@unknownuser said: Which version of 3ds max are you using? -Brodie version of 3ds max is 9

THANK'S TIG.... You are truly amazing with the Ruby scripts. This saved me a bunch of time doing tedious work of creating long lists of data. Best regards Jesper

Thanks Csaba, I'll have a look...

I have been using a 15" Core i5 mid 2010 MBP for a while. I have 8Gb of RAM and it works perfectly. I use it for fairly big/complex models for SketchUp and Podium. It's fast enough for me, and I have an 8 core Mac Pro in the office. Considering what desktop machines some people have (and there are lots of people still using XP) this machine is plenty fast enough for serious SketchUp work and rendering. Before I had my current machine, I had the old model 15" Core 2 Duo MBP with the Santa Rosa Chipset and 4Gb of RAM. I didn't have a problem with that either. Any decent spec MBP ought to be better than any Desktop PC running XP 32 bit. The DVD writer in my old machine failed 5 times over the space of 3 years, and just before my AppleCare warranty expired, Apple replaced the machine for free with a brand new model of the latest spec. AppleCare is awesome! I would advise anyone who buys an Apple machine to budget for this if remotely possible. If you don't live close to an Apple store, ring them up and they'll send a courier to collect your machine, and return it around 3 days later. They'll even supply a box I haven't seen any reports of MacBook Air machines with SketchUp. I would have thought it would be fine for smaller models, but for rendering or very complex models, the 15" Pro model is the best balance between power and portability - IMO.

Gaieus and dereeei, thanks again for your efforts. I'm always delighted by the friendly help in the forum. I'll check it yet again in peace. Charly

Ok, so it's not a bug but I could not find the option any more. Thank you very much!

Yup, its an encrypted ruby script. Just put it in the plugins folder and it will load. Is it a SketchUp plugin? Or is it something developed for Ruby outside of the sketchup world?

Sometimes even new computers ship with outdated drivers. You can try to upgrade the display driver (download the latest from ATI) and hope for the best. Check that the settings like Antialiasing and Anisotopic filtering and other 3D-related settings in the display control panel are set to "application controlled" or equivalent. Some very old ATI cards performed better if "Fast Feedback" in the SU Preferences>OpenGL settings was turned off. Just suggestions. Anssi

I just discovered how that errant group may have formed within my hook tip. Curviloft; when it fails to form a surface, even though it shows a black pre-form surface, still generates an empty, or perhaps an almost empty group that SU interprets to be as a non solid. SI will correctly say it finds no errors, but SU will not see it as a solid. The only way out, is if you know you do have a valid solid after a Curviloft fail, but SU says not, then edit the solid and do a sweeping left select to select everything. Using TT's selection tools, select only groups, and there it is. Just hit the <delete> key to get rid of it. You cannot select just that empty group. If you have other valid groups in that selection, then deselect them first. I'm posting an edited version of this in the Curviloft thread.

Glad that helped Rob. Keep in mind that a component's or group's axes are aligned with the global axes upon creation of the component or group. If this axis orientation doesn't align with the geometry of the component, as would be the case with, say a rafter drawn in place or a window drawn on an angled wall, Change Axes can be used to modify the axis orientation as well as change the location of the component's or group's origin and thus the insertion point. Of course this is useful if you want tools to align to the axes when editing. If you are using interested in generating some sort of report indicating the dimensions of the components or groups in your model, alignment of the axes with the geometry is critical. Those reports typically report the dimensions of the bounding boxes. If the component will be used in the future, setting the orientation and location of the axes can greatly improve your workflow, too.

@unknownuser said: One thing some people do to find the waste is export your model as a .kmz model. Then manually go to the file and change the extension from .kmz to .zip and open the zip folder. You'll see a breakdown of all the subcomponents which can quickly let you see if you have any large image files eating up space. -Brodie Thanks, Brodie Opening the .kmz folder was most helpful for me! Morgy

That's interesting idea

Thanks Dear Gaieus and Bep. I always appreciate your help. sincerely A.A

Does this help http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=39940 ?

I agree with Dan; I'd much rather it was unchecked by default. It's far more preferable to see a gradually thinning shadow than one that periodically jumps and loses all contact with the object that's supposed to be casting it. This just looks weird. [image: 26aO_shad_thumb.jpg]

What's up? The zipped set should just extract into a temporary folder [say on your Desktop] and then you move the entire contents of that temporary folder into the Plugins folder - there should be 13 .rb files to move over, AND make sure the other files in the TIGtools subfolder in the zip-file remain in their TIGtools subfolder that you put inside Plugins too... Tip: check that you have proper permissions [access rights] to add files to the Plugins folder...

These are some 'one-liners' that manipulate selections etc - Copy+Paste into the Ruby Console + <enter> To select just Faces and Edges in the active context m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;m.active_entities.each{|e|s.add(e)if e.class==Sketchup;;Face or e.class==Sketchup;;Edge} To select just all Faces in the active context m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;m.active_entities.each{|e|s.add(e)if e.class==Sketchup;;Face} To select just all Edges in the active context m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.clear;m.active_entities.each{|e|s.add(e)if e.class==Sketchup;;Edge} To select just the Faces and Edges in the current selection m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.each{|e|s.remove(e)if e.class!=Sketchup;;Face and e.class!=Sketchup;;Edge} To select just the Edges in the current selection m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.each{|e|s.remove(e)if e.class!=Sketchup;;Edge} To select just the Faces in the current selection m=Sketchup.active_model;s=m.selection;s.each{|e|s.remove(e)if e.class!=Sketchup;;Face} You can expand this idea to quickly select/deselect all manner of things

Well since I first started this thread I did not know anything about creating animations using Sketchup! I have had a lot of help and our foundation just finished a video series about how the Great Pyramid was built using water and barges. Below is the link: http://www.thepump.org/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69 You can download the .ISO fine to make a DVD you can play in your DVD Player. I hope you find the series of videos interesting. If you have any questions let me know by emailing me through the web site http://www.thepump.org. I hope everyone can mention this series on their facebook page if you have one. I thank everyone for all the help I have received! Thanks again! Steven Myers author of Lost Technologies of the Great Pyramid.[url][/url]

Thanks all, I am back and functional. FYI. When SU is first installed the materials folder is locked. So when you try to use the "options" screen in Twilight Render to change paths after doing an upgrade the new path will not take. Unlocking the folder made life a lot easier.