Hey thanks for the feedback.
I'm definitely going to practice a lot before I start undertaking this project, looking at some of the models it looks like there is a lot of nuances to creating good models. I've been watching the google videos on using sketchup, is there any book or resource that you can recommend for learning some of these nuances? These forums are a great but I'd rather get something a little more straightforward that explains things in more detail. Not so much an instructional but something more about making the choices in 3d modeling and explaining the nuances like why some people prefer quads when smoothing meshes and why in some meshes arrays of small polygons are used instead of larger ones which to me would seem to make it faster. I'd love to read more about this if there is a resource or are these personal choices?
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!

Is the paintbucket opacity supposed to change in realtime?
The instructional video I've watched on the google sketchup webpage says it is, but it does not on my Mac (10.6.7), I'm running sketchup pro.

Thanks for the help!
How different is Tgi3D's from Fredo's what are the advantages/disadvantages to each (I don't know anything about either one)?
I'd like to stick with sketchup mostly for the ease of use. I'm just beginning to use sketchup and I estimate this project won't start for a while since I'm just learning how to use sketchup and I want to make sure I understand everything before beginning so I don't make an error that would require me to restart.
DAZ and Poser look nice but what I'm really looking for is to make models for dissection to help medical and human anatomy students so the skin tones won't be too important. What will be important is the ease of going between layers to understand the relations. I figure I will just make separate layers (different layers of muscle, skin, nerves, fascia etc.). This will definitely end up being probably around 10-20 layers for each section of the body (head, thorax, abdomen, upper and lower extremities).
There is already good 3d anatomy software out there (primal 3d I believe may be one of the better ones, but it is close to 1,000$ for the whole body) but I want to make one that is freely available and I think sketchup may be able to do that. How much of a problem is the rendering of small objects? I don't know too much about this problem.
This is all planning right now while I learn about sketchup. Hopefully once I feel comfortable I'll post a game plan so I can get a good idea of the best way to organize this from more experienced users

Hi everyone

New to sketchup, still getting the hang of things. If anyone out there is an expert I'd love to get a tutorial of using the solid tools in sketchup Pro, I don't seem to understand how to use them.
Thanks for the help

Well, I'm still a newbie so I have to ask: how do I group my shapes?

Hello, I'm new to sketchup. I bought sketchup pro because I would like to create 3d anatomy tutorials (I figure it will take me a few years, I want them to be accurate).

I have a problem: None of the solid tools work for me. I create simple objects like a cylinder intersecting a cube. When I try to click on any of them it says 'not a solid'
What is going on here!

I want to use the solid tools mostly for the eraser function, some of the anatomy I realize would be faster to create if I could 'sculpt' by erasing bits of other shapes, I'm hoping the solid tool will do this.
Thanks for any help