Thanks for the help I was finally able to figure it out

Bummer. Thanks, Rich.

Thanks for the info. Ron

There was a lot of buzz about it back when it was in beta. It looked like a nice renderer but the price tag is just too steep for many.

windows 7 ult.. thanks.. will try I hoped I fixed the system to never have to run as admin.. took ownership of everything.. turned off UAC, unhid sys files.. etc but will give it a shot did not work.. will not install I did find an older version 8.03something that does work or I'd have nothing

You should have had a message at least once in the last year telling you there was a new version. did you just ignore it?

thx man

@pbacot said: I had read someone talking about pdf output in the PC and Mac. Or is it png? In the Mac you can print to pdf and it works pretty well with LO. Is it the same in PC? for one, you can import pdfs into sketchup (as well as export to them even with the free version since they're coming from the OS instead of the app).. on windows, i think you have to extract jpgs and whatnot from pdfs in order to bring them in for tracing etc.. (def could be wrong on this though) png and tiff will also export natively with alpha channels/transparency using mac

Second time this week, I see mention of 3ds here in this sort of context. I wish for Many things for SU...to be faster, more stable, and better at putting out basic architectural stuff it was designed for. But there does seem to be a line to draw. SU isn't ever going to be 3ds. and that's a good thing. It's simple and fast (not in the CPU sense), and often the shortest way between two points. But to do the fancy stuff, sometimes you just need fancy, expensive, and time-consuming (if you have to learn it first) software. I hope to see what solution you find though.

THANKS A MILLION! great help - much appreciated!

Solids can be problematic and I rarely work with them myself. There are a couple of plugins to help find problems with them. Solid solver is one that springs to mind, but there are others. Just looking at your image the bottom surface looks blue, is it? I think if you have faces the wrong way around it won't create a solid. Change your view to monochrome and make sure it's all the right way round. And see if you can spot any holes or loose geometry. It could be something as simple as a tiny line.

Try this technique for a beginning on something similar and it will give you ideas for other things you can do. Use Photoshop or Gimp. Also Fotosketcher. http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25197#p216173 Also there's this book... http://sketchucation.com/shop/books/242-digital-watercolour

There are plugins that draw real geometry around the bounding box and you can measure this geometry precisely with the Tape measure tool: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21427 or http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29377

Extract them to the Styles folder under SketchUp 8. Put them into a folder within the Styles folder. Either use an existing one or make a new folder. Make sure you have full read and write permissions for the Styles folder. If you are using Windows 7, you most likely don't have full permissions.

Here is a comparison between the two. [image: 0LE6_Raster.png] [image: raHV_vector.png] Nick can often use Raster rendering for lines because they aren't really visible in the image. When he needs very crisp lines, he'll use Vector rendering or Hybrid which renders lines as vector and textures as raster.

I didn't use a plugin for it at all. [image: WiSx_blower1.png] I started with the lid and the shape of the base section. (I don't know what those parts are called so I'm making up names.) I also extended the curve at the base of the tab. I selected the inner face and its bounding edges by double clicking the inner face. Then I got the Move tool and while holding Alt to invoke AutoFold, moved the selection down the required distance. It is possible with a shape like this that the bevel won't be exactly accurate all the way around but by turning on Hidden Geometry, deleting some unneeded edges and adding some needed ones, the clean up will go quickly. After the bevel was finished, I just used Push/Pull to extend the base down as needed. To make it solid you just have to eliminate any internal faces and make sure there are no holes or stray line segments. Blower2B.skp

Thank you so very much!!! I appreciate it!!! At first I was ready to pull my hair out..but now I'm really enjoying creating things!! Have an awesome week!

Interesting...I unistalled Lumen RT 3 and updated to Lumen RT 4 which was just released today and I still get the same behavior. This is the only SU plugin I have installed at the moment. Maybe it is something unique to my configuration. I'll check over on e-on's forums when I have the chance to see if anyone else is experiencing this.

Thank you ever so much for that, really helpful. Had a bit of trouble doing the deletes but got there in the end. Thanks again.