you can try also Opera or Chrome

Dave You are on a roll with the abrupt replies

I managed to forget about Maxwell Render. There is a free version for Sketchup--it operates as a direct plugin which incorporates the renderer right into SU. The free version of Maxwell is limited to a render resolution of 800x800, and there are some other limitations as compared to the full, licensed Maxwell.

Open the Materials Browser / Editor... Create a new material [click the '+' button]. Give it a logical name. This is to use one of your specific texture files. Tick the 'use texture' box and navigate to the texture-file [jpg, png etc]. Add that image-file as the material's 'texture'. Adjust the size of that texture as you desire [break the 'chain' symbol if you don't want 'proportional' resizing - aka 'distortion']. Adjust the material's 'color' [as used when no textures are being displayed]. Adjust its 'opacity' [aka transparency!]. If you want a texture to 'tile' nicely - that is, to repeat across a larger face without noticeable patterns showing up where one part ends and the next one starts - you must either get a 'tile-able' image in the first place, or make it into one - there are several tutorials around on how to do this with Photoshop/Gimp etc... If you have a material in the model that you would like to 'export' individually, select its icon in the model-pane of the Materials Browser, right-click context-menu and 'Save As' to put it [as a SKM file] into a folder within the Materials folder [either an existing folder or one you create] - then it'll become available in all other models - just like the standard materials shipped with Sketchup. When you have a collection of materials in the model that you would like to 'export' en mass then click the right-facing arrow on the side of the Browser and the pop-out menu includes 'Save collection as...' - this saves all materials in the model into a specified folder [you can make a new folder as you do this if desired]... Again the SKM materials in that folder become available to all models thereafter...

Hi Pilou, hi folks. It is only at works that many things are blocked or restricted. Just ideas.

do you have only maxwell for sketchup or the full package? With the full version you can export as mxs from max and then use it as mxs reference in sketchup. Or import the sketchup scene in max, place your objects and merge the two scenes in studio.

Walter, Clipping - its a real pain in the neck sometimes !!! A few things to try / check on your model: Are you working a long way away from the origin (0,0,0) ??? SU doesn't like this and it's one cause of clipping. If this is the case in your model, turn all layers on, unhide everything, select all, group all, move all your geometry back towards the origin. Does your model cover a large physical area ??? SU is not particularly keen on this either - again a cause of clipping. Turn all layers on, unhide everything, check to see if you have any stray linework etc miles away from where you are working. ............ Hope this helps Regards Howard L'

@gaieus said: When you export your model to GE, it can export camera settings but it's not the dae file that bears the info but the kml file one folder level up. Yeah, that was what I finally discovered. Maybe that's a good way to do it for GE, but that's not the right way to do it for collada. But a separate ollada camera exporter could be written. I never did finish looking into it, but it seems pretty straightforward for a simple non-animated camera.

That is a good trick. I find that is often useful to have the CAD layers intact, in addition to having the CAD group on a layer that can be turned on/off.

Great help, thanks TIG

My favorite workflow for importing cad files is as follows. I export from cad in controlled chunks. Meaning I export the topo first, then the sitework like sidewalks, parking lots, etc. I import those separate portions into SketchUp and deal with them one by one. I first run Todd Burch's "Make Faces". This goes through and makes faces of all the linework that it can find. It often leaves lots of faces unclosed, typically because the linework does not import from cad cleanly enough. So, to clean up the linework, I like to use "Stray Lines". It might be a little tedious, but once you get the hang of it, it goes by quickly. This script label every line the does not connect to another line. Typically those are lines that connect in autocad, but lose their connection in SketchUp. It is then a matter of going around and either connecting each line that is labeled, or deleting the tiny line segment if it slightly longer than needed. Then I rerun makefaces. And then anything that still won't turn into a face, I being troubleshooting by drawing lines across the surface where the face should be. Eventually it will start closing in some places, some places will not close. Keep doing that until you can find exactly where the troubled line is that is keeping the face from closing. Then fix it. And then once I get that done, I begin to import the next portion of my cad work. Smustard does have some great tools that speed up that process. One is close opens, the other is delete short lines. Both of those can be very useful for automating the process I go through in the step where I label all stray lines. Those two scripts will delete all tiny edges that typically are not needed, or will auto-extend a line if it is a short distance from another edge and appears like it should just be a closed line. Anyhow, good luck! Chris

Thanks Renderizer, I will check it out. Sadly I am not a math teacher, and if I could do math I could probably rule the world. I think I had been sent out on a errand somewhere when those chips were being installed prior to the storks delivery. I am seriously bad. More accurate to say a math moron, and without a calculator I would be reduced to laying out pebbles on the sidewalk to even know if I had received enough change from a store purchase. That being said... it has not made anything that I do with the graphics world easy. I will take a deep breath and delve into this and have a look at the plugins mentioned. I have no problems with the 2D exports, they look wonderful. I will also do some Youtube searching (thank Heaven for Youtube!!!) and see if there are any videos posted that might be helpful.

Its definitely a tool worth making Ryan if you interested in doing it.

Hi folks. On my PC using XP-Pro, the list max out at 8 items. I don't think that the max number of items can be modified as in Office where it can be adjusted from 0 to 50 (Office 2007 on my computer). Just ideas.

really cool, thanks!

Yes, you are seeing inside the walls. I thought that was abundantly clear. I'll move this post to SketchUp Discussions but I would ask you to edit the title since it has nothing to do with LayOut 3.

Perhaps you will find some useful hints in Thomthoms blog...

Allison, this is normal behavior. SketchUp can temporarily stop showing shadows and textures while you are navigating in the model to improve navigation performance. If it didn't, it would have to re-render textures and shadows many times while the camera is moving which would slow things down a whole lot.

FMAK is pretty awesome, and it works alright, but I guess a lot of small segments are a pain. Actually the profile should run perpendicular to path. FMAK is probably an OK fake in such a case. Extrude edges by rails is more accurate. When I did it it looked good, and the profile was the correct cross section as it continues up the stairs. [EDIT: I made two paths based on two planes. There was a minute misalignment with the stair wall, which was fixable, and may be due to operator error, making the paths.] [image: fVbu_Screenshot2012-11-13at2.26.23PM.png] In the end. what do you use? A Flexi-molding which is of course not geometrically perfect either.