Have you tried adjusting various combinations for your Graphics Card's settings in SketchUp's Preferences > OpenGL ? What is the card and what are its settings ? Has the card's driver updated recently ? What is your MAC's OS ? Has that updated recently ?

Great advice TIG bookmarked

@krisidious said: if you want to spend the best $25 of your life you can buy Vertex Tools. +1

Just install the SCF Plugin Store on your other computer, log in and give it a few moments to connect. Then click on the gear and go to Bundles. Select the bundle you want to install and install it. Check the EW, too if you've gotten any extensions from there.

@driven said: copy paste your wall into a new skp and color the target faces a distinct color and I'll see if some ruby code can add them in place... really appreciate the help. file is attached recordWall

@driven said: are Preview Pane and Thumbnails turned on in the Windows Explorer? john Sorry, been very busy. No, I did not have Preview Pane turned on, but I never do. Turning it on made no difference. And, yes, thumbnails were turned on. Finally resorted to the old standby, Mystic Thumbs. Price has gone up a bit since I used it last, but it does the job. I've decided to keep Win 8. It's kinda interesting, something different. I am going to replace the SSD and HD with better ones though. Overall, this new laptop is amazing. It was touted as a desktop replacement, and I believe it. Kinda silly for me though, I only use it when I go out for coffee.

@aris said: No, the point is that you want to keep the initial components interlinked so as to keep working on them.What I want is to unlink the "children-components" from their perspective "parent components while keeping them in place If it's about one parent component with a child component, 'Cut' and 'Pasted in Place' or the 'Outliner' would suffice. But to get the child out of all parent instances and keep them all in place you also need the 'Component' browser and its option to replace a selection of components by another component. Copy the parent =(A with child C) to the side. Make it unique =(B with child C) > Get C out of parent B's environment > Componentize (B) + (C) into component D =((B)+(C)) Select all instances (A with child C) and via the 'Component' browser replace the selected components (A with child C) by component (D) > then explode (D) to get all instances (A) with all the respective instances (C) in place. It's quite fast, even with hundreds of instances (A with child C)

Another variation on the above method is to model a low-poly version of the object and then subdivide using Artisan: viewtopic.php?f=335&t=42938&start=270#p486774 I find that the results you get are much more fluid and naturalistic. It's also a faster workflow as you don't have to work with complex curves.

a skm is a zip folder with a few additional files... it has a thumbnail, a couple of short xml descriptor files and a folder with your jpg in it... it can never be the same size as the original jpeg... if you post an original jpg I will see if it can be trimmed a little, but I doubt it... john

Thank you Jiminy and Pilou. I checked Light Up out and you are both correct - perfect for what I need. Thanks for pointing me in that direction Richard C

I just redrew it from scratch next to yours. I used your version for dimensions and then deleted it after mine was finished. As for what is reasonable, that depends upon the application. If this is to be used in a model of a bed to show how the rails are attached to the posts, mine is overkill, too. If you are making a dimensioned drawing so a machinist can make them, it is probably about right. Even for 3D printing mine will probably be more than adequate. You could figure the resolution (diameter) of the nozzle for for printer and make the segment length at least that long but longer won't be a problem. Your version of the "hole" has 512 sides. That's less than 1° between vertices. Even 360 sides would be too many for nearly every application. I used 96 sides and I think it is round enough to get the point across.

it appears to have knocked down the requirements by 1GB once I've loaded a project - which seems positive. I will run it this way for a while and see if thats the headroom it needs to remain stable. thanks again for your time

It is covered somewhere... But I can't find it offhand... So here's a precis... The Sets work in a similar way for Plugins and Extensions. I'll explain it for Extensions... The use of 'Sets' is to allow you to set up and use collections [aka "sets"] of Extensions and easily witch between them. So if you do several different kinds of SketchUp modeling, rendering etc, then you can make various Sets of Extensions to suit you needs for each task, and swap between then in a few clicks... Click on the 'Sets' [blue] button and another 'Sets' dialog opens. This has several options... The top one is 'Add' - type in a new Sets name and Add it to the list. All current Extensions' statuses are remembered. If there are Sets available the second list shows them, select an item and 'Apply' becomes available. Click that and the statuses of all Sets are changed to match that named-set. You will need to restart SketchUp for any Disabled Extensions to be 'unloaded'. The Revert button swaps back to the last used Set. The Update button updates the selected named-set to match the current Extensions' statuses. The Delete button removes the selected named-set from the system. The Export button lets you save the 'set' file externally so you can then Import it on another Computer using that button. The Export All button exports a folder of ALL sets which can be Imported using the Import All button on another Computer. The Import/Import All button uses the Exported file[s], allowing you to sync your Sets between Computers... If an Extension is included in a Set, but it is not installed on a Computer, then it is ignored. The Plugins Sets are similar but allow you to choose Plugins which might not have been made as Extensions...

juju, thank you for the links. I have downloaded all of fredo6's plugins. Now I have to go and watch the video on how to install them.

Oh man, thank you so much for the lenghty reply. Kudos.

You should be controlling layer visibility with scenes in SketchUp and using those scenes for viewports in LayOut. Then you don't need to control SketchUp's layer visibility in LayOut. What do you have for render settings in LayOut? Very likely the edit render setting is set to less than High so imported images won't look very sharp. Export render quality can be set higher and the image will probably look good. Try importing your image and making a PDF export at high or even medium quality.

I didn't use any modifier key in the gif... [it uses alt on a mac]... I just release the mouse button then re-apply the push/pull tool... john

@hellnbak said: I followed your instructions and it seems to be working fine now. Not sure why it stopped working before. Although I suspect your advice about designing the component on a face and not on a group or component may have something to do with it. When you create a component, pay attention to the various option boxes in the dialog. If you created the component geometry inset on an adjacent face, the "glue to" behavior will get automatically set to "any" unless you set it to "none". Conversely, if you draw on a group or component, the glue to will be set to "none" unless you change it.

@krisidious said: I could have sworn this was telling what size the images were... Sorry hellnbak... Not a problem, not at all. Heck, I read through the thread describing the thing and I thought the same thing. Very confusing.

It sounds like you got the idea now. I thought I would suggest the plug in "layers Panel" as an added tool to help organize your layers. I tend to be very selective in the add ons I use because I am essentially lazy and do not want to learn how to do to many more things, bot this one has been worth the effort. I often make many scenes with many 3d trees and bushes that I need to control visibility and this is a very handy tool for that. [image: U1LM_layers-panel.JPG] [image: a3nW_layerspanel2.JPG] paul