Marcus has a good point but remember to only associate layers with components or groups and leave all geometry on Layer 0. Also, make sure any additional geometry (faces and edges) are drawn on Layer 0 by leaving Layer 0 as the active layer. Chris also has a good suggestion if you need to limit the edges that get softened and the angle between faces isn't a good determinant of which edges get it. I guess I should have mentioned dragging a selection box around geometry you want selected is one way to grab it. Left to right and right to left selection boxes yield different results. Experiment with to see the difference. You can also triple click on an entity to select all connected entities.

I'm taking guess but if your models are generated by a modeller that uses solids these entities may require translation into meshed equivalents which could be producing the additional size/elements.

Yes indeeed - and I haven't even used any of these plugins. One somehow "knows" where to move (snap to) and that's the best way to get used to SU in general, too.

awesome mate....thanx

Thanks guys!!!

Or you can download 3DShapesTool.zip from Ruby Library depot for easy creation of various 3D shapes - this doesn´t mean that you should neglect the possibilities of Follow Me tool, of course. Have fun!

That's it Rich .... the link is in my Gadget bookmarks now

@pibuz said: Hi guys! Sorry to bother I often encounter a very annoying problem: I download some really cute 3ds files, textures included, but it seems like I'm not able to re-texture them correctly inside SU. The textures are mapped on EACH face that makes up a whatsoever geometry (ie. the tons of triangles which make up a leaf) and so they're somehow fragmented all over the geometry if I substitute the texture to the proper plain colour SU detects. Is there any way to restore the previous mapping? thank you very much! I see your point and one way to fix this is to project the texture onto this bunch of small faces to be even.

Hi Robert, That's Weld.rb by Rick Wilson at Smustard's: http://www.smustard.com/script/Weld Note that it won't create "real" circle or arc entities (with their special features like having center points and such) just "glue" the line segments together so that you can work easier.

@honoluludesktop said: Matteo, Richard, Thanks for the feedback. I never thought about creating masks in that manner, and always wondered if the renders posted even attempted to approximate the right colors on compled shapes. Now I have a idea how they did it. Mate there have been several cases of buyers taking legal action because the end product didn't look like the renders!

Let's nor forget that we are modelling stuff here... The clue is in the word 'model' - it's an approximation of reality - we can't*** ever reproduce every screw in the fitments, every bug on the windshield, every scratch on the chrome fender, or even every molecule in the paint finish... 'sufficient is fit' to quote John Donne ? Make your models as detailed as is necessary to let them 'look right' when rendered as you want them... ***'can' = 'would be bonkers to try' !!!

I'm getting closer. It turns out that ArcCurve.start_angle is always 0.0, so I made a function that finds the actual start anlge, I then add that to the end angle for output. def get_new_angle(center, point) #center is the center point returned by AcrCurve.center #point is the start point of the arc returned by ArcCurve.vertices[0].position return Math;;atan(((center.y.to_f - point.y.to_f)/(center.x.to_f - point.x.to_f))).to_f.degrees.abs end Now the problem is arcs on the y axis are not correct.

Nobody said you where a "sub par" designer. I think your designs are great. No need to show us your resume to prove it. But when you come to a group and ask this... @fitz said: I work a lot with models that intersect at angles,(crown moulding as one example) and use the "intersect model" tool quite a bit, as its the only method I've found for making compound miters in models. Then after i gave you some great advice you go off on some tirade with the notion that i somehow slandered you, well that's just childish! Then later you even admitted your mis-communication problem here.... @fitz said: the so called "miter action" I speak of, especially using "crown moulding" as an example was a massive oversimplification on my part, as what I REALLY am refering to is different models "intersecting" at angles. Makes me wonder of your intentions...? After looking over your pictures (and man are there a ton of them!) i noticed some errors that i would like to point out. You will probably think i am being mean but you need to know these simple facts about construction before you go off claiming to be some kind of superman! In the next picture i annotated some horrible mistakes in framing that would cause you to surely fail a structural inspection... and get laughed off a job site... http://jjsenlightenments.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-not-to-frame-door.html This proves to me your lack of construction knowledge. Your a designer with no formal training in the feild. Sometimes what looks good on paper is nothing more that wishful fantasies and pipe dreams. Not only do you not have the all encompassing knowledge of a project manager, you lack even the basic skills of a 12.00hr carpenter. Don't try to challenge me at my game!

It's like that for awhile. Since launch, with only a few heads added.

This feature of DCs is not ideal as you've found out..... It would be great if you could just move them about somehow. ...... Until this time / Google fixes this feature, you could try this .... I start all attribute names with a1_ , a2_, etc then b1_, b2_ etc All the "a's" are related, all the "b's" are related etc ( a way of grouping them). ............ See http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=18545 and http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=21350 ......... Hope this helps Howard L'

My copy is suppose to arrive tomorrow. I'll write about it as soon as I read it.

OK, I pretty much had to do it "old school", like the modeler in Pilou's video. Every time I tried to use some fancy tools like Blend.rb or RoundCorner, something either didn't work, crashed, or returned something unusable. So - it was basically "extrude" followed by "scale" and some minor fussing with the alignment of the resulting shapes, and lastly "soften edges". It's by no means precisely what I wanted, but it's pretty good. I guess I just have to remember, just because we've got all these fancy, fantastic scripts from the community it doesn't mean that the simple things should be forgotten. Thanks everyone for the suggestions and I appreciate the help!

@ajordan said: Exporting to 2007 while viewing the objects in 3d worked! That's so strange that viewing it in plan doesn't allow it to export the 3d properties.....thanks! Actually, it seems to be a standard practice with BIM modelling applications (like Archicad too, for instance)that the active view determines the nature of the export. IMO it's quite logical. Importing and exporting are just generally not the best documented topics in software manuals. Anssi