A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

gcp310

Hi, im new to this forum, and have decided to look into sketchup after seeing some of the great renders that a few members here have posted over at cadtutor.

background is in autocad / max-viz and coreldraw, but i am looking at SU for some Expo stand design work i have coming up. I hope to have SU as a rapid concept design tool that i can then use for a finished rendered product for approval.

i will have to look into the Tut's and get my head round the workflow process. i have alot of 3d solid models in acad that i hope to be able to drop into SU and apply quick mats and logo's to.

G

Gaieus

Hi Glenn and welcome. With some (vector) graphic background - even despite SU may work different in certain areas - you should be able to pick it up quickly.

jeff hammond

@orchard collie said:

Hi there
Greetings from Sydney Australia
While not new to SKU, (started with V5) I'm new to this forum and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction because I'm feeling a bit stupid. I downloaded ToolsOnSurface, LibFredo6_31c, Freescale_20c and JointPushPull from the Ruby Forum yesterday. As I'm working on a MacBook Pro, Mac OS X 10.5.2 4GB RAM, I saved the folders into the Library/Application Support/SketchUp7/Plugins folder. Opened SKU and they weren't loaded. OK, open SKU Preferences to add them and they weren't available.
OK, (deep breath) go back to Plugins folder and take the .rb files out of their respective folders so they are now at the same level as all other .rb files. Restart SKU only to be told that "no such file to load -- /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/TOS_Dir_13/LoaderOnSurface.rbError Loading File ZLoader__OnSurface.rb
no such file to load -- /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins/TOS_Dir_13/LoaderOnSurface.rb."
What am I doing wrong? Told you I felt a bit stupid!
Cheers from Orchard Collie, Architectural Drafting Teacher, Sydney Institute of Technology.

Hi Orchard.

i can work this out with you if you're still having problems. i think you have the gist of it right and the mistake is that you're putting an extra folder in there.. (i assume you don't have problems with 'simple' rubies which only contain the sole .rb file. ?)

let's start with joint push pull which can be found in this thread:
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=6708
download the file called JointPushPull.zip from the first post in that thread.

unzip the file (or maybe you have safari set up to open it upon receiving it).. either way, you should now have a folder called 'JointPushPull'

open that folder and you will see three items : jointpushpull.rb , a folder named JPP_Dir, and a file called LibTraductor.rb

Place those three items in your sketchup plugins folder:
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/SketchUp7/Plugins

now launch SU and JointPushPull will be loaded.

if that works out ok for you, try similar steps for the other rubies (ie- the main folder that comes in with the download doesn't get placed in the plugins folder.. it's just holding the different parts that need to be installed)..

if you still have problems, report back in this thread or PM me.

Seydell

Hi,

Can you suggest a way to change part of a livery ( external markings, names, logo. etc.) on a airliner model downloaded from the 3Dwarehouse. The idea is to take a model, remove all detailing, add my own features and modifications, and then detail to a different scheme. Not planning to put it back on the web and claim it as my own, but to learn how to work with contours, skins, etc.

Now when I select a numeral and delete it, the entire panel is deleted with it and stitching the panel back is a task in itself.

Would the solution be to select the numeral, explode it and then erase each segment? or a better method is available that I am not aware of.

Thanks ... SS

Gaieus

Those things (logos and such) can be applied two ways;

it's just an image - more exactly part of the image texture applied to the whole body/wing etc. In this case,you only need to edit (or replace) the image.
it can also be intersected with the geometry and the faces filled in with some material (colour) in which case you need to get rid of this intersected geometry by simply deleting it (the edges, not the face).
These edges are mostly softened however but you can reveal all hidden/softened geometry by going to View menu and checking "Hidden geometry".

Seydell

Thank you Gaieus,

My error was in deleting the surfaces, and not the edges. Deletion of edges works fine. Something learnt today.

.. ss

Justwandering

Hello Yes I am new to this and I have downloaded su & sp after being frustrated and diffrent things. The one that is getting me again is I keep geeting a message at the top of my screen saying that requires sketchphysics beta 3 I have down loaded it but the programs still says I need it whats up and how do I fix it plz help.

Gaieus

I think the best would be to post in our "SP Subforum" (under "Extensions...") where Chris Phillips, author and developer of SP is the "governor". He must be able to precisely explain what you are doing wrong (like not unzipping necessary subfolders properly or such - I can't tell since I don't use SP).

Justwandering

Can some one help to understand why su is not proforming right I down loaded it this morning aging and its working even wrost than before I am missing something

remus

Have you had a look at the openGL settings? (window->preferences->openGL) you should have 'hardware acceleration' and 'fast feedback' ticked.

