Thank you for your comment. I was hoping there might have been an alternative short cut on the lines of Pilou, having found that what he suggested did not work. Thank you again Ian

So if you don't want make your own ramp with Shape Bender, you have this specialized one! Instant Road [image: roadGif3small.gif]

I wouldn't have suggested it without trying it before, the VCB changes to distance and you can enter the distance to B...

Thanks Dave & TIG. I half expected that it wasn't possible. Walter

There are several tools to draw cpoints [aka guide-points] - including Rich's excellent PenTools. http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=Pen_Tools and http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=tt_guide_tools This simple snippet pasted into the Ruby Console adds a cpoint at all selected component-instances' insertion points. Naturally, you'll need to have Guides set to be visible to see these cpoints... Sketchup.active_model.selection.grep( Sketchup;;ComponentInstance ).each{|e| e.parent.entities.add_cpoint( e.transformation.origin ) }

This found that it works fine. Thank you for your comments.

@dave r said: Probably Jim's custom toolbars thing. yes sir, i can confirm they work the same i managed to export my custom toolbar 100% working across SU8/SU15/SU16 migration ~~but unfortunately i think if OP did'nt set Jim's custom toolbars in SU15 he may have nothing to copypaste in SU16.. maybe still a good idea to be ready for SU17 ~~ EDIT: i miss the post with the screenshot, so.. yes i can also confirm that: the buttons are from Jim's plugin. to migrate that successfully, you should copypaste (from '15 plugins folder to '16 plugin folder) the file toolbars.rb and the folder "toolbars" into the "toolbars" folder you can find the text files which actually control the toolbar creation/naming. hope this can help!

Hi It is possible to create components with ruby code, but i believe its much easier to use the ruby code to load a defined component and position it, I will continue with the pipe line DC, I created earlier and develop that. If you look at the cylinder code in the linetool example, %(#000080)[vec = pt2 - pt1 length = vec.length if( length == 0.0 ) UI.beep puts "Cannot create a zero length cylinder" return end] I used that as the starting point, initially changing the cylinder for a simple line. I now need to load a component and scale, then rotate it to the line created. %(#0000BF)[path = Sketchup.find_support_file('rod.skp', 'Plugins/su_examples/') definitions = Sketchup.active_model.definitions definition = definitions.load(path)] to get a scaling factor I saved the pipe line DC with a length of 1 meter and used that to scale to the length of the line. I loaded that DC to the su_examples folder http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Math.html gives the syntax for the maths being a roof carpenter, I used my knowledge of the relationship between a rafter and a hip (bevel cuts, lengths) to create a transformation sequence for the rotation searches in this forum helped to work out the method then I deactivated the line as it was no longer required as a reference added dc_observers.get_latest_class.redraw_with_undo(componentinstance) to redraw the scaled component (tig) I have attached the amended rod.skp and linetool.rb, which can overwrite the existing in the C:\Users"computer name"\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\SketchUp\Plugins\su_examples [image: tvpC_Capture1.PNG] the base component linetool.rb

@onyxx1606 said: @pbacot said: You can't simplify the making of a gluing component much, because it needs the input to know the orientation and location of axes. But once the component(s) are made, you can use Unglue and the plugin "Reglue" and hotkeys for those where you need to. Well i know my way around Sketchup, but i dont know anything about the creation of the software and the complications that are involved in improving/adding features to it. so ill try out your suggestion and sing its praises if it works. but again, the idea simply stemed from a minor inconvenience [at most] i encounter every now and then with sketchup and id assumed it was a nice thing for ,not just me bust a few more people, to have if i could have been implemented natively in sketchup. but if it cant so be it, thanks for your input and ill try it asap I am not speaking of writing software. Just common sense. You have to make specific input for the computer to know what you want, is all I mean. The system to make a gluing component describes what plane is used in the component and how it can align to any other plane in the model. Otherwise how would the computer know what you want? But as I said there are plugins that do place components on faces and might provide an idea for some shortcuts. I just don't happen to be able to dig those up at the moment.

And this free one ? http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-viewer.htm

@ontaotto said: Thank you Thomas, I have seen this image in Twitter, so if this plugin can do this, I am in, because it is exactly what I was expecting for. [image: CYIs7ijWcAAsF2P.png;large] Regards Otto That was created by Rich O'Brien using SUbD

a guess, without immediate solution... the ones that cause this try to take you away from the EW using a different protocol... i.e... http:// v https:// supposedly it's all about keeping you secure... john

Thanks again for the replies, I'll try the plugin suggestions.

Thanks Box for your note - anyway, I'll install SU 2016 asap in order to be up to date ...

@utiler said: Its called "Z fighting". Where two planes are co-planer.... A simple google search of Z fighting will explain for you. Thanks for providing the name for this phenomenon. I've looked up z fighting and see that it is caused by 2 surfaces occupying the same plain. So, in my case, the answer was to delete the google map since I was finished with it anyway. For those having trouble deleting the google map, you have to unlock it first (right-click > unlock) then erase it (right-click > erase).

For future Block that will not explode in Acad you have to go into block editor and bring up preferences and turn on the edit block check box.

Thank you for that slbaumgartner. Im on a 15" macbook pro with retina. Checking the retina box has more than doubled the size of the tab. Scott

You could "stitch" this together rather quickly. Or you could add verticals at the 3 corners then skin each of the three sides with Curviloft. Group all and reverse the faces so that all outsides are the front or white material. The way this was created, you could also use Extrusion tools- extrude edges by vector from one shell shape to the other (which seems to be a copy). Similarly you could have used Joint Push Pull--Vector Push Pull on one shape to extrude it up and make the second shell as well. One way to stitch it is just with vertical lines point to point since the shapes are identical.

When you position the subcomponents, don't include the containing block's X, Y, or Z attributes in the formulas (firepit!X + the rest of the position formula). If you do, everything displaces the amount that you move plus the additional distance. Try the component in the attached file. BLAH-rev.skp

Yes, thank you so much. That is exactly what I wanted. I was trying to make it harder than it is. I will get the extension for .skp --> .stl.