Cheers Scott Looks like a bit of work to do, I'll surely get back to you with more questionswhen I find the time to do it. Thanks

Dxf files are ascii (simple text) descriptions of the entities in a file. A dxf contains information about xrefs, but in itself can not contain a xref. It is my understanding that if the file being imported is on another machine within a network, in theory, a firewall could affect the file transfer. If this is the case, ask your network administrator to make sure that dxf files are an exception.

Thank you everyone.I'm familiar with the use of tape measure tool. I still can't get it to work. I think I'll try to reinstall SU. I'll let you know what happens.

Try Wood Workshop. It's free and You can create texture You need.

plz some1 i really need this in 10 hours

Well, Remus went into the "practical" part of it. In "theory", a PR (and use this for "photo realisctic" rendering since a straight SU oputput is "rendering" as well - just not PR) so a PR renderer "shoots" photons that bounce from the surfaces and according to the capabilities of the rendering engine, different "further" features (such as reflection, refraction, bumpiness etc.) can be assigned to the materials so they look more realistic. Also, there are more light sources than rthe sole Sun (hm... could even be a good pun) and these lights all contribute to the final render by "shooting" those photons. Without going into more details (like bounced photons bounce further or not and such), this is the basis of a PR renderer. On the contrary, SU doesn't do all this. There is the sun (or no sun) and there is the sunshine vs. shadow. On top of all, an annoying "shadow bug" contributes to this limited choice (i.e. if you have sun/shadows on, there are problems sometimes). Still don't underestimate a native SU output because it can be really cool and combining it with some post-process work, really stunning results can be achieved. It's juswt a matter of "fashion" which taste; PR or NPR (i.e. "non" PR) is more popular at a time.

newbuilder, maybe you can make us a squirrel skin'n tutorial in sketchup.LOL but seriously podium seems very good and alot faster than indigo, but indigo's free and if you want to do interiors specially just lighted from windows there's really no substitute for indigo. so i say get podium if you want, but add indigo to your collection of tools as well, it won't cost you and you won't ever regret it. also take my advise and try the lightup demo this might be what you're looking for as well, its very unique.

Thanks everyone for your help - i used intersect & joint push pull - you're all brilliant! [image: J9Bh_spainwindow.jpg]

@unknownuser said: The attached SKP demonstrates. I tried to keep all of the driving formulas at the top level and as simple as possible. Cheers, That exactly what I need! Thank you very much! Cool! Budla.

@alan fraser said: Say to yourself "I'll back up this file right after I finish this little thing." ' Works every time. LMAO dude thats what i alwys do!! and them BAM i lost an hour of work

This is almost what I've been looking for ! I need a window to first tilt (Red or green axis), then return closed, and on the next couple of clicks, turn on the Blue axis, and then close and repeat.. can you help me? Cheers,al

Thanks for the input Remus. An update - I uninstalled SU7 and that solved some of the weird problems I was having between SU and Hypershot (images opening in HyperShot that looked like something from a bad move about LSD). So I'm back to work but I still have the strange file saving issue. I've attached a screenshot of the folder hierarchy but I've never done that before so I don't know if it will show up correctly on the forum. This shot is after working with a drawing called SpiralSU6Classic. All of the numbered files 0 through 9 are the automatic saves during my most recent period of working on the drawing. And two other things to notice - there's 2 files called SpiralSU6Classic and there are no backup files. Doubt I'll ever solve this one but thought I'd send off an update anyways. Thanks again [image: ObHx_BizarreSaves4.jpg]

@gaieus said: My problem is (was) the same; I could make the animation in SU but couldn't export it. It's been a month, so you probably already know this: You can export the "proper animation" with Whaat's "Smooth animation" plug-in.

Hi James, That's an interesting way to do it, and really fast too. Thanks for your help. Puck

don't know if this belongs here, but since i use su7 i have a crashing prog time and again - it has nothing to do with extremely complicated or large files. it happens when using different tools or not using anything at all, even when closing a file. i reinstalled su7 but the problem is not solved - bug splashes all over, which i never had in su6. any ideas, someone?

Any more details on the problem? As long as the file wasnt made in SU7 you shouldnt have any problems.

Been so busy I forgot we were going to create a video or two on the workflow for this thread. Dropped the ball, sorry... I'll get on this, as the one we have on our web site doesn't go into too much depth. But you can see that one here if you like: http://downloads.imsidesign.com/Flash/DoubleCADFlash/Import-From-Sketchup-800-600/Import-From-Sketchup-800-600.htm William

I can live with the extra size. Disk space is cheap. The other formats just doesn't seem to cut ut. 3ds for instance is to old it can only have meshed with less than 32K polygons and texture filenames are trunkated to the old 8.3 DOS type for naming to name a couple.

We've not used that in our office. It's usually too much detail for top plans.

@linea said: Wow you have some impressive peers then, did they all study at the same place? University of Oregon? @unknownuser said: Maybe computers will never replace this wonderful art? Is it a waste of paper? Yes. (IMHO) Well computers use electricity which is still often created by coal burning power stations, so in carbon terms, there might not be much difference. Yes, Tinker studied Architecture at the U of O but the rest of us studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasedena, CA. I included Tinker because I have known him for a very long time and we both studied Architecture. I only briefly studied Architecture before going to ACCD but I worked as a grunt, draftsman, and project leader for local architects where I lived for several years. You may be right about the carbon footprint of coal vs timber? I hope that complicated question can find an answer sometime soon. Like nearly everything, it's not as simple as just measuring the carbon produced by the manufacturing process alone. Transportation, loss of habitat, pollution produced at each stage of the process, the various tradeoffs and costs of recycling old computers/parts vs wood based products are just a few factors that need to be weighed. I'm hopeful that the, currently, very inefficient use of electricity in nearly all products will become much more thrifty as we learn and innovate the problems.