Thank you all very much guys, There is now lots for me to consider, the effects you are getting, Ecuadorian, are just what I'm after. Pending IP issues I'll post the result here in a few weeks.

Thanks again

Wasn't trying to answer my question, was just plugging camstudio....its not suitable for what I'm doing. Maybe I should explain better; I would love to be able to achieve something like this: http://www.anifex.com/experience_our_work/24/small

I know this is done with Maya but is it possible to get close with sketchup? I dont need it to be interactive though.

Camstudio is pretty hard to beat for screen capture....primarily because its free

Thanks very much for your help everyone, I have plenty to work with now

@gaieus said:

That's not 300 US Dollars but British Pounds.

(But for a trial version? )

Anyway, you know when I'd purchase such a subscription. I have tried it, it has the potential but seeing that the last entry on their forums is from two years ago, I really doubt they are using that money wisely.

What are your thoughts on a sketchup/blender working partnership Gaieus?

Yeah those look cool, only issue is, in this instance, all details haven't been completely finalized so if we allow him to walkabout wherever he wants he might notice.

I wondered what Blender is like for producing these sorts of presentations and how well (if at all) it interacts with Sketchup.

Thanks for the comments folks I will certainly use walkabout and perhaps symmetry 3d on other jobs

I'm trying to create a graphically 'pretty' building walk through for a client and would like to do a 3D walk through for them of realistic quality. I know that many render exporters simply create a series of still images which then need to be strung together to create the walk through. Is there any options other than this? An exporter specifically for rendered animations? I have looked around but nothing seems to stand out.

I know right hemisphere provide this sort of thing (http://www.righthemisphere.com) but its expensive and has a lot of extras that I don't want.

I just want to make visually impressive animations from sketchup, fast.

Any and all help much appreciated

surely you can't get the quality of buildings that you can through using sketchup?.....

Thanks very much, sorry for not looking harder before posting

This is no doubt something real simple but I'm having trouble shaking it.... on some models, when I zoom in on a part or object, my screen seems to make some of the object 'disappear' partially. More and more so the closer I zoom. Can anyone tell me why?

Thanks in advance

Thanks Aerilius I forgot I had maximum textures turned on and was using a 9MP image so that is probably the issue but I will check it soon and let you know. Great advice, thanks

Not sure if anyone else has had this before, but I'm trying to apply a photo texture onto a building for GE but when I right click and hit 'position' the texture becomes a white grid and I can't see what I'm doing. I have plenty of graphical and processing power so I'm sure that's not the issue.....What simple factor have I missed?

Thanks

It seems some setting was mixed up within the group that made up the log, I exploded the group and reset the scenes and the problem was solved.

Thanks

This has sort of been covered but the previous conversations don't cover my issue, I'm trying to animate a log on a conveyor going into a sawmill with this plugin, however, every time the log moves it tilts about the green axis by about 15 degrees and its geometry distorts slightly. I obviously have the latest version of the plugin from the googlepages site but the issue persists.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Sorry - by render I did mean ray-tracing, does this mean I should leave anti-aliasing on??

Thanks to everyone for the replies

What are people's suggestions for minimizing the data size of a SketchUp file but still maintaining its visible integrity for rendering, It seems that rendering crashes with too large a file, probably due to memory constraints on my computer.

Any suggestions appreciated

These scripts both seem to toggle back and forth for me....Have I done something wrong? Also, what would I add to the last script to allow a second key to control the opposite direction of rotation; ie a +/- key

I'm trying to get an object to move along a production line, but it is quite a 'violent' production line so the object needs to be constrained by a slider to stop it falling off the production line. However, at the end of the production line the object needs to move laterally, that is, sideways off the production line.

Is there a way of doing this as I understand that I can't break a slider joint.....

Ok, that explains a lot. Thanks very much. Ill just try those scripts on a hinge...

I'm sorry that I have such an elementary understanding, but this new code seems to spin the servo faster and faster like phy's one. Does the '+1 add an increment of speed? I can't seem to figure it out. How would I change the first script you sent me Wacov to repeat itself each time the key is pushed?