards rollin'

I updated Windows then the driver was updated sucessfully. It was fixed.

You are welcome Alpro. No just doing a couple of models. I think I have just one or two more to do. Mike

Cheers Paul much appreciated!

Oooh, purty! Thank you.

I don't know that Mike but if they do, they are rather reluctant to reveal it. My town has about 170,000 citizens and all you can see resembles more like a meadow ith flowers from the distance (some coloured, hazy spots in the green). It will also be the European Capital of Culture in 2010 and the interest about the town has already been rising already (also in GE). I contacted them about a year ago and they said they could also use aerial photos in the format of "geo-tiff" files (some hi-res, non-compressed files with geolocation reference in them). Now as I work for the township here and we are just about purchase the latest aerial photos, I'm "lobbying" to do so by extending our rights to give the files to Google for upload. So lucky you, Bruce, congrats and happy surfing!

I was impressed with the soft light from it also. And yes the dimmer is a great addition as I have place it behind / to one side of a TV.

I model in perspective, with textures turned on. Occassionally I will temporarily switch to ortho mode or x-ray when selecting, but always revert back to perspective.