Woah! I'm away for a couple of days and...... TOM! that upshot is gorgeous! @thomthom said: If the render engine supported displacementmaps, would that produce a sufficient result? Forgive my thomthom, but I don't know what that is? Andy, I love you work, you are more the qualified to answer! I tried ground view but the client would go for it. He has been very firm with what he wanted soooo.... Here it is finished Roger I feel your pain, I have been working till I fall asleep at my desk for 3 weeks and trying to pack inbetween. (but that not a bad thing, right!) This is a great discussion. Anyone else have some fun angles. I'm going to play with some as soon as I clear my drawing board a little and move some couches!

Perhaps some heavy actions could have backup action joined and then you can end the process without loss of work? Usually I just save my work before something heavy and if the software freezes or crashes I just end the process on task manager and and then continue again ( I use this on many software ).

Moved to requests

Hi Eric. In answer to your question: @unknownuser said: In the center of the medallion, is that an image or did you model the flower I can only appologise for not having posted the medallion model. It was late, I was tired, you know, the usual excuses for being scatter-brained [image: lq5u_PlasterMedallion.jpg] So anyway, here's the medallion skippy. Plaster Medallion.skp It's actually quite crude and I'm sure most of the guys could do something much more ellaborate but it does give a nice 3D effect. I took a photo of a plaster cieling medallion and slapped it on a disc. Then I traced around some of the parts, p/p'ed them a bit, projected the texture and basicaly that's it. The center 'flower' was a bit more work. I didn't want to just p/p because then I wouldn't get that 'leaf' effect, so I scaled down the flowers base and did a follow me of a gentle curve for the top skin. Then I re-projected the texture and moved the flower back onto the center of the disc. Like I said, it's all pretty crude stuff. I think I probably would have gotten better results with soap-skin that with follw-me. So here's the skippy. I hope you find it useful. I'm planning to make a whole bunch of them and experimenting with different techniques. I'll post as I go along.

That is one of those "Duah" moments because when I read what you wrote above I went "Duah". Wish I had thought of that. Thanks Mike.

thanks eric, looks like what i need - i will give it a try

Thank you kindly........ I must not have been using the correct search terms. I'm usually very good at finding out info. Thanks again.

I like reading your stuff. It helps me more and more to learn SketchUp. If I can learn as much about SU as I know about AutoCAD, I'll be doing pretty well. Also, there's nothing bad about being long-winded. I like when people go into detail. It's most helpful for the learning process. You are da man!

I have been awol for a couple days and am just now checking. For what I am doing this will help tremendously. Thanks a million Jon

so what are the square panels called? decorative? that are tiled all over? decorative ceiling panels?

Thanks Ron, The company I work for does all of Ruud Lightings trade show exhibit work and these will come in handy!

This is genius! And greatly helps me with similar I am experimenting with . . I am convinced that 'Layout' can be acheived within Sketchup itself . . .

When I import a 3DS model, it shows up with all the edges visible, which I then hide by unchecking "Display Edges". I've turned the mesh into a component and added it to my library, but once I start a new SU file, it's back to visible edges again! How do I make "Display Edges" stay unchecked for a particular mesh? BTW, this is my first post here, and I love, Love, LOVE this program! (The little glitch yesterday with the Update prompt notwithstanding. ) I've worked with Anim8or and 3DSMAX, and this is a dream come true in terms of simplicity!

Hello all. Wasn't my reply soooo full of suspense? Kidding aside, logging in constantly is slightly impossible with deadlines always around the corner yesterday; add to the fact the the office limits internet access to text format emails. I think our IT guys forgot the nature of our job is hugely graphic... Anyways, let me try upload said example in a few days when i can access my office files (Islam Holiday hereabouts). As for the hidden section plane issue, nope, I made that CAD file myself, so there were no section planes interfering with the model. BTW, while on the SU model, the planes seem to jumble in order (i.e, planes behind suddenly present themselves up front during orbiting). For now, the usual solution given breathers-down-my-neck present, is grin and bear it. In a few days.

or maybe a nice necklace draped over it...

Yes thanks.

I was also referring to the text tool, not the dimension tool.

Looks like you have to set Dark to 100 and Light to 0. Cheers for the tip!