I don't know if you'll want to try this, but I have seen a gunstock mfg'r that laminates to pieces of walnut together with a piece of carbon fiber cloth in the lamination. If you were to use the thin strip lamination idea, placing a piece of carbon fiber cloth in the lamination should add strength to the laminate. There would be a black line in the lamination, but that might contrast nicely with either ash or hickory. I guess you'd also have to pay attention to the direction forces were applied in relation to the orientation of the fiber.

Just a thought.

GT

Pierce,

I was just in the Woodworking forum here and saw that you've already met Dave Richards a couple of days ago. As I said, he's a great teacher and really knows how to make SU work for you.

GT

For what your are looking for (as I understand it) you should check out the Design, Click, Build blog on the Fine Woodworking site.

http://forums.taunton.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=fw-designforum&redirCnt=1

LOTS of good tutorial type info. And be sure to check out the archive. On the right side of the page, about a page down the previous weeks titles are listed, and at the bottom is a link to the archive. Dave Richards, and Tim Killen are great at teaching how to use SU in woodworking.

GT

First off, remember that I offered these as suggestions of ways to attack the problem, so this was just my version of a brainstorm idea, and second, I have never used any GIS functions, I don't even know what you're refering to, but I think I can get and idea from your discriptions.

It sounds like you're on the right track. If you can get the photo size to match the size of the footprint of the building, or vice versa, then, measure the size of one side of the footprint in the real world, (get the width of one of the buildings) use the tapemeasure to rescale based on the width of that building. Then just use it to measure the heights of other buildings in the photo.

I'm pretty sure that to do this accurately, you're going to have to use photomatch, rather than just painting a photo on as texture, because photomatch takes into account the perspective of the photo, and thus, measurements are related to the "vanishing point" of the photo, regular imported photos (I don't think) will do this.

This all sounds like a fun project. Also, if you can make this work, you also might consider posting a tutorial in the turorial section.

GT

How 'bout taking a photo of each city block front(including something for a height referance of, say 5 ft), then use photomatch with grid adjusted to 5 feet, and turned ON. You then "tweak" the grid size until it matches the 5 ft reference, and just count the grid boxes to get the building heights.

Or, again using photomatch, take a picture of a city block front, then use the tapemeasure tool to "rescale" based on the measurement of, say a standard doorway (6'8"). Then you could use the tapemeasure to measure the height of each building in the photo. This method would require something be drawn, say a rectangle in a doorway because the rescale is for rescaling the DRAWING, not the PHOTO, (so there has to be something for it to rescale) but it will just change the measurement scale, and you should be able to then do point to point measurement with the tapemeasure tool with the photo turned on.

Please note that I haven't tried either of these methods, but this is what I might do.

When you get done, let the group know how you solved your problem. I'm sure others would be interested too.

GT

I'd also suggest you look Aiden's YouTube video on Intersecting, that uses multiple rooflines as and example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHCts3jSxd8

I find the "flip.." command a bit confusing. I prefer to use the "Scale by -1" method to mirror a part.

To use this method, select the wall stud -- the stud must be a component -- then click the Scale tool (or "S" on the keyboard). This will make a bunch of scaling points to appear on the corners and midpoints of the 2x4. Move the cursor to the center point on the vertical midpoint of the stud. Be sure that you move it over the one that is in the center of the narrow edge of the board -- not one of the edges. It will turn red and the dot will be reflected on the other side of the 2x4 with another red dot connected by a dotted line. (I find orbiting around so I can see both dots and/or zooming in is very helpful.) Click ONCE on it, and begin to push it horozontally "through" the board (Push the left edge through to the right side), now enter "-1" in the VCB, hit ENTER, and the part will be mirrored. Be sure to stay "on axis" with the movement. I use this procedure to mirror paneled door rails/stiles that are molded on one edge.

You could of course, flip the wide side of the 2x4 or even flip it top-to-bottom by selecting the proper scaling points, pushing through and entering -1.

This is one operation that will NOT be reflected in all instances of the component. Changing the length will change the length of all instances of the component, but mirroring will affect ONLY the single component your mirror. And, you can copy the mirrored component as many times as necessary, and lengthening either the mirrored copy, or the original, will be reflected on all instances of the component, original AND mirrored.

Just another demonstration that there are often several different ways to accomplish the same thing in SU.

GT