Thanks TIG. I understan that SU still doesn't support thumbnail viewing in Explorer for 64 bit. I shall install Xnview. With best regards PRSS

Step 1. Buy Artisan; it will be a real challenge even with it and a virtual nightmare without it. Step 2. Ignore all the finer irregularities. Don't try to model them with geometry, your PC system won't thank you. Model the main lines of the ride then use image maps for the finer textures. Learn all you can about extruding along paths, rails etc and how to model effectively with Artisan (including the use of low-poly proxies) then come back and ask more questions.

Is it an RGB image? SU on Windows has issues with CMYK images. Otherwise indeed, post the image itself.

Another way, but a bit more complex, is to open the file with the "wrong" components in it. Then bring in the proper component from your library, just one copy is needed. Move it close to one "wrong" component or a copy of it. Copy the proper component to the clipboard. Open to edit the "wrong" component and delete all its entities. Basically you want an empty bounding box, but you may elect to keep 1 or 2 lines of the old entities for alignment purposes. Paste-in-place the proper component and move it into its correct position, now inside the "wrong" components bounding box. Then explode the proper component. The "wrong" component is now fixed, retaining the old name and attributes. Close the component and delete the copy you brought in.

@lersince1991 said: Ok so I've attached another image which I have edited to show the right angle that the view forms in the bottom right. Also I've mocked up whats missing at the top. and you're saying if you zoom out with the scroll wheel, that angle changes? fwiw, the sketchup camera doesn't function exactly the same as a normal camera but you should definitely be able to get any view you desire.. fwiw pt2.. I personally wouldnt be concerned with trying to get a pano out of sketchup itself.. zoom out, get the fov & perspective to your liking. export the image much larger than necessary at the viewport ratio then crop & resize in another app. (preview.app can do both easily.. window select then cmmd-K for crop.. tools -> adjust size to resize.. not only will this give you more flexibility when getting the proper view, you'll also get a higher quality image upon downsizing it post.

here's a neat case study (neat also because the 2nd page shows a plugin used internally by turner which could be seen as a bit of a preview of the type of changes we may see in sketchup itself) http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2012/01/sketchup-pro-case-study-turner.html these people are building the tallest building in usa (and i happen to have a perfectly framed view of the thing down my street ).. of course they're not using sketchup as the backbone but they've definitely found a way to integrate it into their company.. and seriously, if sketchup wasn't helping them make things happen, they wouldn't be using it. there isn't a one software solution out there right now.. even i use a two software approach for the drawings (3 if you count layout as a separate software).. i guarantee your friend could find a way to use sketchup in a way that would benefit if he so desired. (ok.. not quite with the guarantee bit.. i don't actually know what he does) [edit] hm.. maybe they aren't building the towers.. just the crazy new downtown station.. in which case, i don't have much of a view of said project..

Thanks. I have to say though that it seems odd and unintuitive for the screen not to go back to your original drawing and layers, etc, if you click View|Scenes to hide the scenes. One accidental click of View|Scenes (if you haven't created a 'WIP' layer, as you suggest) and you lose what the drawing you were working on looked like and have to do a lot of work to get it back to where it was before (albeit no actual redrawing).

You can set the Axis of rotation to anything you want, but if some other face in the drawing is at that AOR it becomes super easy. Select the object to rotate. Select the Rotation tool, but do not click on anything yet. Position the Rotation tool ON the "remote" AOR face then press and hold the <SHIFT> key. Move the Rotation tool to the correct position on the selected object and click. Release the <shift> key and complete the rotation.

Never mind. I also realised this after running the forums for years!

Hi Anthony, At the bottom of the very first post here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=42267

I would recommend making the rectangle a group and draw on it, and as you input the control points make sure that you watch the tool tips for "on face", because the camera can get confused and you will end up with stuff out in B.F. Egypt to clean up.

Two problems I encounter with sketchup and KT relationship. I get a failure notice each time I automatically export a scene from sketchup (I have to import an .xml file to continue work I just can't view my saved renderings and scenes while on KT. Big problem for me because I am in a mess at the moment.

My model would not export some surfaces to Google Earth .kmz Turned out that only certain colours were failing to export. They were all renamed colours, appearing in my "In Model" colour set. I tried updating to Sketchup 8.0.11752, and renaming the colours again, but it didn't work. Tried "fixing" the problem in the model-info menu but that didn't work. Thanks to your hint, I edited the RBG by one notch and it fixed the problem. Don't know why or how my colours got corrupted.

When making fairings (among other things, such as access doors) for my airplane models I run into this jaggies frequently. To solve it best, requires the deletion of the faces affected and redraw the interface to suit. Curviloft plugin helps a lot as well.

thank you. will try it out.

@jrm1 said: I'm a landscape designer. My SU models use a lot of 3D plants, which slows the Mac down after a while. I was wondering if there were any tips for keeping the size down. For instance, does grouping reduce the 'load' on the computer? Hey, do all the modelling in the landscape arch team. what i do is combine the VRay render wit photoshop. I avoid 3d trees like the plague. My pc (at work) and macbook pro (at home) both struggle with 3d plants at all. If I were you i would forget the 3d plants and buy a good image pack. This is the one we bought, obviously it is £300 but they do smaller packs. http://www.3drender.co.uk/products-page-2/bundles/all-in-one-bundle-complete-1000/#

@juanv.soler said: Locking the toolbars once and for ever is something that does not need to be mentioned I hope. OH Yes Let's mention that again and again until it's fixed.

Thank you Paul and Numb This thread's definition is not to be debated and developed very much I would just engage people with interesting test materials in their possession (and wanting to share) to communicate them to me in order that I add them into the shared folder.. ++ Simon