You might consider the option of splitting your tower vertically so a buyer could choose to have a smaller computer with just the front two components but when it was time to upgrade he could then add the back two components.

I just ordered a computer from Maingear (excited!) and went back and forth between their small form factor PC and a mid tower, I went with the mid tower so I would have the option of upgrading later on but I would have much preferred to buy a smaller computer now with the ability to increase the size of the computer down the road. Your design would lend itself to that sort of thing.

@richard said:

@dave r said:

arail1. That's a cool looking tower but I see a lot of time spent dusting.

Yeah I've always thought that of the level 10 dave! Plus I just dont see how it can be so designed for airflow and cooling, sure it has some features though those features themselves create these limits!

I don't understand cooling with the Level 10 either. It shows up on acousticpc.com - a site dedicated to quiet PC components - so maybe it just gets hot! You'd almost have to have a fan sitting next to it, blowing at it from the side, to keep it cool.

Your overall design is much sleeker and way cooler. I only posted the Level 10 assuming it might be worth looking at for the arrangement of the components. But your base, the symmetry of your design, the upgrade ablility - all blow the 10 out of the liquid cooling water.

I ordered a new computer recently and while doing research I came across this case which might offer some ideas about arranging components:
http://www.slashgear.com/thermaltake-level-10-pc-case-with-bmw-designworks-0636768/

@nomeradona said:

why not do a tutorial dvd on this.. proposed it with with Lynda.com or do your own. this is indeed a nice stuff.

It's strange that there is no history of paid tutorials on Sketchucation. Maybe it's because SketchUp is so easy to use? But for some people, like myself, who only use Sketchup every so often a index of moderately priced tutorials would be welcome. Especially considering the complexity of some of the work that is shown on the forum, like Solo's. There are paid tutorials all over the modo forums. Prices run between $25 and $200 depending on length and complexity. I have to assume that the people who produce them make a few bucks because they keep making more.

If Solo makes a SDS2 tutorial, I'll buy it. (I don't actually know what SDS2 is but ...)

@numbthumb said:

I´m not quite sure who are you referring to?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to the performance of Pilou's star.pdf on my computer. That was created in Simlab. I went to the other site but the links don't work for me so I couldn't view their sample. But the Simlab performance seemed almost flawless once I viewed it outside the browser. I'm not surprised by that. I've had lots of trouble with the built in PDF function in Chrome.

@numbthumb said:

There are 3D PDF plugins for SU - not free, but they do offer a trial version AFAIK - check out
http://www.simlab-soft.com/3d-plugins/3D-PDF-from-sketchup-main.aspx
http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/pdf_product.htm

That's very cool. Works here in both Firefox and Chrome. But it seems to work better when it's saved as a PDF and then opened in Adobe Reader, rather than opened in the browser. The Zoom and Rotate work simultaneously which they sometimes do in the browser window, but not always.

A bit pricey?

@honoluludesktop said:

Don't you just love sites that don't publish the cost of their product?

When the cost is not posted I know for a fact that I can't afford it.

@tim said:

Those of you advocating reductions in retirement benefits might want to think carefully; you're likely to be getting there in the not too distant future…

What on earth do you expect old people to do if there is no plausible pension? Live on the streets? Take up drug dealing? Mugging? Prostitution?

1. The government employees retiring at 50 that I commented on aren't 'old people'. In fact, the average retirement age for a police officer in NYC right now is 43. We have approximately 10,000 retired police on full pension under the age of 50.

2. My real estate taxes right now on a small cabin in the Adirondacks are over $5,000. By the time I retire my real estate taxes will exceed the meager amount of money I'll be receiving from Social Security. In other words, I won't be able to retire because I have to pay the unreasonable pension plans the government pays itself.

3. It isn't a question of pensions or no pensions - it's a question of unequal distribution and economic reality.

4. I think the French are childish for complaining about a reasonable increase in the age of retirement to 62.

@ross macintosh said:

As a tax payer without a pension, I harbour some resentment at government employees who get generous pensions. I realize they pay into their pensions but typically the benefits received far exceed what they ever put into them.

To amplify - the average 'matching contribution' amount from corporate America is about 80 cents to the dollar up to about 6% of salary. So the company puts in 80 cents for every dollar the employee adds to his retirement plan. Compare this to government pensions - in New York City the taxpayers pay about 10 dollars for every dollar the government employee contributes, unless you're a teacher then the contribution is about $15.50 to the dollar.

