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@jeff hammond said:
also, i'm pretty sure i've yet to crash sketchup 2015 (or 2014) a single time when not using plugins.
you
It might be subjective, but I have come to think that generally 64-bit software is more stable than 32-bit, and since we at work switched to 64-bit with XP things have crashed less than they did before. I have also understood that in modern hardware running 32-bit Windows requires a kind of virtual machine to work, as the infrastructure is already 64-bit.
Anssi
@calypsoart said:
I have the SU export setting options set to "best quality," with anti-alising and Use View size.
The "Use View size" setting exports a screenshot of your model exactly as it is visible on your computer screen. In most cases this is too coarse for printing on paper. For good-looking colour prints, you will need a resolution of about 150 - 300 pixels per inch for the print not to look too jaggy.
The recipe to achieve the best print quality images exported from SketchUp is to first export a larger image than you need (about 2x is a good estimate) with antialiasing turned off (faster and more reliable), and then to resize the image in Photoshop (or your image editor of choice). This gives you much better looking lines than the antialiasing in SketchUp can produce.
Anssi
It seems something is broken in the forum infrastructure.
http://forums.sketchup.com/t/login-issues-if-you-log-out/4491
Anssi
If you can put your 3D point coordinates into a text file, there are plugins that can import that into SketchUp as construction points and others that can form the surface automatically using these. Look for cloud.rb (its documentation will specify the exact format of the text file it understands). I haven't unfortunately used these myself.
Anssi
The Sandbox from Contours tool has a little secret: You don't need contour lines to use it, almost any 3D geometry will do. It should perform quite well with your small forest of vertical lines.
I used to get site surveys as 2D AutoCad DWG files with the surveyed points displayed as text objects with the surveyed height. To get that into SketchUp (it doesn't read AutoCad text) I wrote a small AutoLisp routine that did what you did - it added to every one of these texts a vertical line stretching to the surveyed height. Then I could import the file into SU and put a TIN on it with the From Contours tool.
Anssi
There are many ways in SketchUp to achieve this:
If the lines you imported form a closed loop that is on a 2D plane, redrawing one of the edges with the Line tool should make a face to form. The imported lines might form a group so for this to work you may have to enter the group or explode it first.
Another way is to draw a large face underneath with the Rectangle tool and use the Drape command (from the Sandbox tools) to project your imported linework on the face.
Then there are several plugins that are designed to automate the face finding routine.
Anssi
And a general advice/warning: Keep "Display units format" turned On in Window menu>ModelInfo>Units when using metric units in DCs. Otherwise you will experience weird behaviour. I think it is rather a bug than a feature...
Anssi
Here is a quick method of calculating the required angle with SketchUp tools. It is accurate enough, as the FOV can only be input in full degrees.
Anssi
@olishea said:
@unknownuser said:
Note that the FOV can be input using two methods:
"67 mm" makes a FOV roughly analogical to a 67 mm lens
"67 deg" makes a FOV with a vertical viewing angle of 67 degrees ( a
wideangle lens)In SU the FOV is always measured vertically, which makes the setting
different from that of a 35 mm camera, where the FOV is measured
diagonally. I understand that this is because the SU window can be any
size and shape depending on your screen configuration.Anssi
Taken from Google Groups. I believe Anssi is also a member here. There is a thread here somewhere which would help but can't find it yet.
Thanks for quoting... I haven't actually lurked here for a long time, hope to change that.
SU Pro users also can activate the Advanced Camera Tools extension(SketchUp for Film and Stage in earlier releases)that has options for simulating different kinds of cameras. It would perhaps make the calculation of a specific camera angle easier as it gives a somewhat fixed aspect ratio.
It could be approximated by drawing a triangle on the ground, drawing two verticals from the corners that are 90 deg. apart, and using the Place Camera tool to put the camera at the right angle corner and then adjusting the FOV until the edges touch the edges of your screen. If you know your screen aspect ratio, it wouldn't be an overwhelmingly difficult trigonometrical problem either.
Anssi
I never download anything from the Web directly to a program folder but have a separate folder under Documents to store my downloads. As to the plugin you are installing, if the download is in zip format it won't even work before you unzip it. If you haven't turned off notifications in the User Account control settings, Windows 7 will not let you download anything directly to the Program files folders.
Anssi
What import unit did you use? The SketchUp Pro importer doesn't recognize the unit that has been used in the model you try to import, but you will have to provide the information yourself, via the Import Options that are hidden behind the Options button on the Import File dialog box. If you are inadvertently importing the model in millimeters or centimeters instead of Feet or Meters, it might result to too small faces that SU is unable to fill. An Imageshack image does not tell us much about the original DWG file so if you could post that there might be more to be learned from it.
Anssi
@dan rathbun said:
@frv said:
... I see that Trimble also has Tekla. Tekla has a good reputation here in the Netherlands for Civil engineering software and is the biggest competitor for Revit. ...
So the possibility exists, that Trimble may brand the "stand-alone" edition as "Tekla SketchUp" ??
And move the team here- Welcome to Finland! 
Anssi
If you want to see what Trimble is up to you could take a look at the Tekla Bimsight application. It is quite a capable viewing tool for IFC files, and it's free. And the interface is badly in need of a liberal application of Sketchup to make it more palatable.
Anssi
One example of a virtual tour in an archaeological subject was this Flash movie about Marcus Lucretius's house in Pompeji that was made by Finnish 3D (probably 3D Studio) students in close collaboration with the archaeologists.
http://arkisto.metropolia.fi/pompeji/flash.html
Anssi
One interesting part in this is that it creates "real" solid geometry out of SU "solids". Could it be expanded into the DXF format too? That would add a useful feature that the current DWG/DXF exporters lack.
Anssi
What you can do is to split the shelf into three separate subcomponents: the ends and a middle section, with the adjoining edges hidden, and use only position attributes for the ends, and scale the mid section. Look at how the sample DC windows are done.
Anssi
@wheeljack said:
so does this mean that the Intel HD graphics card does support OpenGL but that it's just not compatible with sketchup's requirements?
OpenGL 2.1 is what Intel says its card supports, but it is likely that in reality only a subset of the commands are supported, maybe those required by some 3D games.
Anssi
MartinPH has got a competitor. Haven't noticed any new things from him for a while since he posted Castle Howard.
Anssi
What I would like to see would be a new pane to the Preferences dialog, with checkboxes for the various inferencing/snapping options. The first I would like to toggle would be the various "From outside active..." options. Of course, to be able to assign shortcuts to the options would be cool too.
Anssi
I would also say that exporting to scale to PDF or EPS or printing to PDF would be the easiest way. To create a 'to-scale' raster image is also possible, but it is more complicated, and you will have to go through an image editor:
Anssi