As for the sketchyphysics thing, you will always get that on models that were made with sketchyphysics. It doesnt make any difference whether youve got sketchyphysics installed.

Seydell

Hi,
Three fairly basic questions:

Is there a way to turn off the snapping behavior, or at least to modify it. I could not find an answer in the pdf SU7 manual.
Can the rotate tool protector be snapped to one of the three axis by using a keyboard shortcut? I draw a cube and hold a reference to a face using the Shift key. Is something better available?
Can the vertices of a 2D shape be moved independently? The vertices of a 3D shape?

Thanks in advance,
Seydell

Gaieus

Hi Seydell, let's see.

All you can turn off (ormodify its precision) is length and agle snapping. Window > Model info > Units. You cannot turn off other (axis,edge, different point ect.) snapping at all.
If you place the Rotate tool (or the Protractor) onto a point, left click to establish the point of rotation but do not release the left mouse button, you can drag it around and snap it to anything, not only (but of course including) the main axes.
When you have the snapping point (and thus established the axis of rotation, too), you can release the left mouse button and pick a point to rotate your object.
This sound a bit cumbersome wrtten like this but once you "discover" how to use it, soon you'll forget that once you didn't know it.
Everything can be moved independently howeve if it creates part of some other geometry (like an edge of a rectangle with two other, touching edges), they will also be affected. This is often fererred to as "sticky geometry".
To avoid this, you always have to group the geometry (or make component of it) to be able tomanipulate it independently from other, touching geometry.
Note that even putting geometry onto different layers - unlike in some CAD programs - will not prevent geometry from being sticky - only groups and components.

ankitdarda

hi ther
i m new to sketchucation
so just want to hi to all of u...
i m architecture student working partime for local architect...
i my fan of this site & obvious sketchup..
i hv my own blog try to daily update it from others...

if u want to see my portfolio feel free to click
http://www.ankitfolio.co.cc
& my blog link
http://www.ankitdarda.blogspot.com

remus

Nice portfolio arkit

Im not sure if its working properly in my browser, though (chrome.)

Seydell

Thank you Gaieus, for your detailed reply.

The method of setting arbitrary axis of rotation that you have explained is very useful for rotating components within a complex assembly.
In Inkscape, there is the node tool that can be used to select and shift individual nodes in 2D, I have not been able to figure out how to select a single node, in 2D or 3D , and move it so that the attached 3 or more edges and 3 or more faces are also modified. It is possible to select a point ( mid-point, end-point, etc. ) when using the line tool to draw a line. Not sure about individual node selecting with the other tools.

Might try rotating an edge of a 3D object, if that is feasible.

Thanks again for your help.
.. ss

Gaieus

You cannot (pre)select an endpoint so that you can move it but if you make sure that nothing is (pre)selected and hover an endpoint with the Move tool, it can be selected and moved with it. It only works with endpoints however (midpoints for instance are defined by the whole line and its endpoints and SU is not so interactive that you could move a midpoint and it would modify the whole line accordingly).

Seydell

Thanks again, Gaieus, for the additional information.

I tried your suggestion, and also tried rotating edges, which also works. Some very remarkable 3D geometry can be quickly made by picking, stretching, and pushing vertices of a simple cube or a similar shape. Almost as impressive as using the push-pull tool, except there is little control. Architects may like the winged-pyramids for new building shapes.

Have a good weekend,
.. ss

tom c

Hi
My name is Tom and i've just joined today. Im recently retired ( a life-time in engineering ) and can now spend more time on the things that I want to do - which is designing.
I discovered SU a short time ago and are enjoying the freedom it presents ( after I work out how to use it properly ).
I use windows vista with a nvidia graphics card.
I have recently created a small model of a house but have noticed that the Field of View is not active. When I checked a blank file the Filed of View is active.
Hope Ive explained myself ok ? if anyone could offer any help I would greatly appreciate it.
Ta

jeff hammond

if you have a tool selected, field of view won't be active (if i'm understanding what you mean by active)

the check mark next to FOV appears when you're able to actually change the field of view using the mouse or by entering a number in the ValueControlBox. once you switch to a different tool, you'll no longer be able to change the field of view so it unchecks.. if you want it to be active again, just click on it and you can change the value again..

if that's not making any sense then maybe you're not quite understanding what field of view is.??

Seydell

Hi,

Another fairly basic issue that cropped up had something to do with cropping. There is apparently a Hither / Yon clip on the displayed model, which can have (for me, at least) unexpected behavior. What happens is that a portion of the model nearest the view vector is clipped, and disappears. Kindly advise the heading to look this under in the help pdf file, or of some way to modify the parameters.

Thanks.