Thx Casca and Dave, guys I have tried TIG idea for the pinecote pavilion which I think went ok, using a rectangular components for all columns and beams, trying to keep file size small. Please check the model in the 3d warehouse as pinecote pavilion ( about 6mb but went to 7mb after location) please let me know what you think.

The only legitimate source for SketchUp no matter what version and the link you referenced earlier shows the only versions they are making available. If you have the original file downloaded and you are worried about needing to reinstall it, you ought to save a copy of the file somewhere safe.

I do have Fredo scale and I am learning--slowly but steadily, how to understand, let alone use these remarkable plugins. And maybe that old video is no longer important now with the updated tools we have at hand, but I simply thought it worth the question to see if someone might have remembered that particular video and know of a link to it. Again, my thanks for your replies.

So add details by hand!

@skyways128 said: @ Jim: I emailed my client, but he hasn't replied yet. If he's okay with it, I'll attach the file here asap. I didn't mean to imply you should share the file here; you could PM or email it if your client is more comfortable with that.

@hellnbak said: ......., and since I never had the plugin installed before I would really like to know how that feature got turned on in the first place....... Even if you never had 'Solar North' installed on your computer, you could stiil be stuck with that orange line in your model. That is when downloading a model with the line activated (and maybe rotated to the new solar north). It may sound silly but yes, that's the way it happens. The way to get rid of it is to have someone re-upload the same model without orange solar north for you to download, or to install the plugin yourself. p.s. I found this out myself some 6 years ago, not knowing that there was the possibility to set/adjust north. I had just begun with SketchUp. Someone "gave" me a model to work on.

@pipingguy said: OK - here is my understanding: To modify a color in a custom collection: Tools menu > Paint Bucket. Display the secondary pane by clicking the icon directly below the exit button. In the secondary pane, scroll thru the drop-down list and choose the custom library. In the primary pane, scroll thru the drop-down list and choose the “In Model” library. Or, if you're lazy, click on the little house icon to the left of the drop down list. @pipingguy said: In the secondary pane, right-click the color icon that you want to adjust and pick ‘Add to model’. Said color icon now appears in the Model Library; click it and then click the Edit tab. Adjust color and/or transparency……also rename if you wish. Click the Select tab Drag the color icon back into the Custom Library and choose ‘overwrite’ when prompted. No need to do anything else. You can exit SketchUp without even needing to save the drawing. The modified color will appear in the Custom Library when you re-start the program. Note- if you change color transparency, do not expect the color icon, when it’s displayed in the custom library, to show the two-tone diagonal slash as normally shown in non-custom palettes. That's pretty much it. I'd never saved a color with transparency before so never noticed but you're right about the thumbnail. Maybe there's a way to change that, though.

Thanks, James Happy New Year

@jim said: It is because of how the exporters currently work that missing faces are a problem. An STL file a simple list of triangle vertices. Even if a face is missing in the SketchUp model, their vertices do still exist. So maybe an exporter could "make up" the missing faces just from the vertices. That would be awesome Right now if there are missing faces, I run the model through Netfabb, which is a program that will fix minor problems like that really quickly. @jim said: @marcus: Thanks for the info. I bought a copy of your book; would recommend it to anyone interested in using SketchUp for 3d printing. Much appreciated, Jim!

@gu5to said: Ok, fantastic... thank you. That was the first time I realized you could actually share the files. On that note I was wondering if it is possible to share those files between PC and Mac? For example I was hoping to install my pro version on my boss' Mac and be able to send him .skp files for him to do walkthroughs with clients. Is this possible? Cheers Mac and Windows skp files are interchangeable.

I don't believe that for a second. "No brain" can't be your name. It's already taken by someone else. Check your PMs. D

@fredo6 said: ThruPaint does not provide continous textures across different groups. Actually, the best is to use the native Projected mode of the Paint tool, which, I believe use an absolute origin for texture positioning. Fredo One think that does work across different (nested) groups with native tools is to reposition the texture and drag each red pin to a one mutual location (endpoint of a basic edge or guidepoint in plane! of faces) further down and to the left of all included geometry (thus all the basic and grouped (nested) faces that need to be painted correctly). So all these faces would then have their red pin located at the same [X,Y,Z] location. For me it worked in you model. Tedious to do though and I had to reset one texture of a nested face. Probably a plugin would be able to dig trough the (nested) geometry to do all the faces in a certain plain with the same defined/selected material. This would exclude other faces, painted with other material. But hé, unfortunately I can't do Ruby scripting.

