Ok, let me tidy this thing up, set up an animation plan and I'll get back to you.

Wow, thats an amazing offer.

I'm still only part ways into the project so it will be a few more weeks before I animate it.

How is Lumion's object animation in your opinion? For example, in this animation I would need to show the truck moving forward, the brushes moving in on the side of the truck, wheels turning if possible.

Is Lumion capable of all this? I assume I export from SU to Lumion?

If the animation environment is outside of SU how do you handle the need to make tweaks to geometry and then re-animate?

You'll have to charge Lumion a commission if I end up buying!

Roland, that is the best attempt I have seen - really impressive.

Are you saying that you bought and then sold a Lumion license again? How did you sell it?

It does look impressive but I'm pretty scared of forking out 1500 euros if I'm not going to get it back again....

Roughly how long did it take to set up that animation?

NOTE: You embed into sketchucation using the "Insert Web Video" button but you need to change "https" to "http" in the youtube URL:

@oceanembers said:

animated images on planes would be the way to go

Seen any good tutorials/instructions for this?

Well, from memory, there is a scaling functionality in the latest version. This would simulate push/pull on a simple object that didn't have features along its length. However, for a complex object this will just distort it.

Thanks Pilou,

Got any suggestions for animating that kind of scene?

Hi All,

Am working on a project where I am animating a truck going through an automatic truck washing machine. As you can imagine there would be a lot of water flying around and showing this in any way is quite difficult. Some examples of our existing machinery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZFPDp4EESc

I will be animating truck and machinery movements at the same time.

I wondered about using a plugin like Animatex to animate a whole bunch of semi transparent PNG files but not sure how it would work out: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=52238

I have seen some discussion by Solo and Co over here that discusses inserting "movie screens" similar to what animatex does: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15%26amp;t=15651

Has anyone had any experience with this? Im pretty confident when I say that this is not going to work on blender as there will be so much computation involved to render so much water...

Suggestions?

P.S. Why can I never remember how to embed youtube videos?

Nothing other than what is above - purchase has been delayed a little but will let ya'll know once a decision is made

The Omen looks cool, I especially like the option for a bumped up GPU.

The smaller Sagers look nice too, my concern is their support in New Zealand...

Its here: http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-pro/new-in-2015

Anyone had the time to test how much of an improvement the 64 bit support is?

All great advice - and I agree, its more cost effective to go for a bigger machine, you get more horsepower per dollar. However, 14 inch is what is needed in this instance. I was tempted to buy a 6400 when they came out but went with something a little cheaper at the time.

I liked alienware's recent concept of leaving heavy GPU in a module on your desktop (its rare to need full power on the plain or out and about on battery. It sounds like there could be some improvement in Alienware's pioneering idea and I look forward to seeing where it leads. The other bonus is that it uses desktop GPUs so you dont have the heat and price problems of mobile GPUs.

Thanks for your input everyone

Thanks folks - some good suggestions there.

I really like the look of the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 Series: http://www.dell.com/nz/p/inspiron-14-7447-laptop/pd?oc=x510772nz#AnchorZone3

The Lenovos look OK but dont seem to have the same firepower as that Dell.

Moving to Mac is too much of a hassle for us even though its arguably a better platform (but lets not start a 10 page discussion on that).

Small laptops are preferable for travelling. Easy to plug them in to projectors at meetings to give presentations. You can easily get them out on the plane to make tweaks and at home they simply plug in to a couple of 21" or 24" LED monitors so you have plenty of screen real estate most of the time.

I used to have a 17" Acer that was great at home and ok if you were going away to a place that had another desk but a bit of a hassle on planes and a total pain to pull out when sitting on someone's couch. It still goes though and serves as a handy home computer - when it finally dies I'll bolt legs on it and make it into a coffee table.

Keep the recommendations coming for machines under 14 inches!

Oh yes, its under premium.

Suffice to say that we had a problem with a brand new HP Zbook 14 - the GPU would barely render SU models over a certain size (like 1mb)

After this debacle; http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=372%26amp;t=59086
We're looking for powerful, small laptops to run SU files larger than 60mb.

Suggestions?

I think I see what you did there

Hi Anton,

Sorry I haven't been more involved during your flurry of input - you've done really well. When I get time away from current work I've got some cool projects to build which you have enabled.

Thanks again for your input.

Also, just checked out MSPhysics - great stuff - if I can help test or something then please keep me in the loop.

You know what's embarrassing?

I asked this SAME question two months ago over here http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11%26amp;t=58864 and TOTALLY forgot about it.

My apologies to admins for wasting everyone's time - thanks for your help arklandesign

Going to go try find some memory tonic

I can't get the 3DWH or Add Location to do anything.
3DWH simply loads basic page elements but no content and Add Location won't load anything at all.

I have tried signing in to SU with different accounts, have done a full reinstall but no avail.

I'm not a US resident but that shouldn't have a bearing on this right?

Running SU version 14.1.1282
Windows 7 64 bit

Have trekked around the forum trying to find someone else facing the same issue but nothing has availed.

There is these links which could help some people (but don't work for me):
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15%26amp;t=55141

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=271%26amp;t=55767

Anton,

I am stunned

I have tried so long to get a working function like what you've shown and have failed miserably - this is totally amazing. I hope you don't mind me pillaging your code for ideas?

Frenchy:
@unknownuser said:

And also the white cross texture box "transparent" who is drawn

For some reason "Hidden Geometry" is getting turned on when I run an simulation the first time. Go >View>Hidden Geometry to turn it off.

Very cool!

I think I've seen some reference to this before.

How would I control the cut so it occurs in a specific place?

For example, on a piece of wood - to only be cut where the saw touches it?

Ash