Well, when it is already big, there aren't "best ways". Always keep in mind to use low poly geometry for everything you don't really want to show a close-up of and to use components extensively. Everything that is in your model more than in one instance, should be a component. Even repetitive elements within components should be nested components. Keep image sizes low. Even if you want some high-res images, SU will reduce them to a maximum 1024 size on either edge. There's no use to use bigger ones therefore. Use smaller, tilable textures instead (though some may look ugly when too big faces are paited with them). In reality, it's not even the file size that slows down SU when reaching a limit but the ability of the video card to display movements etc. Therefore use layers to temporarily hide geometry that you don't need while modelling certain details. This can also go extensive. Turn ioff materials while modelling (use monochrome mode - at least you can see where the back faces are) and also turn off shadows. Displaying them slows SU down considerably.

It's always a kind of try and redo thing when I'm working with it (not too much). The lines are just simple edges of a tin which you should (not just can) smotth afterwards. Select the group (it comes out groupped) and go to the soften dialogue , check bot boxes and try sliding it slowly. There are often some "obnoxious" lines that don't want to smooth - you can do this with the Ctrl+Eraser tool while editing the group.

Dear Bert Thanks for your response. I agree your way appears to be the common sense way, however it still doesn't work form me. Thanks anyway Dropinarchitect

@greentoaster said: having the center of the cylinder coaxial with the green or red axis seems impossible. For all these problems, drag out a rectangle near, but not touching, your work. Push/pull up to box size. Triple-click, group. Place the thing you want on the appropriate face. Hold the shift key down to lock orientation. Go do your thing. (Works for Circles, Polygons, Rotate tool, Protractor, ...

This probably has to do with OpenGL hardware acceleration, and substandard videocard drivers. Try turning hardware acceleration off (sketchup preferences). If you have an intel integrated video card, look no further, there´s your problem.

Hi Nick, where's the link to the desk? It's just what the doctor ordered... ( he he... literally in this case)

Charlie, I1m sure we may... Thanks for sharing (and also nice details! )

thanks Anssi, unfortunately it's not large or far from origin. I've experienced this on small models and large ones. It's weird, I removed and reinstalled sketchup but it still happens. It only happens occasionaly, and when it happens on a "face" I can sometimes eliminate it by drawing a line accross the face, and then soften it. it's as if the flat plane becomes non-planer and planer (I think thats the term) at the same time somehow. entering the fourth dimension, or twilight zone. arrrgggg

Invader, What Chris posted is most probably not his own site so he has no control over the content - let it be some 3D stuff or the html (or what) composition of the site. So "PLZ" do not ask him to make any effort to convert that site into some more compatible. Do it yourself if you wish (BTW I also use Firefox most of the times but have some recent IE also installed for such cases. Even Opera and Netscape etc. Go and get a try). Thanks for your understanding - and it is meant...

Gidon And very nice to. Alan

Over the years I've printed very little direct from SU. That changed recently as I started working in an office that has a nice colour laser printer and I love seeing the colour output. The mistake I was making for a while with printing related to the size of my modelling window vs. the print area. I was finding my printed models to be small relative the paper. Eventually I realized that my dimwitted mistake was in thinking 'stretch to fit' (or whatever the printer drivers call it) would make my model fit. What I was forgetting about was the print is the entire modelling window and not just the model. So with a big monitor with lots of floating tool panels open I might just have my view of the actual model taking up less than half of the overall modelling window. On printing it is the entire window that prints. As I often work with a white background and sky & ground turned off, it isn't always very obvious why the model printed so much smaller than expected. Now what I do is before printing I resize my window and think of it as a cropping or framing tool to determine exactly what I want to print. Regards, Ross P: Ross at work

Ah, I see, you meant for plan views, like AutoCAD does. That would be a tricky one to implement as as soon as you orbited out of the plan view the re-aligned selection box would become more of a hindrance than a help. An effective workaround is to save a scene which is a rotated plan view of the skewed bit of the overall plan which you can switch to and then pan around when you need to make a selection.

Glenn, I just drew arcs and rotated them a little bit to "bend down" on one end then just copied the whole thing onto the other end. Add the poles separately.

Thanks for sharing, Mateo. This will go into my library.

i accidently posted a reply here that was meant to be posted there.

Dider hasn't updated his plugins to work with the newer Ruby version. TIG has edited a few and you can find them in the Plugin Store. I don't think this is one of them, though. I fixed it load by changing unpack("m").to_s to unpack("m")[0]. It still doesn't appear to work, though.

Doh, I understand now. thanks so very much. Of course, it is totally obvious when someone else has thought of it. Thanks again.

feel free to contact me at sketchup-house-plans.com and I can set you up with some space to work on this... and perhaps help. standards would be realisim... a sheet of plywood should cover 4'x8' with out repeating the pattern or should look correct when repeating... wood trim should be narrow and long, and should have tight graining. a cross section of wood should be just that, a cross section, and the outside of wood or the long grain should be just that... yeah I could get into this.

Heh, I've even grown to use my 30 minute autosaves to alert me to how long I've been working at a model. P: Cyberdactyl

You can right click on a component's thumbnail in the dialogue and choose "Properties" (or choose the edit tab) to edit it. There you can change its guing options, too. Also, if you have any problem with the component axes, by right clicking a component, you can choose "Change axes" if you need to change them. BTW I am moving this topic for the "Component forum" is meant for sharing components...