Jim Foltz's 'simple_shell' will work on a manifold [solid] form [needed for 3d printing anyway?] - however, the wall thickness of a 3mm shell isn't exactly 3mm all round - it might do though [it uses scaling about a center]... Fredo's JPP [JointPushPull] has been recently updated to give a more constant thickness 'shell' - however, an exact constant shell thickness for multiple facets at a vertex is impossible to calculate... Note that you might have problems making very small faces [<~1mm] so scale x10 and then do the 'shell', then scale down x0.1 before exporting [small faces can exist but making them is the trip-hazard...]

This is how they may look with Twilight. The red ones were made with SU native tools, and the yellow ones with Joiny Push Pull. Both were upsampled afterwards with Amorph, but could have been made higher res in the first place. The upsampling also made the seams more visible because their edges were smoothed too.[image: 1BA6_rugby.jpg]

Here more Free HDRI

@tig said: Your SKP looks pretty good... The top surface is upside down - edit the container [group] until you can select just the surface then right-click context-menu > Reverse to get it facing 'up'. To make the two halves joined... copy the half [group] using Move+Ctrl. Now you need to 'mirror' it - right click and choose the correct axis. Alternatively use Mirror.rb OR the other trick is to use Scale and click a handle on the correct side-center and start to stretch it, then type -1 - it will 'flip'... Move the two parts together, explode them and regroup. If the join is visible re-smooth the object using right-click context-menu > Smooth........[attachment=0:2hu644t3]<!-- ia0 -->Capture.PNG<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2hu644t3] Whoa, this is great information TIG, but it will take me some time to learn all the tools and shortcuts you mention. the model you show is pretty much what I want produce. I will go back to practicing. great responses from everyone, thank you very much. Larry

We didn't want to have ads anywhere on our Forum. Also, it someone was searching for "Nighttime Scene" on our site, they might get an ad for one of our competitors, sites. So it is worth $100.00 per year to eliminate the ads. [image: wkmw_nighttime.jpg]

Thanks very much!

@tig said: It is the angle between the 2 radii at the 2 ends of the chord... Right. After reading your post a few times, I realized that I was looking at the whole thing wrong (way over thinking it ) Your post made me realize there's a right triangle (or 2) in there. Right triangles I can deal with ok.

Hi, where can I download the "Suntools V2" plugin? I also want to prepare pictures from "suns eye perspective" to analyze the solar radiation on the different surfaces of my building. Thanks in advance for your help.

just chucking in that this helped me with something I was stuck with too so Cheers

It is also possible to make a plugin to switch templates quickly. I made one a long time ago for SU6 before similar features were included by Google. http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-template-utilities.html It might still work in version 8, but I need to check.

Nice renders

The point at this state of the plugin is that you need to have the exact same amount of faces before you start the bending operation as when you finish it. The plugin can only "remember" UV co-ordinates on existing faces. This is why subdivision is needed before. You can use Shape Bender but I used FredoScale - all the same; the resulting shape will be bent. You can even give Tgi3D SU Amorph a shot. That can also restore UV co-ordinates (in fact, once it worked on a model where TT's UV Toolkit failed - but TT's plugin is admittedly a WIP one for the time being...)

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=27784&p=241632

This is the most complex Layer plugin I know of - I am not sure it can "pretend" to make sublayers (they are not possible in native SU and AFAIK cannot be "truly" done in ruby either): http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=20949

Thanks, Dave. That has been an issue that has been confounding me for years and I have not found a good work around. As always these little pearls of wisdom we glean from others really help improve work flow processes. So simple and intuitive but yet so elusive. John

I gave it a try, it's a typical stiff and edgy AutoDesk application and not so nice flowing as Sketchup. They may have some nice features, but it's 2.5 D working on planes. I still prefer Sketchup spiced up with Some really good plug - ins. My first impression was that like in other AutoDesk applications you have to focus on how to do it rather then just let the creative energy flow.

@neshxy said: Thx for your answers, i guess ill have to find a way to keep things simple as suggested. There are things to do to make your life easier with large files such as http://sites.google.com/site/sketchupsage/faster and http://sites.google.com/site/3dbasecamp2008