Offline
@jayewing said:
Ok. So when I download zorro what folder do I put it in? Because I've put it in the plug-ins folder and it still doesn't seem to work.
you need to add a section in your model. With zorro installed, you can then right-click on the section, and there is an option for "slice model at section"
a simple solution for cutaway lighting is to increase the sun size to something like 20. That way you get nice and soft shadows. (also increase shadow subdivisions for the sun settings to 32 from the default 
@rich o brien said:
have you any component definitions that need to have their scale defined/reset?
i encountered an issue with SU2015 lately that the entity info box is not picking up on selections and that picked selections remained highlighted as picked even after dropping the selection.
not as severe as your model but still a graphical irregularity that just occurs.
funny to mention that - I've encountered this too. I just select the highlighted object again, and then deselect all. Wonder if this is worth a bug report anywhere.
Sorry Steve, not something I've encountered, with a model getting progressively worse. Though selection seems a bit finicky when things are ever so slightly off-axis and inference makes it so I just can't select the vertices I want.
very nice modeling! I'm curious how your repeating components look like by themselves (I'm assuming you made some small segments and repeated the pattern.)
you could also try "spandrel glass" to differentiate from the gothic spandrel 
I had a similar case a while back. I did max reflection at 50, refraction at 16 (had those glass dividers too). Here is how it looked
@function said:
there is also this which came out recently, works very well
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?360406-Sketchup-%28SKP%29-importer
Nice! Thanks for this, will take a look. 
you can increase your glossy reflections subdivisions in your material. Default is 8, you might use something like 32
Also perhaps increase your light source subdivisions. Either way, make sure you are getting enough samples so the reflections get cleaner.
I've had issues too of some older proxies not showing up when I opened in the most current vfs 2.0. Sometimes you might try copying it in when vray is not loaded. (I use the vray tools plugin to only load vray when I need it.)
make sure you are using the latest service pack of vfs, sounds like a bug that was in earlier releases.
Did you look into the option Devin mentioned about using VPN from your office to host a license server you can grab from your home? Seems like that could solve the physical issue.
@chippwalters said:
I'm betting you guys are out of the dongle business in a year. I can't imagine paying customers will continue to put up with it...especially since there is so much competition in the rendering space. I'll review your offering again when you get rid of the hardware protection.
Don't count on it. Like Devin said - all the other versions of vray are dongle licensed, and have been for much longer than vfs.
That does sound like a pain that you have to use the dongle at home and at work, with the commute in between. 
displacement is hard to do with siding. There are a few things you can do. Increase the quality settings (reduce edge length, increase subdivisions), break up the faces into smaller pieces (you should check out Rich's "splitup" plugin), and make sure you don't have long triangles in your geometry (large polygons are automatically triangulated, and you can see the triangulation sometimes in the render) Hope that gets you in the right direction.
Andy
Also - maybe a moderator could remove the double post?
Sure, ten years ago building a PC could be rather hit or miss. Things seem to be much better quality nowadays. It's also possible to buy a DIY kit, where they've already figured out the compatibility: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2144880 or just a budget PC with a decent processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE%26amp;IsNodeId=1%26amp;N=100019096%20600014723
Like Pete mentions, there are also small shops that can build whatever you need.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15%26amp;t=50941%26amp;start=45
Also, once you have a case and peripherals, it's very easy to upgrade, instead of having to buy everything new. (I still have a 15 year old dell case that I use for a home server. It's on its third or fourth motherboard and an upgraded PSU)
since this is the corner bar, I'll keep going. You still are missing the point. I'm willing to trade the convenience of a one-stop-shop for the reduced cost of building my own boxes. I can get a much more powerful (and overclockable) computer for significantly less cost. It would be just as pointless for me to shop on the HP site as it would be for me to shop at the apple site.
no, my point being there's a cost to buying apple products that is not purely justified by base line performance.
@jeff hammond said:
do you get the point? your $1k upgrade can be a hackintosh or a computer that runs windows..
Jeff, hackintosh, really? Now you're stretching 
For all that I'd just install Linux
weeell, actually...
Probably in the next month or two I'm going to rebuild my main workstation with an i7-5930k (6 core 3.5Ghz), and have been saving a wishlist on Newegg. So far my total is just over $1k (CPU, motherboard, 16GB RAM, heatsink), but I still need to add in a solid state drive. I bought a budget workstation with a 6 core AMD four years ago for just under $1k. I already have a nice 24" IPS monitor, so no need for a new display (hoping that lasts me many more years.)
It's just a lot easier to make a budget go farther when there's so much more choice in components, and I can keep re-using my tower and PSU, drives, etc.