Thanks for a great tutorial. I had a problem in MAX changing to the VRAY renderer, but solved it. Cheers!

Thanks a lot , jeff hammond and brodie

It's a basic tenet of Sketchup that to separate geometry you must either separately group the geometry or make it a component and then place instances of it. By default all geometry sticks together inside a model, or group or component. Hiding geometry or putting it onto layers that are switched 'off' will never separate the geometry. Layers in Sketchup are NOT the same as layers in CAD. Layers are used to control visibility NOT geometry interaction. Let's imagine a simple building. You'll probably want the walls on the 'WALL' layer and the roof on the 'ROOF' layer. That way you can switch off the roof and see inside the space from above... To put things onto these layers so you can switch them on and off you should make the wall geometry with everything on Layer0 and then group the parts, make that group's layer WALL. Similarly make the roof geometry on Layer0 and group it [note how you can separate stuff early on - draw a couple of the roof's edges and group them immediately, edit that group and then everything you make inside the roof-group remains separated from the rest of the model, whilst you can still snap to any of it, drawn over it etc]. Now put the roof on layer ROOF. Now you can hide the roof or wall by simply switching off layers. Also naming the roof-group and wall-group logically allows you to select these in the Outliner... Putting the model's raw geometry [or basic geometry inside a group/component] will only stop it being seen - it will not stop it interacting with other things. It is usually best to have all raw faces and edges on Layer0 - keep the active_layer Layer0 [radio button], the visibility of layers is controlled by the tick-box...

Take a look here! You have some plugs (not free after 10 days) Seems that can help you

Make completely model. This model must bee made from grouped bricks. When model is completed delete bricks one by one. Do not delete the last one. Export 2d grafic as JPG. Make undo and then the brick which You have deleted will appear. Export 2d grafic as JPG. Retry No 6 till the end . Open Windows Movie maker. In movie maker import every picture in film strip with transition between . Save movie and that is it. I am pleased if it helps!

Hi modelhead, Johnny, Gaieus: Thanks for sharing your insights to my question on the SUF, which I just now accessed after a few days. Very interesting -- and very unlikely for me to have stumbled upon on my own. Much appreciated. .. ss

@august said: @august said: I got something. August, What did you get? Tom

Well, I didn't do anthing, and now it is working. Nothing I did for sure. Gaieus thanks for your replies. Ken

If you use the GlobalMaterialChanger.rb script you can use it with NO selection so the whole model gets done, enter the 'mystery material' and replace it with <<Default>> (none). You can choose to 'mine' down into all groups and definition/instances etc. It might take awhile on a big model...

Yes, heavy model, but really beautiful and realistic.

@arail1 said: I look forward to your tutorial about exporting SketchUp to Pepakura if you ever get around to it. What file format did you use? http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=20945&p=175902#p175902 There you go and maybe sunday ill get around to explaining pepakura in some detail and ill paste it up but for right now thats the tut it shows how to fix some problems I sure had some and if there is any more just reply to that thread.

Thanks for the link. I'll have to decide if my being annoyed with having to hunt through my plugins drop down is worth the $6. I was hoping SU supported some sort of directory arrangement for the plugins without needing to script it.

HI folks. While waiting for a fix in SU 7, I tried this workaround: 1 - I draw a circle centered on the origin. 2 - I add a "Point at center". 3 - I delete the circle. 4 - I hide the point. 5 - I add the required Screen Text. This gives me a minimalist file that can be used as a template, if required. Just ideas.

Hi Sharina, You may need to activate the toolbar from View (menu) Toolbars (and there, somewhere at the bottom). Also make sure not only to install the .rb file but the whole folder the script comes with directly under the Plugins folder.

thanks so much guys. I'm making it for my granddad and hoping to render it or get it 3d printed. I will take a look at all the models. I thought I did it cleanly, but now I can see that I made quiet a few mistakes!

Got my license yesterday!

Unfortunately, I tried that and it didn't work. It's like Sketchup has gotten amnesia.

I use Sketchup only. I use Revit & AutoCAD from time to time only to get some data from it. (I work as a modelmaker at an architectural office.) Our software packages are AutoCAD & Revit for the plan drawings and Sketchup for the illustrations. Our office is about 20+ people. With exception of me, all SU users are also AutoCAD users, with increasing number of Revit users. I didn't vote on the poll because I don't have much info to give such a large estimate. (From the poll in this thread it seemed you asked for what each person here thought about everyone else. But the one you posted a screenshot of from the other forum seems to be easier to answer as it asks what the users personally use.)

I think this varies in different places and in different industries. Here in yorkshire I know of a lot of small and large architectural firms that employ an autocad & SU (or revit and SU) workflow for major projects. It seems to me that now their aren't so many people in the architecture industry around here that dismiss Sketchup, but that's just one industry in the north of England. In the last few months I have had at least one experience with a designer from further afield whose project I modelled, his response, and I quote: "Er yeah, nice model but we wouldn't touch SU with a barge pole". The arrogant b****** then updated his website with stills from the SU model.