Has anybody tried the Gyration Air Mouse Elite for presentations with SketchUp? http://www.gyration.com/

Purging will only get you rid of unused items (components, materials, styles, empty layers) but nothing that's used in the model. It's not any sort of a "clean-up" or "simplification" tool (but search for CleanUp in the Plugins index).

You are very welcome ! I'm glad I could be of help !

Sam: Thanks, I'll check it out... Steve

It sounds you need to read each tool's download/usage notes carefully... They always explain how to activate the tool and what 'helper' files are needed etc. For example 'CurviLoft' is an Extension and needs activating [once] from the Preferences menu, you then need to active its Toolbar etc... However, it still won't work unless you have the 'LibFredo...' helper/folder installed, as the download page says [and there is a link to it too]...

@thomthom said: @kmiglioo said: i hava a simmillar problem, when impoting 3ds files from max to sketchup. is there a quick way to clean it up? What problem? Several issues has been mentioned here... Sorry the one with missing triangles and re scaling doesn't fix it,also when I export 3ds files from max to Sketchup some weird triangles show up.I've tried several plugins but nothing helps. It would be awesome if someone knows a way to solve it, other than manually. Thanks!

@cameleyes said: Hey TIG, Many thanks for your help - that was the issue - a case sensitive HD. Not sure why that happened but probably my fault. Anyhow I've re-formatted drive and redistilled everything over the weekend and all working fine now. Many thanks for your help. Much appreciated. ugh.. good thing you caught onto it now (the HD was still basically fresh).. but yeah, always use the default formatting options with OSX unless you deliberately want to (and know the reasoning behind) make a case sensitive drive..

@wo3dan said: @racksat said: ... Check it out and give me some feedback!... Nice model! There are two lines (series of edges) that somehow appear to be profiles and that need to be fixed into (hidden) edges between face segments (so no thick profiles). They border the surfaces between flat highest floor level and curved surface towards the middle leveled bowl and further down, between this curved surface and the flat floor of the middle leveled bowl. (I hope the description is clear). Thanks for input, found it!

ok, if we are talking about create and animate organic characters and so on, i totally agree with you.. blender is blender.. but if we are just talking of a coffee cup i think sketchup is good enough, you are right, maybe you need a couple of plugins of course, but at least you don't need to import/export/convert/learn blender..

Thanks Cotty. Quite a few of those are ones I made.

What about IDX RENDITIONER? What do you think about it?

Many scripts make tools that auto-load into their menus/submenus etc every time Sketchup starts. Often they'll consist of one .rb file that goes into the Plugins folder, sometimes they might also use some subfolder files, like png's that are used for the tool's toolbar etc. Some plugins - usually the more complex toolsets - are written as 'Extensions'. These consist of a 'loader' .rb file and a subfolder containing all of the main .rb/.rbs files and other files like html, png etc used to make webdialogs, toolbars etc. The 'loader' defines the tool[set] as an 'Extension' - this is recognized as Sketchup starts and depending on how the extension is 'set' it loads or doesn't load the main code. An Extension can be activated/deactivated from the Preferences > Extensions dialog. This is useful for tools that might be infrequently used, because this will improve startup time because unneeded code isn't then auto-loaded unless the Extension is activated. You can activate an Extension tool at any time and its menus/toolbars etc are added to the current Sketchup session. If you don't deactivate an Extension it will continue to auto-load at startup every time until you deactivate it again... A deactivated Extension only ceases to be loaded after a restart. As well as letting you manage which tools load [without you having to 'disable' individual files in the Plugins folder, by moving or re-suffixing them etc] the Extension method has other uses... the new .rbz archive format tools [shipped with recent v9 updates] allows the .rbz file's contents of Extensions and their subfolders to be automatically loaded and activated at the click of a button... Many of us are in the process of making our more complex tools into Extensions, and using the .rbz format to allow easy installation/updating; however, it can be time consuming to recode existing tools, so progress is slow...

Here is yet another that I never finished in sketch-up. I also do contract work if you need any help. Anyway I hope these helps! http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2d5a92c3fb3ad5e931d212da34b2fc0e

I right clicked and used "save as" just as you suggested and it worked perfectly. Interesting nuance that, but I suppose it's saving out only the component and not the "World wrapper" and any other strays floating around. Many thanks for your help!!

Hi Andly, Please, explain what "fragmenting" would be (especially with "colours" as they never fragment). My first shot in the dark would be that you are trying to apply an image texture to a component but it has some curved (?) surfaces where this image is breaking up and not following the surface. If this is the case, add the material straight to the surface / faces inside the component. Edit it (double click on it) first to get to the raw geometry and do the things there. Click somewhere aside to close the component.

If you make a subfolder [or even a subfolder inside a subfolder] of your SKPs within the Sketchup 'Components' folder then its contents automatically display in the Components-Browser...

Hi, Does anyone have any further insights into this issue? I have encountered a very similar problem: Tooltips do not show when the toolbar is moved to the horizontal position (Mac OSX) This seems to be particular to Mac OSX, but it is happening in both SU7 & SU8. At first I noticed it for the toolbars of a plugin I am developing, but I also tested the Dynamic Components toolbar and the same thing happens. When the toolbar is moved to a horizontal position the tooltips stop appearing. If I move the toolbar back to vertical, then restart Sketchup, tooltips start appearing again. I've trashed the preferences files and still the same thing is happening. I've quarantined all my plugins and it still happens. Any ideas? This is really quite annoying as I want to be able to use tooltips for my plugin and horizontal toolbars are much more convenient. thanks Dave

@grizzler said: I've been having bother filling irregular shapes so I'm trying to come up with ways of drawing that solve the problem for me. ...when I completed the arrow it failed to infil the body of the arrow, yet when I deleted the infil on the sphere and arrowhead the body became infilled automatically. Looks like you have been shown a nice way or two to model your 3d arrow but I'm not sure about the stated problem of 'filling irregular shapes' and 'is this supposed to happen?' As was suggested if you post a model (or, less helpful, a pic with hidden edges displayed), someone can better see what may be going on. Better if possible to know what is going on than to work around the problem without a fuller understanding.

That is big and long. Ken is right. Get rid of stuff you don't need and split the file into manageable chunks. Text won't show in SketchUp anyway so it can go.