I also think it is an interesting topic I am a structural technician and I have been using Sketchup for over ten years but it is not my primary Cad package this is due I think two reasons in the structural field one is the packages that are available like Revit, Advance steel, autocad and Solidworks these engines are design for engineering based drafting and it is hard for Sketchup to compete. Secondly I think it is down to cost, in the engineering Field there is a definite desire for companies to do the bear minimum when I comes to documentation to the point at some places draftsman are regarded as a necessary evil. Although I believe this is defiantly a false economy when you take into account the RFIs from site there is still the perception of increased profit. It is down to the presentation of the documents and this is were sketchup comes into its own especially details were you can easily build up a library details. If you look at the standard of Nick Sonders documents and Dave Zachary on the engineering side. I also do a lot of presentations on buildability issues of a project where sketchup Is a great at live presentations. I think other things you have to take into account are the job size, BIM and at what level, learning curve of staff, saying that I have use sketchup on some massive projects were it handle very large models as good if not better than some of the aforementioned. I should also mention on some of the larger projects I have worked on there is a perception that sketchup is only a free toy 3D package (until I put them straight)

@wo3dan said: .....work on the group that is selected. For it to work withing the group (not greyed out) you need to select at least one edge first.... I should have mentioned to select first, I know.

It is safe to assume John is rolling his eyes in the front cover picture because of something I said At least, that is the way it usually goes.

@inge1234 said: Hi there! I'm trying to create this organic shape for over a month now but it just won't work. I tried several plugins like the artisan, soap bubble, and some fredo tools. Is there anyone who knows a good method or plugin that can help me? Someone may correct me, but it seems this is a multiple step process with many variables, which is not to say it is difficult (surely looks tedious, but that is owing to the detail of your linked images) only that it would help to know what you have been able to do and what specifically your problems are. Also, how far do you want to take it? Post some pics of your work or a model, please, if possible.

I use Adobe Bridge at the moment. It works fine too.

First of all, that texture is not repeating seamlessly so it will never be perfect. You can still position it. Best to turn hidden geometry on first (under the View menu). Right click on a face and go to Texture > Position... [image: cBnI_1.png] You can now position your texture but if you are happy with it, just press Enter. Now simply sample the positioned texture from this face and apply it on the neighbouring one. Repeat the steps until you get to the end. [image: j9CA_2.png] This is how it would look with the positioned texture applied on each face. Aerotape problem.skp

Ok, than you can see what I`ve debugged in the folder picture. Physics is on of the last one i renamed so lest see how it goes. Thank you so much for your time Thomas. May it rain cookies on you forever. If we should ever meet, I`ll buy you a pint. EDIT 21.06 Seems that SU-physics was the troublemaker here. That is a little sad cause i really like it Then again it is much better to have a working SU Thanks again Thomas. [image: xLe0_cookies.jpg]

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=33448 But triangulation remains. Obj supports ngons, actually. Same ridiculous problem with newer blender builds. Though blender supports ngons (bmesh builds). Still the obj exporter converts them to tris. Zbrush is an app that does not support ngons. However, the importer will ask for the method to triangulate them, it even has a converter to quads as possible.

Another one: Bricks and Tiles.

So these one and at the end you have the review of the Basic tools used ! [flash=420,315:1i0kl3z8]http://www.youtube.com/v/3wSvMUdnW_8[/flash:1i0kl3z8] Thes basic tools for the robot! [flash=420,315:1i0kl3z8]http://www.youtube.com/v/1NREaJLMpaI[/flash:1i0kl3z8]

Juston, your link to the 3D WH model is broken.

In SU, As suggested already But: Add this -difficult to find these days- ruby. Download it here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/download/file.php?id=86061 This will remove inner faces (non manifolds). Very important because: In blender: -Import the obj -edit mode (TAB), [W] menu, remove doubles! This will weld all overlapping vertices automatically. -Hit [ctrl+N], it's the shortcut for fixing normals. (it will be a mess if non manifolds/inner faces exist!) SU UVs are still there and you may edit them in UV editor. TIGs obj exporter is an excellent tool! If you love blender (you should lol) and its new render engine (cycles), it's possible to model in SU only and just import. Some important things to know about blender. -You may wish to re scale SU imported objects. In this case after scale/rotation or other transformations, hit [ctrl+A], this brings up a menu, apply these data transformations. Now, bumps/displacements etc will work correctly. (blender avoids to do this automatically for a good reason, it has to do with its particles/instancing system) -you may face depth clipping in 3d view port. Under N panel / view, clip start-end, here your solution -I suppose, you already edited the default preferences of blender, making it similar to SU. -You already learned the shortcuts of transformations, yes? [G] for move-grab, [G]+[x or y or z] for direction, [G]+[shift+z] for moving in xy plane, etc etc , yes? You also learned how to use the excellent snapping methods of blender. If not, ask me.

[flash=420,315:1qvtqaap]http://www.youtube.com/v/SZWYtDDbSFY[/flash:1qvtqaap] [flash=420,315:1qvtqaap]http://www.youtube.com/v/eSlkkTsC4bA[/flash:1qvtqaap] When you have your surface just draw 4 vertical lines under it at the 4 extremities and make your volume [image: HWEB_terrain.jpg] You can now make with it any thing you want [image: xOpn_terrain1.jpg] All with Tig Slicer and Tig Super Drape [image: Kf3j_terrain2.jpg]

I wonder if you are Anarchist "86ed" (see english idom) you've been kicked out of the anarchists , or if 85 other anarchists are boss of you?

Hi all, On testing the above on my Mac OS 10.6 I had the same problems. I did find if I enlarged the 1.5mm radius cylinder by 2 (to create a 3mm radius) I could create a simulated thread spaced at 1mm intervals. I then scale the cylinder back down (.5) to give me a thread spaced at .5mm. I need to show this detail as the items are shown at a large scale. They are being used in instruction manuals. Sorry! I did not see this topic had a second page. Dave R and Pilou have already covered this point. Dave R's point about using a copy of a component to do this task is a very good idea; Thanks Dave R.

SU Pro can be re-installed just as usual using the licence key from your original authorisation e-mail - I have done this several times without any problem.

@brookefox said: More specifically, if you are particularly interested in the surface or planar lock which this thread centers on, go to minute 5 of the second video listed above. In this case, you can even link like this below - watch the #t=05m00s part at the end of the video link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFfmIgJqlIw#t=05m00s Unfortunately this does not work with the simple phpBB embed code.