Hey, thanks very much guys, good stuff, this will get me rolling.
baz

thanks dave, still puzzled tho i understand the hide edge and delete face strategy.
But if you have a component with say 6 faces and you copy it 100 times you still have 600 faces. How do components help that?
I grok how components reduce final file size but on screen they are all still in your face, so to speak

baz.

dave, yes, I would like to see the example, I don't get why hiding edges helps.
thanks,
baz

I dont suppose anybody has some 'fuel containment system' components knocking about?
Finally scored a serious skippy job but budget and timeframe are tight. Unlike the brief, which as usual...etc.
Basically need a drum, a drum handling forklift attachment. A wheely bin would be very handy.
Am also puzzling about how to do the metal walk grid without blowing the polys.
Any help much appreciated, but am i asking too much? Perhaps I should bring out the plastic and try formfonts.
baz

durant, I can understand why you think renders of your su's would open great potentials for your work.
But I hope that you realize that rendering is very, very processor intensive.
Are you willing to let your computer churn away in the background for 2 hours, 6 hours, 2 days? You can't use it for anything else when rendering.
I think you'll find that most serious renderers here will have render farms ie:2, 3 or even four machines that do nothing else.
I get the feeling from your drawings that your workflow/creativity would be seriously hampered by having to stop and wait.
Now I could be wrong with all this, but I think the quality of render you would want would be quite exacting and very laborious to achieve.

Here's an idea, I'm sure there would be several experts here who would be happy to do a test render for you, why not ask em? Then you'd have a better understanding of the benefits and pitfalls.

baz.

I've had this happen sometimes, I think it's something to do with pasting groups or comps from another file with a different axis.
But if you explode the group or comp then regroup it fixes itself.
baz.

here an example:

Great work scott, very realistic styles, su now definitely draws better than me:)
thanks a lot.
baz

Good point Gaieus, thanks, I have reloaded the amended skp.
baz

Great render andrew, if a bit unrealistic.
baz

Its taken me a while to evolve a simple template which suits my usual work, mostly small to medium wood furniture.
Ive noticed with downloads that a lot of sketchuppers use some variation of the attached.
This one is in metric mms, but its mostly about page setup

I hope this might be of use to someone, especially someone just starting out with su and realizing that it is the "thing". (I personally havent been near turbocad for months, ). Pages are the most useful things and save a lot of mouse work and disorientation.

I'd be happy to to take c and c's on this, and I'd like to see other setups.

baz.
ps If you want to use it, delete the geometry and 'save as' to your templates folder.

views.skp

I second the idea of 'grain orientation'.
Perhaps a ruby which laid the grain parallel to the longest side of the entity.

baz.

gidday from mornington peninsula, vic.

baz

Eric, if you did want to upload it, here is a possible way:
break the model up into manageable sizes.
"copy/paste in place" into new files.
upload the files as separate attachments.

anyone who wanted to, could reverse the process to see the whole thing. I bet Im not the only one to have spent time trying to get my head around this drawing, I would be very interested to see it in 'real' 3d

On the other hand, it is a bit of stuffing around, so please dont feel obliged.

baz

ps;I dont know what the upload size limit is on the forum, had a quick search but couldnt find anything.

what a good idea, I will start using this technique, thanks jean,
baz

that looks great, Id love to walk around the skip.
you do know that there are 3d people in your components folder which would be easy to place?
baz

all su.
baz
ps just got message 'png not allowed'
so heres a gif.

I wouldnt mind having a go myself, good luck and wishing you clear skies and amenable clients

ok I see how you did that. imho I think it spoils the look a bit, how about laminating the offcut from the top to the bottom?

I use the sandbox a lot and its so much quicker than stitching.
As you can see from below, I used your roof contours, although your version is probably lighter in polygons,(I havent counted, I'm supposed to be working

baz

Got it, thanks, I notice you didnt use the sandbox from contours to fill in the roof?
Also dont want to get picky but the hip and some of the jacks dont seat, is this just a matter of using wider boards?
baz

Nice one joe, a great example of real world modelling for woodworkers.
I could only find the second tut though.
baz