One thing I find useful is to set the model units to meters and model in either inches or millimeters as needed. So if I need something to be 6mm long, I model it at 6m long. Since .stl files are unitless modeling in meters is not a problem. Export the .stl file in meters (model units) and import it into the slicer software as millimeters or inches as appropriate. Working in meters will allow you to increase the number of sides for circles and arcs. Keep in mind there's no point in overdoing the number of sides you choose. Example: This was modeled at 63.5 meters tall. Imported into the slicer at millimeters and presto! [image: RzlG_Screenshot-1_13_20201_12_09PM.png] By the way, your profile says you are using SketchUp 2019 Make which does not exist. Which version are you really using? That information is useful to those who would try to help you with your questions.

A Group of entities can have the same 'Instance' name as any other group of (different) entities. The Group instance name will not be unique unlike a Component. You can name your new spline instance with the same name as the original. Place the new version where you want and just delete the old one. That would be my take if you only need to replace a few instances. Not sure if there would be any other way to do it other than the Component option but of course that would not allow unique numbering/naming. Hope I have interpreted your query correctly, I so often don't!

I think you're wanting to make SketchUp behave like Revit/AutoCAD but it works differently. SketchUp needs to group geometry to keep them apart. Without groups/components you would end up with a model that is impossible to work with since edges and faces would be glued together into a gigantic messy mesh. I have been working with SketchUp since 2000 and in the past I also tried to put loose geometry to different layers but since they are connected there WILL be problems. Having all geometry on Layer0 and putting groups and components to different layers is what works best in SketchUp. As a side note, I have found that SketchUp somehow is much faster if you have grouped geometry versus loose geometry. Here is my current best workflow Revit to SketchUp: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=68000&hilit=+Revit

Thanks, glad to help

@kalban said: So i tested it now with a new template, made from one of SU default templates. Problem still exist. So i'm guessing next step is to look at extensions, and see if one of them are to blame. Do that, yes. Sometimes one has no option other than to manually search for an item which is to blame. 1. Last week for example I experienced a weird behaviour within one file made with some graphics editor program. I made 10-15 files each 50-100 MB heavy (which my computer can work with). But one of them had only about 30 MB and four pages (for printing). Unlike others which could be opened in a few seconds this one always took several minutes. Weird. And when editing one of those pages - I got a terrible slowdown. Just one of those pages. I couldn't find any solution online. It looked as that page somehow restricted amount of RAM asigned to the file. Or who knows what. Anyway, things were settled out this way: I created a fresh file. Made four pages, copied items from problematic file one by one or grouped. And when I started copied items from the problematic page all were copied with no problem except one small jpg image. Just imagine, 600x400px 100KB image didn't behave nicely, but instead created huge problems and slowed me down considerably. So instead of copied it from that file, I found it on my computer, imported into the new file, resized it there, placed as it should be and that was it. Now that file and everything in it behave normally. No weird acting anymore. So sometimes even something really small can cause big problems. 2. Or look what happened to me once when working with some face-me trees in SketchUp: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63003 During rotation - some trees rotated normally, but some didn't. No one exactly knew why - but eventually, I exploded that tree species component and made a fresh face-me component from exploded parts, put component instances in correct places (luckily I had marks) and now all of them behaved like good guys this time. Exploding and reasembling helped in my case. 3. I hope you will find the guilty guy in your case soon. And tell us what was it.

wow - and thanks for this lines representation which is a really nice option (for me updating is like fashion - lots of room for improvements )

@box said: I'd be interested to see one of the files to see what can be done, but as you bought them I doubt you'd want to share publicly. You could message one to me if you want, or a link to where you acquired them. Hi Box. I would be happy to share the file to see what can be done, what would be the best way to do this?

It worked quite well thank you very much. I kne the +/- was good for both plus and minus somehow Hope all is well! [image: W2MB_Capture.PNG] [image: rpm1_Capture2.PNG]

@dave r said: Sounds like it has a lot to clean up. Maybe you can clean up the file before you export it to open in SketchUp and save a lot of time. Yea. But I find cleaning it up by portion speeds up the process WAYYYYY fast! And it works well too! Now my model is clean without using my "Superficial" method!! Thanks alot dave!!

@dave r said: Hard to say exactly without seeing the .stl files you are starting with. Very likely it is a small size/tiny face issue. You might be able to get around it by setting the import units to meters before importing. By their nature, .stl files will have lots of shorter edges due to the triangulated nature of the file so you get to deal with that. Right after I posted, I figured out there's a way under options to change the units from mm to meters when importing an stl. I did a quick test and 2 of 3 models imported as solids... thanks for the feedback

Cheers Dave, will try your sugestion this afternoon, and will report back. However when you mentioned which version I was using I realised I had seen the message before. The model was created in 2018 or 2019 Pro (At work) and that messge had cropped up there as well. I cant remember how it resolved

Hi guys, just an update. the stupid me just realised my university has got 3d max installed. ***THIS METHOD WORKS WELL BECAUSE IT EVEN KEPT THE COMPONENTS / GROUPS FROM REVIT COMPLETELY INTACT EVEN AFTER GOING THROUGH SO MANY PROCEDURE!! ***So basically what I do is: Export Revit using Twinmotion Revit-FBX extension to their twinmotion-FBX Format from Revit itself. The problem is, the native Revit-FBX exported works well ONLY with 3D Max, but after exporting from 3D max to 3DS, the 3DS file won't show the materials on SKP. So we still need to use the Twinmotion FBX method. Open the Twinmotion-FBX in 3D Max. Check: "Smoothing Groups" when prompt under Geometry, for me it makes no difference but let's just keep it checked for now. Export the imported file from 3D Max as 3ds Format (no idea why SketchupPro doesnt import OBJ format file as well). Open the 3ds file in SketchUp. And all materials are there! Right now I have a problem: Why are there so many weird triangular-ish Lines from the import in SKP? I did select and make sure the "Merge Coplanar Faces" are checked... anyway for this, I will create another thread. Link: https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=71936

Thanks so much, I have now figured it out.

@dave r said: How do you plan to use the results with the section cuts? Just as images? If so, I would probably manage this mostly with separate scenes showing different section cuts and exporting those scenes to combine into one in an image editor. That seems like a good idea! Thanks!

Is that the original .stl? It has issues. As you can see from your post above the size isn't the correct scale of what you want in mm. It can be adjusted but not knowing which are (if any) the critical dimensions, I can only guess. So I have fixed the holes, easier to do than explain how, and have made the width 50mm. Try this. Holder1Box.skp

The only things I saw where the cursor wasn't visible was when he made a group after context clicking on the selected geometry and then when he moved the cursor to bring the Entity Info panel up to show that it's a solid group.

Search the 3D Warehouse for geodesic dome. You'll probably find some tutorials by Taff Goch that show how to model them.

You might try Select Loop which is part of Thom Thom's Quad Face Tools. I would run CleanUp3 first to make sure you get rid of any unneeded edges there might be. Thanks for starting to update your profile. I assume you mean you are using SketchUp 2019 Pro.