I also second Paint.NET - as a "starter". Very easy to use and if you erase a part of your image, it will automatically become transparent. There is a "magic wand tool" which lets you select colours like your white background. One click. Then press the Delete key and all is gone. Under Window > Preferences > Applications, you can set your favourite image editor. Now if you right click on a face and go to Texture menu item, there is a possibility to edit the texture image. Do the deleting in Paint.NET and upon saving, it will automatically update the image in SU. You really need something better than MS Paint. [image: yDM0_transparent.png]

tibet The 33+MB model size is too large for this stage of your model especially if is part if a larger model. You should get rid of all the high poly count groups because many of those can be made a single component. I have the model reduced to about 888KB. In terms of your question I am thinking you maybe getting your self in a box. If you look at any "typical" spiral stair case the railing is on the out side. Your approach would tend to funnel the user toward the side where the tread width goes toward zero. In addition the slope for a rail would very high ( Towrads infinity ) there since the run goes toward zero at that inside corner. If you want a spiral case make it a classic approah where you can model a "reasonable" hand rail. If not go to a more conventional single mid landing approach at the 90 turn. Check the 3d ware house for some ideas. BTW Howard Leslie has two DC stair builder skp files you may find useful to get some ideas. Sorry could not quickly find the URL Just some thoughts Got the link http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=29484 A concept thought and different layout approach http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=cb5b0fddc3e546d848da91396cd7935f

thank you

Thanks, no we don't have this. The workaround is to click on the In Model material, switch to the chosen library and then drag the material from the preview bar in the material picker into the library. SU will auto rename the material by appending the next number and you would then have a duplicate (so if the original was named WoodMat then you would now have WoodMat and WoodMat-1). You can remove the WoodMat and rename WoodMat-1. This however does not clear the material from the HD so you would have to manage manually.

@chedda said: Select your layer or create a new one then paste it in from another window Well, I was hoping that it can be done somehow automatically. I'll group the component's content and put it on a layer. It's about LOTS of components... and is very time consuming to manually select/create, and so on... And there is the risk to lost consistency. All models must have same layer structure. Thanks all for clearing this out to me !

Thanks Dave, I agree it's not difficult to go into finder and delete/rename. I did think that you would be able to do it from inside SU as it seems a pretty basic function and therefore I thought I was missing something somewhere (despite looking for a while). Thanks for the confirmation.

Thank you Gaieus. That works great and makes sense now, especially purging unsued objects and I noticed a huge slowdown last night whilst playing around with materials so this would be why. thank you again

TIG, Thanks! I will do as you suggest! Makes perfect sense and should work intersecting two roofs first then cleaning up....

Hmm lot's of room to get creative with

@thomthom said: @gr8fzy1 said: A while back I discovered that I could turn off the anti-aliased textures and doing so seemed to let my computer run a little faster. Odd... goes against what Google recommends for better performance: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=161352 @unknownuser said: Enable 'Use Anti-Aliased Textures' (Window > Model Info > Rendering) Thanks, the Window>Model Info>Rendering drop menu was what I was looking for. My computer isn't all that powerful, and besides, it says that if I experience blurry textures or strange display effects to uncheck the box. And my textures do blur into almost gray blobs if I have my modeled angled on screen too sharply.

Thank you very much for the speedy replies, Tig I am going to download your plugin as it sounds exactly the tool I need, thank you very much. Jean I selected all the layers and changed the layer info but it still seemed to keep the unwanted layer info within the group when I opened to edit them. I need to keep the groups as they are as its an intricate stairway and I have a feeling when I send it back he will still need maximum editability, thank you for the other info, It will be stored and used in future.

That's a good solution. It seems I am getting old and cannot remember every post on the forums any more

thanks..gilles method is perfect for my work thanks to all again

Hi folks. For a guide perpendicular to the center of a sloped rectangle, see attached SU file for ideas. Guide perpendicular to the center of a sloped rectangle.skp

Wasn't there a 1001 shadow tools plugin that crated vector objects for shadows?. If you do go the hybrid approach that gives raster shadows, could probably get good vector object using Adobe Illustrator.

That's not Trondheim! Everytime I look at it on the map all I see is vast expanses of 10 meter deep snow with fog and clouds overhead...

I was having the same issues as you guys, thanks for all your efforts, i think a simplification is acceptable as long as the profile of the hills are roughly the same would be great

Yes of course. From my side I sent already 2 messages about that, within the 2 Google forms made for that, and I guess I'm not the only one ! Best wishes,