@krisidious said: 5k? Are you insane? You thin this is insane? My way to the toilet is longer than 5k mm ...

Sometimes I exaggerate the move in the axis I want, in order to get the move to offer that axis. For me the shift usually works fine to hold the direction.

Try also the Bezier Surface by Thomthom above, it's a true task!

Sadly, burkhard's expreience sums up our own. We got one in at work for our software development team to look into - after a few hours playing with the provided examples, it went into a drawer, never to be seen again, without so much as a line of 'integration code' being written. Even in the videos, you can see how slowly everyone does everything. It looks like it ought to be intuitive, but everyone's opinion here was the same - you seem to need to develop some kind of special motor skills that don't come very naturally (hopefully before your arms drop off from fatigue!). The idea is really sweet, but the actual experience of every single one of us was "gimme my mouse back!". One has to wonder wonder just just how much practice the demonstrator's had, and how many takes it took to make their marketing videos! As you say "pushing the boundaries", and surely the technology will improve. However, consider this... 'Gestural' technology is not as new as all that. The Theremin (wave your hands in the air musical instrument) is getting on for a century old. Moog had a good stab at popularising it, it was used by many composers (lots of cool sci-fi movie soundtracks especially!), and they're cheap as chips to make. Yet, theremin players are rare as hen's teeth - and ones that can play in tune and expressively rarer still!

I'm glad you got it sorted. Get some sleep, now. Happy New Year to you, too.

Thanks Dave, have sent you an email Mirroring has been done, it was the fin on the side but was for future reference really.

@john2 said: Yes I know sir, I was discussing the possiblity for making a plugin which helps mediocre SketchUp people like me. It sounds like you'd rather stay a "mediocre SketchUp" person, as you describe yourself, and hope someone will make a plugin to overcome that for you.

@box said: To be honest Hellnbak, if you have really decided you want to use SU8 then I think the easiest way to restore SU8 as the default is to uninstall 2015 and reboot so that SU8 is recognised and works. Then reinstall 2015 making sure during the installation to tell it not to be the default. From memory it does give you that option during the install process. You can rename the .exe to force things to work but it can get confusing. But I'm fairly certain that 2015 respects the default choice during install. I remember that when I installed it I chose not to have it as default and kept 2014, then when I wanted it to be default I had problems so just reinstalled and made the choice. One of the other new additions (I think) is the ability to right click on a file and choose which version you want to open it with, directly in the context menu. I think you misunderstood. I'm not primarily using SU8. I use 2015 for almost all of my modeling (still loving it, by the way). but for some things (such as being able to edit textures using my old trusty Microsoft Picture It Pro 9 when I don't need the advanced features (and much longer loading time) of PS)), I use SU8. So I save all of my models as SU8 to give me the option of opening them in either version. @rexworthy said: I have had this problem as well. I like using 2014 but everything opens with 2015 instead. What you need to do is right click on the file. Go to properties then click "Change" where the Opens with option is. Browse to find the 2015 location (Program Files\Sketchup) rename the start up file and add a 1 after it so it becomes "Sketchup1" Now locate the sketchup 8 folder (Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Sketchup click the Sketchup application. Hit open then OK and Apply. From now on any skp file should open with Sketchup 8. Hope this helps dave Well, I just discovered that even with my new installations of everything on a fresh hard drive I still have this problem. And I made sure to install SU8 first, hoping that might take care of it, but no such luck. So I took your advice and renamed the Sketchup.exe file to Sketchup 8, and that seems to have put the smile back on my (incredibly handsome) face For some reason, when I do open a model in SU8 I get this message [image: WjWI_2015-01-10_110613.png] but I consider that a small price to pay for getting things to work the way I need them to. Now BOTH versions have a nag screen It looks like the weather has calmed down and the roads are actually useable so I'm gonna leave the house for the first time in three days. There is absolutely no reason for me to stay in Michigan other than inertia, so why am I still here????