Hi Joe,
I run SU on an ageing but fairly hi-spec gaming machine. I've got the anti-aliasing set to 0. I tried it on 4 and can see absolutely no difference, so I changed it back again...the higher it is, the more work your graphics card will have to do. I'd choose fast feedback over higher multi-sampling, as your system will run faster, especially on larger models. I think SU checks whether you can run higher sampling and fast feedback together on start-up. If your card is not up to the job, it will grey it out.
Posts made by Alan Fraser
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RE: Open GL Settings
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RE: Modelling Problem
It sounds like it might be some sort of memory or cache problem. You don't have it saved as a component, do you?
One thing I could suggest is that instead of trying to import the new ring, you open it in a separate file, then copy / paste it into the project file. You'll have to resave the imported geometry as a new component if you need it to be. -
RE: SimLab USDZ extension
Fixed it. The .rb file was pointing to a _loader.rb file in the plugin folder. It's actually a _loader.rbs file. I've informed them. It's still unclear which format will become the standard for AR viewing on smartphones etc....Apple's USDZ or Google's glTF.
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RE: Organise and save the tools in the desk
I'd advise replacing some of the default toolbars...like Getting Started, with more specific ones. That way, you don't get duplicated icons. There was a thread some time ago in which several of us showed how we arranged our toolbars around the drawing window. It's here, https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=37748
Keeping an actual screenshot of your favourite configuration helps a lot when re-installing or upgrading SketchUp.It's also a good idea to turn off the tools that you don't use very often, so they don't clutter the place up. You can do this in View > Toolbars.
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SimLab USDZ extension
Hi all. I noticed that TIG posted a reply in the Newbie forum last year in answer to a question about converting to Apple/Pixar's new USDZ format for AR. He linked an online conversion site.
But I also realised that SimLab has recently posted a new export extension for this. https://extensions.sketchup.com/content/usdz-exporter#I installed this, but unfortunately keep getting a load error...that it can't find the loader.rb. Anyone else come across this problem? The file seems to be right there where it ought to be.
Thanks for any help. If all else fails, I guess I'll have to contact them directly. -
RE: Looking for good graphics program
As someone who went down that route...Graphic Design - Illustration (yes, that avatar's a self-portrait), I'd advise that you're careful to avoid anything that might detract or distract from his current enthusiasm for natural media. The general attitude of most design courses would be "Just give me someone with imagination and creativity who can draw...we'll do the rest." I'd imagine the same could probably be said about architecture, plus a decent grasp of mathematics and physics.
There are a multitude of programs (cheap or free) that are very fun to use and can turn out (superficially) very impressive results. You just have to be careful not to encourage style over substance.
It depends very much on the age of your nephew. Younger kids can get a lot of fun from playing about with such programs; and it makes a nice break from traditional media. As they get older and still have a desire to follow the graphic design route it probably makes more sense to start using programs which are roughly comparable to the industry standards of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator...although personally I always preferred CorelDraw to Illustrator.The closest free alternative to these would be (for raster images) The Gimp; and for vector images, Inkscape. Some experience with these would at least provide a grounding in the basic concepts of the software likely to be used at college level.
As to the proggies which actually cost serious money, CorelDraw actually comes as a suite, which also includes Photopaint, which is also akin to Photoshop. As such it works out much cheaper than buying the two separate Adobe products.
Quite a few people at the illustration end of graphics (as opposed to maybe typography at the other end) have also moved over to digital media. Corel Painter is a popular choice. http://www.painterartist.com/en/pages/masters/Krita is an excellent free alternative
https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ -
RE: Time to stick a fork in it?
@hellnbak said:
I don't know if SU itself has a fork in it's future, but I do know that these forums are not what they used to be. For several years it seems member participation has pretty much died down to just a predictable few. Sad
Can't argue with that. I joined the SketchUp forum only fairly recently, so I'm barely past newbie status yet...but I'm spending far more time over there now.
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RE: FormFonts work offer
Yeah, no idea how they're going to meet the deadline...and I couldn't really care. It was a major company, so maybe they had a whole load of other sub-contractors they could pass the extra work onto. But that's a lot of work to spread around over very little time.
I was an illustrator before I got into this game (book covers or entire kids' books.) Publishers were just the same. They seem to think you're hanging on the end of the phone with nothing better to do, just waiting to commit yourself fully to their demands.
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RE: Organize Component Library
You can do that fairly easily. Just make your component folder with all the required sub-folders...and even sub-sub-folders. Then copy or move the root folder (and hence the entire hierarchy) to the Components folder in your SketchUp program folder...right alongside the Component Sampler and DC training folders.
It will then show up in your component browser. You can then navigate backwards and forwards through the hierarchy using the arrows at the bottom of the Components window.
I've played around with this myself before today, but I've never seen any logical connection between what you set in Preferences and where the browser looks for the files.I concluded that the best way was simply to keep a master folder of components somewhere and then copy it to program's component folder after a new install. Keeping a master back-up is probably safer too.
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RE: FormFonts work offer
Thanks for the interest, suggestions and PMs everyone, but we decided not to go forward with this.
The client revised the deadline even tighter...to the beginning of November (after we'd been dangling for nearly 2 years.) Every freelancer knows the feeling.
