Gosh guys, thanks . I appreciate the nice words. It is true it has been a while since I have done a tutorial, except for this one I did last week for garydorn. I have been busy with many different things including sketching again, I forgot how much I missed drawing by hand . I also created a blog recently, check it out if you want. Just click on my signature below. Again, thanks for the kind words guys.

Scott, I am not a MAX user myself, but I understand that there are members of the forum who use the SU/MAX combination successfully. What about the OBJ or FBX formats? I also remember a post by Solo explaining his workflow using Deep Exploration to translate directly from SU to MAX. Anssi

Thank you jcdb !! Worked like a charm.

Charlie, Thanks. That’s another way that’ll work. The info that comprises shadow information and the way it is stored suggests that unfixing the “fix” or making it optional shouldn’t be that hard to do. When one clicks on a different scene tab, SU should simply use the scene’s stored associated geographical/north arrow information as it did before rather than ignoring it.

@unknownuser said: @rudbeckia said: just curious though if i need to use it again, it is normal to make the program crash alot it seems pretty stable to me on my computer.. it didn't crash when i used it on the file you posted (and what's happening when JPPing one of those elevations is basically like trying to push/pull 500 separate faces at once).. i use it with confidence but anytime i'm about to save myself 20+ minutes worth of manual drawing by doing it in one click via a ruby, i'll make sure to save the file first. thanks for the info!!

Well, to a degree that worked then I got lost again. I want to have different "scenes", in this case elevations, plan and sections of a small "test model" house. I dropped them into LO and was creating a "test set" of working drawings. I did successfully "update" the drawings. Then, I wanted to get the section cut lines out of one of the scenes, so, in SU I went to menu, view, section cuts/planes, unchecked them to see that view...and I lost my section cuts. I went back a couple of steps and tried the next option... I went into "scenes" and tried to see if there was something to check off within the menu there...I checked off activate section planes and permanently lost "Section A" even rechecked it, did an update... What do I need to do to have a model with sections and views without all the section cuts obscuring the model? And with the ability to go back to that "scene" and see it as it was saved or updated? Do I need to or can I "lock" it? I get these glimmers of hope and then it all crashes down again... thanks aloha red p.s. included the examples of what I am working on. TestModel4-09.1.zip TestModel4-09.2.zip

Remus, Chris and Bob, Thanks for the help. I'll give Didier's align tool a try. Fred

hi! it is really wondeful to see what sketchup community is doing to improve it even with "little" rubies like this one..and for free...A GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT THANKS.

Chris, Wow, thanks a lot, Chris, for your reply and with the speed of light! This is exactly what I was looking for mdlok

Yep it's a LiDAR based scanner, I don't rent it though my colleague owns it and I borrow it from him. I have access to the software for it, Leica's software is called cyclone, which is great, but It isn't all to mac compatible so I need to be on a computer with a license to use it. That is where sketchup comes in, I'm trying to see if I can use it effectively vs other software as it's free and works on my mac. Seems if I decimate the point cloud to sub 10k points there are no problems, so I'm just rendering small parts at a time and them bringing the surfaces together.

@chris fullmer said: Also, once you get into making them, we started a thing called the DC exploration series a few months ago. The idea was to post a topic and a challenege and then see what kind of interesting solutions we could come up with. There is a link at the top of this forum. I think we worked on color, rotation/movement, and scaling/copying. You might check out those threads. They are pretty interesting. http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=14566 Chris thanks a lot for your suggestions

Thank you for your generosity Takuji! You make great models. Anssi

Just discovered the actual Ruby I required was this: HideAll.rb by Todd Burch Similar to the "Isolate" function in 3DS MAX. A compact, neat and helpful tool. Visit: http://www.smustard.com/script/HideAll Regards Mr S

yeah done it, still not working, think its something to do with my X11, ill try and fix it up when i finish work.

thank you so much. i love the colored pencil/crayon style.. superb.

see if this little tutorial is of any use. stitching tut.skp

@unknownuser said: we've turned down detail. (on trees etc.) What's the polygon count? Your idea of "low detail" might still be unmanagable for SketchUp. In SketchUp -> Window -> Model Info -> Statistics tab, -> tick the box next to "Show nested components" at the top (drop down menu should also say "Entire model")

Ooh cool, it worked just fine for me and I don't have a key or anything here at home. I only got through the intro, but I'll watch it later. Looks very interesting, thanks for the link! Chris

its good thank you...

Hi, I happened to spot this thread and thought that was a pretty cool leg design......so I had to have a go at it.I've been spending some time working with Shape Bender and FreeScale this weekend. I just downloaded them both and I'm having a blast seeing what's possible. I used a combination of follow me and the FreeScale taper tool to model this leg.The taper went smoothly..........I spent more time just getting the pocket for the table apron. Rich [image: kZNK_curveyleg1.jpg] [image: IZrw_curveyleg2.jpg] curvey leg 3.1.skp