Thanks for your replies The freeware Sketchup works fine, I don't have a problem with it at all. It is getting easier and easier to work with and I'm learning as well. Great program. And this guy on uTube monsterz3r0, deserves a medal. Really got me on the right path. But I export my drawings into Pepakura so I can make fabric patterns. I have tried wabe, but it didn't work well, but that was a year ago, so could perhaps give it ago again. Anyway, Pepakura doesn't like the upgrade at all to the latest version of sketchup and when I import a supported .kmz file into it. It really spits the dummy. Every face is duplicated, so you essentially end up with 2 of everything. Makes it very very hard to join pieces together. Pepakura is a bit of a skill anyway, as it does have a tendancy to fracture blocks of faces as well, but thats probably my drawing skills. I'm really just kicking myself, that for some insane reason, I didn't keep a previous version of sketchup on file - versions of both that are going to collaborate together. I guess Pepakura doesn't have the same kind of army working behind it that sketchup does and I will be waiting a while for catchup to occur on Pepakuras side. What I need is the initial skip to version 7, the most recent once certainly won't come to the party, and it does make life difficult that Google doesn't keep available previous versions should software hiccups occur. Which is kind of ironic, since it does boast supporting a couple of formats. But I forget, thems Google ones anyway. The good news is that drawing are progressing well, cept for the shoulder pads of the astronaut, but I will beat him into submission sooner or later . Well it won't be happening again. I sharnt be so trusting in the future. Cheers Jan

Hi Kirk, What I suspect is that you have some issues with your graphic subsystem. In SketchUp, open your Preferences panel from the Window menu and Go to the OpenGL settings. Here disable ("uncheck") hardware acceleration to see if this is the case.

Ok, it's working now. I actually didn't reset my workspace, but install the latest version of sketchup, which I think reset my workspace automatically. Thanks Gai.

@chris murphy said: Being new to SU I would like to know, in general terms, the power of SU. I realize it is unlikely that it is an AutoCad Inventor, but can i come close to developing a residential material list if i put in the time to get detailed? I realize that may be months if not years in the making. I assume that a dynamic component is SU's term for parametric? Are they formula driven? using an Excel or the like? Can i get reports of quantities, Square footages, etc.? On the surface and listening to others conversations it seems like it could be quite powerful. Thanks for any responses. Chris Dynamic Components are 'parametrics' and have their own internal language - though you can also make simple parametric objects other ways too. The Ruby scripting language gives you access to many of SUp's API functions - base geometry, components and dynamic-component's "attributes" - and there are several 'proto' material reporters if you do a forum search... the woodworkers seem to use these the most to give cutlists etc but in theory if you model it you can schedule it and output as .CSV files etc for Excel etc...

Maybe just one additional thought if the topic is bumped anyway; when you make a group and later (when you do not need it) explode it, there won't be any (noticeable) traces of it in the model. An exploded component will however remain in the file and you can still access it in (and insert it from) the Component browser. This way, if you are not careful enough and keep playing with various ideas and download several components (of uncontrollable file size) from the Warehouse into your model, even if you discard them, they will make your file size really huge. Therefore you always need to purge your model regularly (although be careful NOT to purge whatever is needed) See example below: [image: PurgeComponents.jpg] There can be unused components, materials, styles and layers in a model. The first three can considerably boost the file size (styles only if you are using some sketchy style with high resolution watermark background image for instance). In every similar dialog, there is the option to purge them OR you can do it altogether under your Model info > Statistics tab. Lately the 3D Warehouse warns you of unused items (such as above) and offers you to purge them before uploading. This is cool IMO - otherwise one would import Sang or Bryce like a thousand instances after each other.

Welcome to SCF.

Here is what I can see in GE [image: UZXe_Windfarm.png] and in SU - after importing, cleaning up a bit and softening edges [image: dme5_WindfarmSU.png] There is only one row of them however in SU - they are probably "multiplied" somehow in GE [image: DQTC_group.png]

[image: 9h1U_91C.tmp.jpg]

There is a topic about Arroway textures here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=25434 They are extremely nice textures - true however that this free set is not very high resolution - but at least they cover a substantial area and do not tile that much.

You might try sending him a private message here in the forum. According to his profile he last signed in to Sketchucation in February so it seems he's around.

I just may do that, Jax. I'll be sure to give your thread a good read!

Here is a short video about setting your FOV in SketchUp: [flash=640,480:1bxfgdu4]http://www.youtube.com/v/nGCJ9UiXZQA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0[/flash:1bxfgdu4] If, for whatever reason it doesn't want to play for you embedded (as it does not for me ATM), here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGCJ9UiXZQA

Thank you.

Also watch Chris Fullmer at the first quarter of this video. He is presenting how to use these different styles during his workflow with extensive models. [flash=600,360:2o4g313w]http://www.youtube.com/v/r9_F-bSGrKs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1[/flash:2o4g313w]

@jim said: The mesh in the first post isn't very clean - there are many edges that are not connected to anything, and many that do not actually intersect. You really need to get in close to find them, but they are there. It might explain some of the results of using some of the plug-ins. Is this sort of thing a use for TIG's manifold plug-in? All of the rail ( cline) profiles do not intersect( except some places at the ends) with the bulkheads and if one uses a cutting plane and tries to create them there are points that look obviously out of place. Trying to fill in with a bezier curve can be done but the hull then is not correct. Working with the orginal post model with out correcting the profiles and itersection will probably result in problems just getting worse IMHO.

Its ok guys, I started my PC today and SU worked fine. If I still got this problem I'll bump this thread.

Last November I put it on my IT wishlist for this year. So I am hoping to get a copy to play around with soon. It oes look intersting for visualization. Chrs

Actually, I'm on the Beta team, so I've gone through that channel. I only have Sticky Keys enabled under UA. But turning off 'Enable Access for Assistive Devices' seems to do the trick. I think. Trouble is, that messes up my window switcher, 'witch' relies on that function to work. And I use it a lot.

My 'true tangent toolset' only works on coplanar arcs/edges etc The no coplanar edges need a twisted curve - perhaps the bezier tools would be best ?

Actually, Tom you could use http://www.screentoaster.com for video capture. It's free, but it had a slight glitch when I was creating that screen capture, so I had to fall back on SnapzPro.