Many categories of government work in California allow a '3 at 50' rule - you get 3 times the number of years you worked as a basis for your retirement amount. So if you started work at 20, you'd be able to retire on 90% of your salary at 50. These are guaranteed benefit plans so no one really knows how much the taxpayer will have paid by the time these employees are in their 80s. If the economy crashes and the pension fund loses money the taxpayers have to put in more and more and more.

But it can get much worse. Not only are these early retirement ages economically unfeasible but they also create a 'brain drain'. Pennsylvania solved the brain drain problem by offering 'DROP'. With a DROP, the government employee retires for one day at the age of 50 but then goes back to work until 60. Between 50 and 60 he receives a salary with the normal escalators plus he receives his pension from his 'retirement' at 50. When he retires again at 60, his retirement is recalculated at the higher salary rate.

Pissed off yet?

@unknownuser said:

What's the cliff notes version of LT vs the full app?
And price difference?

I don't know about the Mac version but the difference between LT and full for PCs is that LT doesn't have 3D and you can't program the application like you can with full. But the 2D functionality of LT is essentially the same as full. Price difference - $4 for full, $1 for LT.

They're going to know you submitted photographs.

Very impressive.
I think the 'sheen' on the wood is perfect on both the floor and the ceiling but I think the map for the seams in the floor is too aggressive. The seams look too deep, almost as though the edges of the wood are chamfered.

Is there a way to have a Arch D size paper in Layout without borders and labels?
In other words, just a blank 24 x 36?

Help!

I installed RenderIn, didn't like it so I uninstalled with RevoUninstaller.

Now, when I open SketchUp I get a splash screen asking for my RenderIn license number.
Obviously I don't want to see that every time I open SU so I went into Program Files and found a RenderIn file in Plugins.
I tried to delete it but it says I need permission but I have administrator permission on my computer.

So I moved it out of the Plugins folder to my desktop.

But doing that prevents SketchUp from opening - when I open I get a BugSplat screen.

So I moved the file back into the Plugins folder but now I get the license splash screen.

How do I get rid of this hateful little program?

Nice stuff but a bit dark maybe? The bump on the desk surface is perfect.

I'm disappointed, mainly with the lack of improvement on the high poly issue.

I like the idea of SU as a platform and I wouldn't like to see it become another multifunction, expensive program. I'd prefer to buy the plugins I need and not have to pay for a lot of stuff I don't need.

But as a platform the size limitation is a real problem. I can't bring most of my models in from modo.
Disappointed or not, SketchUp is a great value, but the size limitation really has to be dealt with.

Almost anything can be dealt with by a ruby now but if you can't open the model, all the plugins in the world won't do you any good.

I'm away for the weekend and can't download.
Does anyone know if 8 can handle larger scenes any better than 7 does?

Thanks in advance

Great steel massimo. It's perfect.
Here's one with a worn brass finish via modo presets.
I should have worked on the grass more but it got late.

@olishea said:

its the twilight scratchmap that Fletch posted, 0.05 bump strength (sometimes I use 0.1 if further from camera), brushed silver template. 450 shininess (play with this value, 600 looks good too). u need several light sources (or hdri) for the reflections to be convincing. I would post the skp but the scratchmap is for twi users etc.

did bit photoshop with this one: duplicate layer>blending mode, soft light. duplicate layer, desaturate, change blending mode to overlay. some curves adjustments and then dof blur

Some thoughts:
Different communities develop in different directions. For instance, in the modo community members often post video tutorials, generally for free but sometimes for sale. There are 'big' tutorials that are priced in the $30 range but there are also tutorials in the $8 to $10 range. Generally the price difference has to do with length.

Sketchucation has nothing like that and I wonder why. It could be that Luxology sells tutorials and therefore sets the pattern for doing so but Google doesn't.

For those of us who are real novices tutorials are a great benefit to learning. I have a dozen modo tutorials and there's only one that I regret buying, the rest I've watched numerous times and they've paid their way several times over.

Olishea's description above veers from SketchUp to Twilight(?) and then into PhotoShop. I would gladly pay a reasonable fee to see a thorough treatment of the whole process beginning to end in a video tutorial. And I'd also pay for anything Solo or several others on this board would produce.

It might not be profitable here. In modoland the entire community is geared towards these video tutorials and are ramped up to buy them when they come out. Introducing such a trend over here might not generate the same amount of buyers simply because Sketchucation Forum members aren't in the habit of doing so.

But it might be worth giving it a shot and seeing what happens.