I've had this problem too, the best advice I can give is to treat it like a real animation if you want to have a man take five steps then you need to make five men in different positions first then place them where you want them all on the one layer. Then assign each of them to there own layer. After this turn off all you don't wont to see and make a scene, turn him off and the next in line on and make another scene and so on. Don't work with scenes and layers at the same time it can get real frustrating, its not a strict rule, the ants were added after the centipede was up and running with no problems but other modifications have unexpected results and figuring out why is frustrating . This is an animation I made with this method however because each centipede occupied almost the exact position I had to go about it slightly differently. Save it first Centipede and ant last.skp

@unknownuser said: Blender 2.49b Import the file "x" Export in Dae (Collada) Import in Sketchup 7 (free or pro) Thank you Pilou for your answer!

For more on using SketchUp Pro for construction documents, see the heavy traffic on http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15911 b

I would suggest this. It is one of the best scripts I use. http://www.smustard.com/script/ProfileBuilder Scott

I am not sure I follow that methodology, but that shouldn't surprise anyone! I just need to give it a try tho. IT's probably pretty good.

@gaieus said: Ah come on, you won't forget if you really try to do it a couple of times to see how it works! Forgetting everything is in my nature. As is learning new things (and old things).

Dear Chris, thank you for the effort you made for me. That helps me a lot. Thanks Elysium for your answer. Karlheinz

thanks for your help, ill go that way

@tfdesign said: You are right, but AutoCAD, apart from ACIS 3D kernel, is primarily a 2D app, and SU isn't. acked, never understood why AD is bloating their 2D CAD with additional 3D stuff having AD/MD resp. Inventor in the portfolio... maybe the GSU effect Norb.

@anssi said: If the graphics card is an ATI one, you may be in more luck, but you would have to look for a suitable driver, possibly from the ATI pages. if ATI isn't able to provide a working driver, the quality-moded OmegaDrvier is always worth a try. Norb.

Thanks for trying Jim... Just out of curiosity, how were you able to export any attributes from the DC?

I actually tried Fredo's stuff once, a while ago, but I had trouble with rotation and flipping options (edit: and grouping) randomly disappearing and didn't notice this one. I'll download it again and try. Thanks!

This post and topic may be of interest.

Are there any similar uses for the ";" that we may not know?

Hi David - I've noticed that sometimes, if the very first time a formula is assessed, the result is zero, I get an error. I don't know if this could be the issue here. If n=1, does the formula return zero? My work around is to write a formula that never returns zero, and then let the DC evaluate it. Once it has accepted a non-zero value, I can edit the formula to allow a zero value, and it seems to work fine. (An example of when this comes up is a RotX, RotY, or RotZ value that is set by a user input box; I initially get an error if the value in the box is zero, but if I start with a non-zero value in the user input box when I create the formula in the RotY attribute, it works fine, even if I set it back to zero.) I don't know if this is related to what you're doing here, but it may be worth a shot if you have the result of the formula set to zero when n=1.

Just to let you know, I did an architectural renovation to a metal building as a real project. Although I was less interested in the deep detailing, like fasteners and gusset plates, and more in the massing of the existing structure, as it affected my additions and modifications, I used the simple Sketchup toon shading in order to present my ideas to the client/ user. These presentations were very helpful in developing and explaining my design. It also helped me to determine how to draw the required CAD drawings. But your premise about the usefulness of Sketchup in the metal building industry is right on.

Glad I could help. Scott

Other modelling packages often let you edit the geometry by editing the vertices. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=18021&p=227736#p227736 With this Vertex Editing plugin I'm making, you will be able to use soft selections - so that when you do changes, like move a set of vertices, the ones at the edge of the selection is affected less. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=26387&p=227665#p227822