I agree. Many manufacturers of stone, brick tile etc. building materials offer ready-made, good quality textures for their products for instance. Now when it comes to modelling and visualizing a buildinh project, I guess at least some of the architects tend to choose wht materials should be built in based on what they can find this way. The same could go for any kind of furniture, appliances in kitchens, bathrooms and all. (And at the same time, would be a good opportunity for some modellers to earn some extra income)

It's been a while since I exported anything to stl...longer than my recent re-installation of SU. I don't see any stl export option in the File menu, so I'm presuming it's not there by default. Were you using an stl export plugin before? In which case it will need to be re-installed.

I Understand that that is a rough guide (an effective one non the less) however with the tool you have reccommended is there a way I can prevent certain lines from being effected by the tool yet still have the main mesh attached. basically a static profile. (kinda like using skin soap and bubble tool, the mesh is pinned to the profile that you gave the plugin as an outline to work with)

Please don't double-post - I've removed the duplicate. I don't think you really need a plugin. Make the single piece of 'tape' as you have shown. Make it a component. Insert instances as needed. Use Move+Ctrl to copy to the side the type Nx, where N is the number of copies you want. There you have it. You could also think about making the component so it will 'glue to any surface', that way it will auto align to the face that it's applied onto. You can devise its 'repeat' to be on a 'fold' rather than on a 'mid-point', so that it looks continuous. If necessary use make-unique to make a variant and add start/end 'flaps' to complete the set... If you want to be able to work with them en mass group them or even make another component containing them if you might reuse that elsewhere.

@pugz1983 said: I NEED A NEW PC WITH 2GPU's AND 24 GB OF RAM!!!!!!!!!! Even when I ask for it nicely, I don't think someone here at the Forum will send one to me Greetz Twan I'd like a New PC too, I'd like two CPU's however.

I now try to keep intersections restricted strictly to the faces and edges and/or components needed. But that doesn't solve my other speed problem. Now I have my model made and I just want to mirror it so I can add the two halves together and then add a few asymmetrical details, but all I get is the "spinning beach-ball of death." It's brutally slow and so annoying. I like using Sketchup, but this is quickly becoming unworkable. I've turned off all extras like shadows and edges and whatever else. I've purged unused elements. I've hidden what I don't need. I just want to copy and mirror the model so I can finish it off and render it, but it's just so slow. I've gone away for more than a half hour lunch and when I come back I still see the spinning beach-ball. Is there nothing that can be done about this? When I check my Activity Monitor it looks like it's using nearly 100% of the CPU (assuming I'm reading it correctly). Is this even normal? I have an older 1.42GHz eMac with Snow Leopard on it and 2GB RAM, but it isn't convenient for me to install Sketchup 8 onto that and transfer the files. Seems rather silly for me to have to consider going back to that from my current iMac with OSX Lion and 8GB RAM.

You could also draw lines marking the length, width and height of the shell, copy the geometry and scale it to those dimensions.

Tim, many thanks for the prompt response. I noticed that too but was a little confused as I have not imported any .dwg's. Also, I have noticed that on other occasions, the error report states that is SketchyPhysics or some otherplugin that has crashed. I am going to have a drink and go to bed! This is frustrating! Cheers...Scotty

Great idea to break it by rooms. I didn't think of that. FYI, as 3D printing is getting larger, it would be great to have a plug-in that allows you to bind the model as a complete unit, then chop it up however you want. Just a thought. Thanks for your help.

Baronjutter, have a look here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=40331&start=15 - go about half way down the second page of the thread and you will see I was doing something similar to what you describe and found a solution that worked for me. Regards - Mick

You know you can get the face back by tracing over one or more edges, just be sure that the endpoint inferences show when you hover with the pencil tool.

Go back to your saved scene ( !important). Now turn on hidden geometry (view menu) and those hidden groups will show up. Now you can right click and unhide them. Now click on your scene tab and "update" it.

Just an update to this. 'Repaired' the installation and now works.

Thanks Csaba, here's the link I intended to post. http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2012/03/product-connect-makes-it-easier-to.html

Ha, I forgot about this plugin. Jim, this plugin is where I first "met" you. Probably one of the first ones I downloaded. I completely forgot about it. That's all.

What I usually do is click on the photomatched scene. Then click add new scene. Orbit scene a bit and then click on the newly added scene. The background image will have disappeared. Now switch between the photomatched scene and the copy to see if they align. Hope this helps.

Welcome to Sketchucation neverx. One would hope that John got his issue with the Shadows window fixed a long time ago. Otherwise he's been without shadow control for 5-1/2 years and numerous SketchUp version changes.

I don't think so. The 3d version has an option to include guides though...