Interesting find Mike.

I'm trying to clarify whether there is a degree of misinformation here. From the end user's perspective they want the best return on investment and to that end I would have thought south facing and pitched to suit the latitude was the most efficient. I can see how moving the panels to generate more power later in the day may help meet peak demand, but if the output / return from the panels is reduced then that won't suit the end user without some differentiating commercial incentive. At the extreme if the panels were off grid with battery storage, then what alignment would you choose? With the development in automotive batteries I know which I would opt for.

The following applies to the UK...
http://www.bio-linknetworking.co.uk/assets/documents/pitch-graph.jpg

You have a Pro licence, this is what Layout does - Insert your model and set the scale. Unless of course you need the model scaled for 3D printing?

Your rainwater pipes look quite big for such a small roof, unless you live in a monsoon district. There's no reason why you can't have the pipes away from the wall as long as they are self-supporting or suitably braced. If you go down that route I would make them look like they are supporting the roof.

The downstairs ceiling looks like it is on fire! It might not look so bad once you have landscape reflections as well.

Good start

One more option... Download a fresh copy of the SU13 installation files just in case they were corrupted during the original download.

You may already know this but if you think it might be memory you can check by pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Delete and selecting "Task Manager" which will show you memory usage. I can run most things within 2Gb I upgraded to 4Gb because I was dealing with some large images in LO. 1Gb is probably unlikely to work well even with SU8.

No requirement to login here! Have you possibly tied yourself into Google's Skydrive? The initial report "save to" location will be with the SU model.

If you have clean installed can we assume you haven't added any plugins yet including render programs?

Do you have the latest version of Java 7.0.250? You can check in Control Panel > Programs. It was a Java update that required a cold reboot in my first post to fix SU crashing. Might be worth a shot.

Have you added any programs recently that could cause a conflict?

Does your computer spec meet SU2013 minimum e.g. memory? I had to upgrade recently as LO was crashing without warning when the physical memory was exceeded.

If you have access to anti-virus and a registry cleaner it may be worth uninstalling SU and running them before trying another Administrator install.

Gerrit, I've never used the "Send to Layout" command until today, but it did work.

I usually open layout first and do this...

Just a moment...

(help.sketchup.com)

You might try it this way and see if it lets you keep LO open.

Well if you need distractions Gerrit this might be a good time to check your video drivers are up to date and clean up your system. Good luck and get well soon!

I don't see the anti-piracy bit; on the contrary I think they are playing straight into their hands. If hackers can find their way onto commercial servers, adobe being the most recent, what chance have they got to stop or even detect multiple fake or hijacked logins? It is made even harder to detect by virtue of being able to login on any machine from any location. Maybe Autodesk are planning to pay us all back for their arrogance by making the software free that should beat the pirates...

Autodesk's utopian dream where everyone has a PERMANENT high speed connection and tied to their subscription model. It won't be coming here any time soon, I don't even have sufficient speed for M$ Office 365...

I would try creating a new drawing in SU and import into LO first. If that is unstable you should look at reinstalling as an administrator and carry out a cold boot. I have had to do this in the past following other updates affecting SU.

If the above works ok then open the problem model in SU and go to Window > Model Info > Statistics and click on "Fix my model".

Hopefully that sorts it out.

I didn't know the dwg's were available in colour, but there again I usually just end up marking ownership and development (blue/red) as an overlay in LO for planning. If you want the colour and it isn't coming through in the dwg file then why not download the png or tiff versions which would also display the original text?

A woman in a supermarket is following a grandfather and his badly-behaved grandson. He has his hands full with the child screaming for sweets, biscuits, all sorts of things. The grandad is saying in a controlled voice: "Easy, William, we won't be long . . . easy boy."

Another outburst and she hears the grandad calmly say : "It's okay William. Just a couple more minutes and we'll be out of here. Hang in there, boy."

At the checkout the little horror is throwing items out of the trolley. Grandad says again in a controlled voice: "William, William, relax buddy, don't get upset. We'll be home in five minutes, stay cool William."

Very impressed, she goes outside to where the grandfather is loading his groceries and the boy into the car. She says : "It's none of my business, but you were amazing in there. I don't know how you did it. That whole time you kept your composure, and no matter how loud and disruptive he got, you just calmly kept saying things would be okay. William is very lucky to have you as his grandad."

"Thanks," says the grandpa. "But I am William. The little bastard's name is Kevin."

Click on Edit > Preferences > Folders and the location of your templates and scrapbooks will be displayed.

To update a template I start a new document using the template and save it to the template folder with the same name. Alternatively you can go to the directory where it is saved and double click to open it.

I can see some merit in the idea but is it not easier and more reliable to build the detail. I would imagine most of what you are extracting there would be deleted as the detail model develops?

Learn something new every day. And when you think you know it all or you think SU isn't up to the job go here...

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17315

I'm using one of these on Win7 for now...
http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/performance-mouse-mx?crid=7

It is great for SU as the ratchet stop for the wheel can be turned off which gives fast zooms BUT the Logitech management software was unstable in Win7 so I removed it which stopped the extra button functionality It only has a single AA cell so the battery doesn't last long and the supplied charging lead is quite stiff which restricts movement; I changed it to a more flexible one but it means a lot of the time I'm still running a corded mouse while the battery recharges.

Other than that it feels and tracks great even on my glossy black desk.

From the responses so far I take it the track pad is not high on the popularity list?

+1 together with a request for the other CAD basics of offset and fillet etc

Interested to hear what MAC users are running for pointing & clicking in SU. The obvious MAC products are the track pad and/or magic mouse or would you recommend a third party product like a logitech mouse with scroll wheel?