Wiggle room for extra work we could have managed, but finding space for something like 1500 man-hours in little more than a month, even with extra help...no way. -
RE: Time to stick a fork in it?
I'd give them another version or two to open the kimono. If there's anything good under the hood we can run it up the flagpole and see how it flies.
You never know, they may keep drip-feeding new stuff into Make to keep whetting the appetite of potential new Pro users...wouldn't want to wrongside the demographic.Where the heck did I put that fork?
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RE: Adding fill to complex hollow geometry
I'm not sure why you have so much triangulation in that design. Surely the front and back faces are a flat plane?
On the face of it, yes, it is far more work than is needed. Can you post the file; and I'll give it a shot. Do you want the in-fill to be coplanar with the front or back face...or halfway through the thickness of the design. -
RE: Self Illumination (emissivness)
In the early days of SketchUp, before there were any renderers at all, one method I used for depicting a more ambient light in an interior was to go to the Shadows control (now part of the trays setup) and reverse the position of the sliders. Move the Light one way down and the Dark one up. As long as you don't slide them clear to the end (which is effectively the same as turning shadows off) you'll still have shadows, but they'll be far more muted.
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RE: Reduce model complexity
Learning to use Mesh Wrapper efficiently will pay dividends if you deal with much hi-poly content. It will make for a much neater and more editable model than a savage poly-reduction.
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/meshwrapper-tool -
RE: Component Download
As juju say, there's most likely something left behind in that far empty corner. It might not even be hidden, it might be a tiny, almost invisible line stub. Just open the group, sweep Select from left to right from the lounger to clear over that area (with Hidden Geometry on, just in case it's hidden) and hit Delete...then see if the bounding box snaps closer to the lounger.
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RE: FormFonts work offer
We 'll probably need as many as possible...the more the better. I believe the time frame for the whole job is from any time now till year's end. There's work for multiple people...or one workaholic with gambling debts.
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FormFonts work offer
Hi all,
I'm throwing this out there to see who bites. Anyone interested can PM me.
There is the distinct possibility that we might might have a ton of work on offer...which pays reasonably well and needs to be done over the course of the next few months.The job entails producing image maps for many iconic buildings. These atlases (as they are being termed) are in the form of a single, square image that covers the entire shell of the building; and it has to use that area as economically as possible. The mesh itself is just a very simple massing model, so all the detail is being handled by the image.
I apologise for any vagueness, but we are under a heavy NDA; and in any case, negotiations are still incomplete. It's looking like the pay rate will be in the region of about $20/hr as each job may take about 10hrs to complete and is somewhere in the region of $200. It's possible that a second, mask image will need to be produced to allow for window illumination after dark, but this shouldn't take very long. There are hundreds of building to do.Rather unusually, the images are not to be produced in Photoshop, but as scaleable vectors. This will mean either proficiency in Illustrator or Inkscape (which is free...check it out). Personally I prefer Corel, but that turned out to be no good as it exported gradient fills as non-scaleable bitmaps to SVG (the required format; and Inkscape's native format)...and gradient fills are required to suggest the soft shadows around protrusions/extrusions.
To give you an idea of what is required, I attach an SVG I made a while ago of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. This was produced in Inkscape while effectively learning it on the job after I had to abandon Corel. All images would need to conform to this kind of NPR style. Obviously, any kind of weathering or general grunge is not going to be required in a vector drawing. I've had to zip the SVG as it's not an allowed attachment. It should display in IE, if downloaded, and can be zoomed using Ctrl + -. I hope the png version displays.
So...if you know your way around a vector drawing program, are comfortable with concepts behind UV mapping, think you can handle something like the attached file; and want to earn some extra cash, then let me know.
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RE: Who's been how long.
You can follow the link I posted earlier, but you can also find it archived at sketch3d.com
http://web.archive.org/web/20040604083405/http://www.sketch3d.com/BTW, although the images don't seem to have saved, most of the links to the uploaded skp files on the old forum seem to be still live. Just wait for the redirect.
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RE: Recommendations for styles to try for Interiors
Quite apart from any graphical effects of styles, you can often get a more interior-like effect by reversing the sliders in the shadows dialog...slide the Light down and the Dark up. You'll get a more ambient effect, even with shadows still turned on.
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RE: Downloading versions of Sketchup
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The UI itself has hardly changed at all, visually. It has changed in the way you can actually organise the icons and palettes...it's much more customisable now. But if you arrange them in V2016 the way you see them in the tutorials for V7 you should be good to go.
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Yes you can jump back and forth to your heart's content. The file format itself hasn't changed at all since V7.
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There used to be a download site for every version back to about V3, but I think it was on the Google server, so it's probably gone now. I have a bookmark somewhere...just not on this laptop. If I find it and it still works, I'll post it. I would advise against downloading older versions from 3rd part websites. They'll possibly be virus infected.
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Just use the current version of Make. As with Q.1 you'll still be able to make sense of the tutorials if you set up your workspace to match.
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The major difference between the Pro and free versions is that you can't import/export to CAD files as easily. Also, the free version will not enable you to make Dynamic Components...just use them. There are also one or two extensions (like Solid Tools) that aren't available in the free version.
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