also, here is a picture of the one ive made in blender but as mentioned before you cant edit the joins or create a join.
http://archibitd.tumblr.com/image/40256783011

Ive got a bit of a problem. Ive been trying to turn my edges into tubes but i cant figure out how to do it as my model isnt a set of curved lines that can utilise this tool. Blender has a function called 'wireframe' which turns all edges into tubes. I was wondering if sketchup had a function like this where i could simply select all the edges in the model then extrude them into tubes/ square sections/ triangular sections etc.
Another thing is, i was wondering if it might be possible to add a junction tool onto this so i could define a junction (say a ball joint) that the tubes would fit into.
here are a couple examples:
http://bridgehunter.com/photos/13/55/135570-L.jpg

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v1/376158098/Spigot_truss_connector.jpg

http://ktsadium.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/mero-ball-joint.jpg?w=450&h=414

http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0263822312002310-gr12.jpg

http://kubahwarna.blogdetik.com/files/2011/07/space-frame2-300x225.jpg
this last one is more what im looking for than anything else.

Hello!

Ive got myself quite a complex mesh that has a thickness of 2mm. because of the way this mesh has been made ive got lots of little faces within it that would take me days to select. I know that blender has a 'select visable' option whereby the faces and what not behind what youre selecting dont become selected.

My aim here is to select all the faces inside the model and delete them to have the model ready for 3d printing.

Any help would be much appreciated.

ninehundred

thank you so much, this is great!

Error: #<NoMethodError: (eval):131: undefined method `refresh' for #Sketchup::View:0xa4d50c0>
(eval):131

Ok, so I put all the ray groups on one layer and basically started again. while a new folder called images was created there was still nothing in it and further to that all of the line groups except one was deleted.

#<NameError: (eval):131: undefined local variable or method `d' for main:Object

this is what came up when i put the code in :S

also, am i to replace "images" with the address to the folder id like them sent to?

Yes, just the ray lines. the idea basically is that ill take these lines later and overlay them onto a map so i can create a sort of time lapse of the lines building up until i have such a crowd of lines that the image area appears black. thing is though that if they all have a background then you wont see the build-up of the lines but rather a stream of individual images.
another thing is that since there will be a map below which will need to be seen underneath the lines. so in regards to this it would be useful to be able to put the images into a line editor and put them to scale 1:1000 at a size of 0.25. maybe it would be easier to have the images exported at a scale of 1:1000, each of them with the map underneith. i suppose that would mean it would be consistently exporting the map layer along with the lines at 1:1000 (again with no background)

hey again,

I was wondering if there's any way to make the code that exports the images one by one(as well taking out the background so only the lines remained)into a desired folder for version sketchup version7? just that ive also just worked out that ill have 61009 images.

I know this is a lot to ask but if its possible or there's maybe some other way to do it any help would be of great importance!

ninehundred

that is amazing. thank you so much! however, i am working on version 7 im afraid so its not working

thanks anyway!

ok! ive had another go at this (selecting all objects at once) and got it to work. this is amazing! thank you so much!

The problem here is that i dont want this all to happen at once. for the purpose of my presentation id like to be able to join all to one on one layer, then all to another on the other so i can take it into flash for instance and make a time lapse of the lines slowly building up until they look like the product of the code you gave me. is it possible to do this?

again, thank you so much for your help!