@centipede13 said: How did you make your own texture? What TIG said. Or take photos of real boards.

Thanks. I grouped the models like suggested. It helped in some cases so for that I am grateful. Yes, I am using Zorro Version 2 rather than the previous one. No problem re: the discussion. You guys were addressing two separate topics. Fortunately, I understood where you were both coming from. Get some rest.

@massimo said: Joint push pull (remember to press tab after you run the tool and choose "thickening" or "keep original faces") Or maybe this one by Thomthom (never tried it myself though). Great, great, great. Thanks. I already had it installed though, but also already got lost between all the plugins...

Thanks everybody, a few hours of investigation found stray lines which was spotted with Smustard Stray Lines Plug in. As you say TIG it was a tiny unfinished loop which was wrong, I removed them, closed the loop and bam! Many thanks to you all, I can see this forum is going to be useful, but I'll try not to ask too many dumb ass questions! I'm OK with Final Cut Pro,Cinema 4D, Motion etc, but have just bought Sketchup and I'm really enjoying doing some engineering models on it. Thanks Again. Patrick

Thank you TIG for this one-liner which shows me that I have to learn ruby...

@tig said: You don't need a 'free-plugin' to divide lines. It's already built into Sketchup! Oh, sorry and thank you. I googled and just found a plugin from 1001 which is part of some shareware package.

hi, 'SketchUp Web Exporter' available from the SU download site. or there are tweaked versions/alternatives kicking around, do a forum search. john

@hutdowg said: You saved me a lot of time and headaches, I'm still not that advanced when it comes to Dynamic components =\ Me too DC is a kind of maze, dont really know what's working or not, and why... Only tests and expreriences to build some own rules and share them here.

Greg, Do just as you discribed in your post. Select the face and the line then run the attached plugin. No extending, intersecting and deleting required. create beam from face and edge

Thankyou that worked great for leaving the rails behind but now how do i eleminate the lines left behind on my surface?

Using my "special psychic powers" I'd say that you perhaps have three or more lines meeting at a common 'node'. You are selecting two lines and trying to weld them into a curve... but of course the other unselected line[s] instantly breaks the curve where it's touching [just like what happens if you draw a line onto an arc, it 'splits' the arc!] = failure !! Remember that you can only 'weld' a 'curve' from a set of edges that are continuously joined end-to-end, and which have no other edges touching them [except perhaps at the very ends of this potential 'curve']...

Wow, not many people even know how to get to where you put those... In Mac speak, that's inside the app, right click >> show package contents. As TIG says it needs to be the HD path, and the best mac advice is... when you go to that folder, drag in into your side bar, so it becomes a drop-box for future 'manual' plugin instals not the new 'auto' ones. The 'gotcha' is, it is a 'drop-only-box', to trash a ruby from there you have to right click >> open enclosing folder >> move to trash. You can rename or shuffle the files/folders around and make new folders/sub-folders, etc... you just can't delete/trash them. john

Ahh... that would be why then - I have extruded the face up to create a 3D shape. Thanks for your quick reply!

@mitcorb said: Would this be similar to "skins" in some media player console or something? You can "simply" install a window theme for your operating system's included theming engine (examples). Probably the best place to change the appearance and colors is on system level. Of course SketchUp could implement its own theming, but it could easily create ugly visual inconsistency and bloat the software. I like to remind us of this thoughtful post by Jody: https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/sketchup/HhjWUcKxnNg/5jjg3SkE_A0J Yes, a rewrite using state-of-the-art technology and 10+ years experience could be a right step. [url=https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/sketchup/XvrSablaXg8/ZEXOWYV4PgsJ:504cgfu4]User Interface (UI) Improvements Should Be a Priority[/url:504cgfu4] @unknownuser said: It also chooses to load certain toolbars by default even though in my previous session I hid the toolbar/plugin. That sounds like a bug in these (many) plugins. Possibly the author didn't use [url=http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/toolbar#get_last_state:504cgfu4] toolbar.show if toolbar.get_last_state == 1[/url:504cgfu4] (contact the author and point to that [url=http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/developer/docs/ourdoc/toolbar#get_last_state:504cgfu4]link[/url:504cgfu4]).

As with other items that appear in the Context menu, Explode only shows in the list of commands for shortcuts, when you have selected something on which Explode can be used.

@involute said: Large files is the price. And potentially holes in the model.

Glad it helped, Belaar! I'm always excited to see people using Sketchup for 3D printing. Good thinking about using Curviloft to fix the tiny bit I'm also familiar with printing from Shapeways, and the only thing I would suggest is to add a small radius to the top and bottom edges so the final model isn't sharp. It might be easier to do that before bending. I made a couple comments in the attached model about the smoothing and making the model ready to send to Shapeways. Finnished ring.skp

Another variation of these methods is to produce the rounded corner first by using Rounded Corners in 3D on one corner of a cube. Then just delete everything you don't need and create a circle then a cylinder from any of the quadrants that form the edges of the cornerpiece. Mate 3 copies of this cylinder onto the rounded corner and use the OuterShell command. Explode the resulting group and you're pretty much done.

thanks - will do.

Yes, there is a big difference between hiding and softening. In your case (unless you have some very special reason), I would not hide but soften. Hiding will leave those (small, seemingly rectangular but probably triangulated) facets separate and your mesh will remain faceted. These facets can be selected individually even with hidden geometry (View menu) off. If you soften the dividing edges however, the whole surface will be one, continuous and (seemingly) nicely curved surface. Now the whole mesh can be selected as a whole unless you turn on hidden geometry.