I also do that cleanup and renaming. It is key to know what is happening. My outliner structure is as clean and tidy as can be. I try hard so there is not a flaw when I get to construction documents stage, on my projects. However as you might now, an architectural project takes a long time to deliver and I often work on more than once at a time with very short delivery times as can be. There is simply no time to check on all components and all groups names. This is where messy stuff starts to happen and so, at least, I know my outliner structure is coherent even if everything is named Group and Component#1. I often create groups for organizing stuff, for drawing stuff in 5minutes... I simply press a key and keep on modeling inside the group. Fast as hell and not dangerous. However I use components for 2 typical situations: Elements that repeat through the project Doors and Windows; Hardware; Sanitaryware and taps or sinks; Render proxies for furniture and vegetation. Special spaces that I save as Xrefs Outer building shell (for masterplans); Kitchens; Bathrooms; Staircases; Elevators; Halls; any other interior or exterior space that needs a lot of detail and I can isolate on a separate model binded to one or several other models. Note to Dave I do see the point of only using components. It's just that with so many of them and with such jumping through projects something will be messed up. Note to Trimble Most of my component problems would be solved with a simple thing - when making a component wich name already exists, why not ask if user wants to make it unique based on the name. It would look like this: "A component with that name already exists. Do you want to replace that definition with your new component?" Existing Answers: "Yes" and "No" Possible Answer: "Make Unique" The result would be a component with the name that exists and the next available "#n" Thank you again for your wonderful tips Dave and Pbacot and I'll be seeing you around. João

I seem to recall there was a plugin that commandeered the Undo function somehow. I'm thinking it was an older version of Jiminy-Billy-Bob's Layers Panel. If you've got it and haven't updated it, try that. As for your rendering issues, what rendering application are you referring to? You refer to reflections so that can't be native SketchUp.

@dave r said: It doesn't, huh? I wonder where you looked up that information. Yeah that was me not looking that hard and only finding 3.1 that didn't work with su2014, i found 3.5 after i wrote that. So here are the specs of a workstation i'm pushing for at work. I'm running sketchup pro, Lumion 4.5, BricsCad, adobe photoshop, and Premiere pro i7-4790k, 32gb-2133mhz ram, (2)gtx 980, 1000w psu, 128ssd + 1tb hd, & liquid cooling Any thoughts? Thanks John

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Curviloft has a low tolerance for messy operations and it won't work around geometry it sees as invalid. I've found that the key with Curviloft is to try and keep your operations in smaller grouped sections and don't try to get complex shapes in one big pass. Once you have each section worked out, then you can explode the groups if needed. Curviloft is great, but you have to do things nice and clean. Ramming together lots of elements with irregular spacing or breaks you will give you problems. It's also a good idea to use Curvilizard to weld your splines together when necessary. And be sure to save inbetween each successfully lofted piece.

I almost never use that export feature so I'm not an expert. Anyway I just tried and it came out well in ACAD. [image: uNel_Cattura.JPG] You have to export it as 3d model.

@deaneau said: nice tutorial the background music sound like Sami Youssef or Yusuf Ai Mualem thanks ^_^ ,,, yes it is for sami yussef, and I've added the links of all sound tracks to the description box of the video ,,, including the quran recitation.

Reducing the volume of material might not reduce the cost as much as you would hope. A lot of times the high cost is due to all the other factors: time, space in the printer, cleanup...etc. AND, be aware that there is a huge difference in how much printing services charge from one to another. I've seen astronomical prices from smaller local guys compared to what you will get from places like imaterialise.com

@cacowan said: I've seen the same problem described better on another site. Same conditions... A clean Yosemite OS. And a new download of Sketchup. It's not "Finder" that's crashing. It's the "in program " access to the file system. So in Layout, it won't create the window that accesses the file list more than once. In sketchup, it won't create the window that accesses a texture list or when you want to add a local component library... It won't create the window that accesses the file system to locate the reference file more than once. I've rolled back to Maverics until this is solved. I wonder... Just prior to wiping the computer there was a OS Yosemite update. It included a security update and it might be what slowed the startup on my Mac. On reinstalling Sketchup on Mac , there's always that caution that you're opening a program that is downloaded from the internet. What if it's the OS interfering with the program accessing the file system because it's not recognizing the app author? Most strange! This is not happening to me with the latest Yosemite and SU, so obviously it is something specific to your system...but what? Have you looked in the console logs to see if there is a flood of messages when these things happen? I doubt a security issue over the app author would slow things down. When I've seen such problems, there is a dialog that pops up and blocks the app completely until you give permission to proceed.

Great, thanks... i turned on 'use maximum texture size' in the Open GL preference so now i am able to import a large png image, however i haven't even drawn a line yet and my file is 7mb. I plan on deleting the imported image plan as soon as i have the base of the model drawn on top if it.

I've done a couple of tutorials on this over the years. Take a look here and here. It's easier if you use SU2014 because then you don't have to worry about scrambling toolbars.

You can show the coordinates using the Text tool and clicking on an endpoint or corner of the object. [image: DhC1_Screenshot-9_10_20147_49_58PM.png]

Well this is not a direct answer to your question but is one that "could" solve your problem. I'm not much into animations, however, I read somewhere here of a plugin that can create a spline for animation path and can importa another spline as animation path. If that is indeed the case, you can generate the path for the first animation, then place it in the origin, and generate the new animation... I hope you're able to fix it and if you do, please share your solution. EDIT: Well there is a path for sure in Key animation, but I don know about generating a path from existing scenes. I don't even know if the Key animation path is actual geometry... Maybe you can speed up your animation recreation with it though... http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=320705#p320705 There are other animation plugins. Maybe one could do the trick. JQL

Haha, thanks Dave, much appreciated.

Hey, thanks for this guess and sorry for my late reply. Could not get the point of the proposed plug that quick.. Seems like this is not the right for this purpose? It helps keeping track of components and updates them from / to external libraries- right? Actually it does not seem to allow me to copy all of those components I'd like to (even if they are inside of some other groups) and keep the original place, so I can insert them into an seperate file? At least I couldn't find a similar explanation in the description and changelogs.. Am I right?

If you go to Window/Preferences/Shortcuts you have the possibility to assign any shortcuts to the actions/tools you need. Many are already assigned-if you go to Camera/Zoom Extents you will see that the Shortcut is already assigned by default. I would advice you now, to go trough every menu(File/Edit/View/Camera...) and I bet you will find things you never knew. Also, use every action/tool from there so that you know what they do.. Of course some are unavailable because you need to have something selected or else.. Take care !