As I have said many time before; I have used ACAD for many years. But I struggled with ACAD's 2 1/2D disaster for over 2 weeks trying to get a good approximation of an airplane fuselage I've been developing on paper. I gave up. Then I discoverd SU V6. In just the very first 2 HOURS of playing with it, I had my design exactly as I wanted it. ACAD has never since lit up my screen.

Thanks, Rich. I'll give Twilight a spin and take it from there.

Good luck with that. I'm about to start digging into DC's through ruby, so I'll probably be asking questions about some of this in the near future.

Sqirlz Water Reflections 2.6 is also a great little post processing application http://www.xiberpix.net/SqirlzReflect.html

Yes, that sounds like it should be fairly straightforward.

Here's a Z and a Y sliced version - might also be useful... The slices ~6" - I did that so it's symmetrical... Sorry for the gap in communication - even I have to go to bed...Helicopter body shell by EliseiDesignZY.skp[image: ehm5_HelicopterbodyshellbyEliseiDesignZY.png]

Those plugins are exactly what I was looking for, thank you both for your answers.

@gaieus said: @3dbuilder said: ...When saving a model, Sketchup should automatically purge the model of unused components and materials... No way! I constantly work with models where I keep things only in the "browser" and such. ... this should at least be an Options option.

Ah great, thanks alot Gai. I did search for some answers but it was not easy to figure out what keywords that suited the issue. I will try those tips the next time it happens and see if that sorts it. Cheers

@tig said: Model Info > Animation Set Scene Delay to 0 seconds Also try adjusting transition times etc... Thanks TIG I will give it a go.

that's the question isn't it? I know there's an importer for 3ds max. It extracts the data from SL (to get around the issue of the different file layouts I assume)and imports but there are no importers for any other 3d tools that I can find so I assume that the demand hasn't been there previously as (I assume) moving the files has been confined to SL compatible platforms. However, Blue Mars is now on the scene. I confess I really, really don't want to have to start again and would love to be able to lever something out of all my SL builds - and I suspect a lot of SL creators will feel the same way, but it's too early to tell yet. There's already an exporter built into one of the SL clients (emerald) so making it compatible with those would be great as it would put a hurdle before those inworld who would seek to download content that they shouldn't be. /me smiles winningly and looks hopeful

Brilliant advice, thanks.

I need to be able to rotate around the model. It is a campus model and it will be used to identify parking and its relationship to the entrance for accessibility. I need a QTVR 3d object file so the graphic design firm can add a legend and a few other things around the model and they said that is the type of file they want. I was wondering first how to do that in sketch up without exporting it to another program if that is possible. I tried the cubic pan our plug in but that is not what I am looking for cause that create a panoramic view and I want to be able to see all sides of my buildings and site and be able to manipulate the mouse so that it stops where I want.

If you want them to appear parallel in your view (e.g. not converging up or down), then you need to make sure your camera is level (Camera and Target are at the same height). You can eyeball this if you just want to be close, or start with a camera that is level, and never tilt it up or down.

Fat Pencil Studios in Portland does a lot of work with sketch-up. Your project may be a little small for them, but they are professionals.

Mate (dude), I haven't got the patience to 'evaluate' the speed of GPU's or whatever. I'd rather use that time chasing more (paid) work!

Thats a good question. I do not think there is a limit, but perhaps there is? It can be very time consuming to troubleshoot DC's built by someone else I've been discovering

The only problem is that all the scenes will be updated with the layers you have selected/deselected and that is not the intention is it? So the problem remains I right?

Hi, With Fryrender can even beginners achieve respectable results. [image: CCMi_output_001.jpg]

Many thanks for the quick replies, it worked like a charm, I had been fighting this problem for a while. I'm sure I will have other issues to deal with, as I learn more, but I will be looking for the answers here. I did take a quick look at the Aidan Chopra Tutorials on You Tube & they look very helpful, I guess I'll have to break down and buy the Dummies book too.