Thanks for reminding me about all the videos. I had already watched the getting started series but forgot about the others. Bill

I believe a Mac pro refresh is imminent, could be 16 core or even 20 at the high end fast but pricey ! My machine is not a year old yet so I'm in no hurry to upgrade. I expect I'll upgrade the cpu's from 2.93 to 3.46 when the price drops.

Yes On the question of making a manifold solid... When you add in the two 'transformations' [as I showed] there will almost certainly be internal faces as 'partitions'. These will stop a group being seen as 'solid'. The definition of a solid 'group' is that all of the edges within it must have two faces - no fewer, no more. So an internal 'partition' face messes us up because some of its edges will have three or more faces. Also 'flap' faces will have edges with only one face, and a faceless edge obviously doesn't have two faces at all... It should also contain only faces and their edges to be 'safe'. Once you've exploded the bits into one collection of geometry and grouped it all, if it doesn't show as a 'solid' in Entity Info, then you need to edit it. There are scripts that show or attempt to fix such issues - however, in a simple case like this you need to try a few things first - use X-ray mode to see inside and perhaps remove unneeded partitions by erasing their edges that join onto external faces; also you can use the section-tool to cut the object temporarily so you can see inside it, then select+delete internal faces, edges etc: running an 'erase coplanar edges' tool on the results also simplify it. At each step check the Entity Info to see if it reports a 'solid'.

this is the idea of TIG http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49564#p525146 video how it works (sorry, in Russian) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWGGfoR5slI

thank you Dynamic Components will be what I need

I only use a fraction of them regularly. I "disable" many, too (renaming the extension or temporarily moving them into another folder) but when one is on the forums too much, often help with those plugins is needed and I keep many active.

Thomthom's Mesh From Bitmap tool is now split into 'Mesh From Heightmap' and 'Mesh From Bitmap' http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=275772#p275772 The second one does this... [image: file.php?id=63395]

@jeff hammond said: ...i am (sometimes) able to get the red X depending on my zoom level.. if i zoom out of the scene, i'm more likely to get the intersection snap to an outside object.. if i'm in close to the arc's endpoint, i only seem to get the 'on edge outside active' inference. My workflow would be: copy edge (that needs to be intersected) to clipboard. enter the context where the arc neds to be draw. Then 'Paste in Place' the edge. draw the arc which now has an edge in the same context to intersect. delete (one side of) the now divided edge. Or: just pre-draw a congruent edge in the same context where the arc needs to be drawn. draw the arc. delete (one side of) the now divided edge. So no messing around with trying to find an intersection with edges in other contexts. Thanks for the feedback Jeff.

Let's say you have an instance of Component#1 that contains 'default-material' faces within it. You apply Material#1 to that Instance#1 and it displays with Material#1. If you select Instance#1 and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as Material#1. If you edit Instance#1 and select a face and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'. It's just the display that is changed not the internal faces' material. Then you have an instance of Component#2 that contains 'default-material' faces within it. You apply Material#2 to that Instance#2 and it displays with Material#2. If you select Instance#2 and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as Material#2. If you edit Instance#2 and select a face and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'. It's just the display that is changed not the internal faces' material. Now make a Component#3 which is made containing Instance#1 and Instance#2. Its instance is Instance#3. At this point Instance#3 has no material, as can be seen if you select it and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'. Instance#1 and Instance#2 inside Instance#3 will still display using their assigned materials. You can check this too by editing Instance#3 ans using 'Entity Info' on the nested instances and the default material faces within them - which all remain as set out in the first couple of paragraphs above. Now make a copy of Instance#3 - as Instance#4 - and another copy as Instance#5. Give Instance#4 a new material - Material#666 - its appearance is not changed [as there is nothing within it using the default-material for that material to 'display' on]; although if you use 'Entity Info' on it it will say its material is Material#666. Now explode Instance#4, the two previously nested instances are now separated again and display the exact same materials as before and their internal faces' default-material as before when queried with 'Entity Info'. Now give Instance#5 Material#666 - it looks just like the last one... Now edit Instance#5 and change the material of one of the nested instances to the 'default-material'. They will now display with Material#666 because a container's material is used for any contents that use the default-material - be they faces or instances/groups... Explode Instance#5, the two previously nested instances are now separated again, one will display the exact same material as before, BUT the one that has the default-material will now show it has Material#666 when you use 'Entity Info' - this is because when you Explode any container its material [if any] is passed on to any of its contents that have the default-material - be they faces or instances/groups... This is perfectly logical. If you don't want it to happen, then don't leave nested objects without materials and then explode them.

Malcolm, although I am not a hardware expert, I doubt that that chipset fully supports OpenGL (the 3D rendering engine behind SU). What happens if you disable hardware acceleration under Window > Preferences > OpenGL settings in SketchUp?

@solo said: @aerilius said: What about having the basecamp every time (or every second time) at a different place? Something like: SketchUp on Tour around the world? That would mean looking for new pubs , we have the whole Boulder thing worked out, everything in walking distance (even crawling) lots of stuff to do, beautiful, great weather and perfect facilities, not forgetting cheap motels. Also what is a hit is to tour the Sketchup office and see how little work they actually do between climbing walls, pool tables and other distractions. How good was that, Pete? Baker Street Bar & Grill was just next to my hotel and just around the corner from Google Offices; what else is there that's needed...? I think Trimble are just starting to realise what they've gotten into...

@unknownuser said: So the question is... how are you going to export the data, and then how to import it into a SKP... Maybe you can make with it something that plugins yet existing in Su don't make Processing is very powerful and don't take in case any exploitation system so works directly in any one and for any one! So you don't lost time to see in deepth the painfull Windows or osx or linux or...! This guy has made some artistic exploration with it! I had used it for this inverse One little form from in SU, image in Processing My code is here [image: attachment.php?attachmentid=31659&d=1308254259]

This is a delayed response and slightly off topic (now..;-), but I wanted to clarify my earlier post about the “mutiny” of sorts I suggested with G-SkUp and this forum. My thought was that most of what is really valuable about SkUp comes from the original core code in the very earliest versions of SkUp plus the plug-ins and adjunct programs produced by third party providers. We’ve even tweaked SkUp for our purposes with plugin overlays to this code – thanks to Brad Schell’s farewell gift to his users with V5 updates before the @Last departure -- and we're admitted light-weights compared to some of you guys.... When you think about it, that code sits as a virtual open source and is exactly what Google and Trimble find so valuable -- and paid handsomely for (see Trimble SkUp? Good Enf, < http://insitebuilders.wordpress.com > )

Thanks chief, that sounds exactly like what's happening. I'll try it on one of my better computers. Appreciate the help.

You simply continue around painting the faces around with the same material. I used the material-browser's eyedropper tool to sample it from the end face [I copied it once off to one side to see better what I was doing]. I know it probably needs adjusting beforehand but it is only a demo ! You can adjust the position of a material using the right-click context-menu Texture tools - e.g. to position the texture. There are several scripts available to 'nudge' textures around - but learn the basics first... If you have one face with the material positioned just as you want then you can use the eyedropper to sample that and when you paint other faces it will be replicated with whatever adjustments it has [e.g. positioning] A couple of tips: Don't paint the block 'black' before applying the textures, it only serves to make it hard to see what you are doing ! There are many unneeded coplanar edges [diagonals etc] on the roof plane etc that can be erased using the Eraser tool, OR by using one of the several Erase/Delete-Coplanar edges scripts available... [image: 6vAf_Capture.PNG] FirstSketch.skp

thanks. I forgot about these nice SU online tutorial base. Will use it more in future

Sounds like something is up with your OS or Sketchup ... Have you tried repairing/reinstalling ?

@irishsnow35 said: @unknownuser said: Is what you are modeling really 2 million inches long? Well I am modeling Jerusalem, Golgotha and Calvary at the time of Jesus' crucifixion. And I know, I should've started smaller. XD In my experience, I always draw the model in true 1:1 scale, with very few exceptions. Because SU has problems with tiny lines, especially when intersecting 2 curved objects, some people draw at 10X scale, or so. This creates perception problems when using dimensions, or merging different models or from component libraries. So when I encounter a situation where 1:1 scale will create problems, (or did create so I use UNDO a lot!!), I make a component of the problem and make a copy away from the model area. I then scale up that copy outside the bounding box, which does not affect the model. I can then edit or intersect within the copy, and see/make corrections far easier than if I were working at true scale. After the edit I delete the scaled copy.