Ta for the suggestions. I tried the Nvidia settings but they didn't improve over the best I had got.

Re. cotty: CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. If Sketchup is not a CAD program, what is it?

Even so, that's not an answer to my question, which surprisingly not even the resident Gurus seem to know: How come other computer design software is so much better with sharp clean lines than Sketchup? I love Sketchup, would just like it to look as good as is currently possible with 2015 software and computers. Is that too much to ask?

Thanks all. I adjusted Nvidia settings for highest quality and did the other tweaks in Open GL. It's better, but still not a patch on the sharpness of other CAD programmes. I have a top-of-the-line ASUS gaming laptop with 16 GB of RAM, great graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 870M) and all the bells and whistles. All other programs look great, but Sketchup still looks last century...

Is this some deliberate policy of theirs to try and make us buy the Pro version? Or they just don't care? Or is because I'm working with small objects (mm scale) and it's supposed originally to be for designing houses and stuff?

Yes... sort of an improvement, but not great. The jagged edges are smaller but everyhthing looks a bit blurry. Why is this the best Sketchup can offer in this day and age??

No doubt others have complained of this before, but I'm can't find any previous advice on it so here's my question:

How do I get lines to look smooth and continuous on my screen in Sketchup Make, for general work pleasure as well as better screenshots and graphic exports?

Any other CAD program I've used has very fine resolution, but Sketchup models still like as if they are made on Windows 95. BTW I should mention that all the parts I design are small, measured in mm, related to harmonicas. Here's what I mean:

Hope the Gurus can help. Cheers, Brendan

Thanks everyone, this forum is brilliant!

Wow Jim, was all that extra info in there as well? I had no idea. No idea what a spline is either, but I'm glad you guys do!

BeePee

OOps HornOxx, one more issue: I think your conversion may have used inches or some other large unit. These are harmonica reedplates, and the correct unit is millimetres.

Any chance you could give it to me again in mm?

Brendan

Thanks HornOxx! I've no idea either, but your conversion does the job, much appreciated!

Still would like to know what the problem was, if anyone else can posit a suggestion.

Cheers, Brendan

I'm trying to load a .dxf file using my usual importer, FreeDXF v0.9.0. It normally works fine, but in this case I'm only seeing a part of the file in Sketchup.

See the attachments for the .dxf file, what I see, and the full file in a CAD file viewer. Any help appreciated!

Thanks, Brendan

I only see part of this file, one of the plates with the round holes

Thanks Cotty and Dave! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. One of those simple things that is obvious to anyone who knows how but totally perplexing if you haven't delved into that area before.

Your animation was especially clever and helpful, Cotty - a very smart way to demonstrate what to do.

Dave, you are right to point out those issues. I'm self-taught and this file represents about 2 years of learning. I'm a lot better now at getting everything clean without stray lines and faces, but many of the designs there go back quite a while.

If you're wondering what the parts are, they are upper units for my patented Twin-Harmonica System. They link two chromatic harmonicas behind a master mouthpiece. I make these parts with 3D printing.

Sketchup is a brilliantly intuitive piece of software for untrained people like me, and it's an amazing bonus to have the likes of you experts designing great plugins and responding so quickly to problems.

Cheers! Brendan

Sorry, I never use Materials, I opened the dialog but not sure what to do. Can you please give a click by click instruction? Thanks for your help

I uploaded the file to my Dropbox folder. Here is the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ov6y8fopa2sabeu/DCZomBren.skp?dl=0

This one has a mix of white and black parts. Yesterday one I've been working on fine for months suddenly went all black. It's almost impossible to work on the black parts, please help!

If you recall, I had an issue with constant crashing which turned out to be paretly due to SU Solid plugin. Could that be causing this?

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried different OpenGL settings, no change. The designs stay black even when zoomed in. In the Default Styles section, all have the black parts except Hidden Line and Wieframem which look as they normally do.

I tried to attach a zipped version of the file last time but no luck, so am attempting to attach the full file now.

Hmm.. I have tried attaching the file several times, zipped or unzipped. I find the file, click Add File, the upload shows itself happening, but ten I can't see if I've attached it. Can anyone see the file?

I design small parts for 3D printing. As development proceeds, I keep all the old and new versions of a design floating in the same file, essentially floating in space, with notes to tell me their salient features. They are not cohesive 'models' as such, just lots of versions of similar things.

I'm not sure if that those elements are relevant (lots of unconnected parts in small sizes) but in a couple of my files I've found the virtually every part has gone jet black, except the latest one I'm working on.

I've searched high and low in the menu and online, but not found any mention of this specific issue.

I attach a screen shot and zip of the same file.

Brendan

John - sorry for the delayed reply, I couldn't see my post when I first looked but came back later and saw your advice.

I followed it and hey presto, it worked! I scaled up massively, did the twisting and skinning, and after scaling down to the correct size, it stayed healed and looks fine in my 3D printer slicing software.

Thanks so much

Cheers, Brendan

ISSUES SKINNING A TWISTED PART

Hi All, I love Fredo Scale and Curviloft. However, while the results look great on screen, I'm wanting to export the parts for 3D printing. I'm finding there are LOTS of healing issues with the parts I've altered using these plugins.

I attach a JPEG and STL of the part I'm trying to skin and place in a box section. It's a short bar twisted 180 degrees. It's actually one of an intended series of these inside of a harmonica comb intended to re-direct air from an upper to a lower reedplate, hence the small size).

You can see from the STL that the twisted bar has lots of holes on the outside edges, and skinning doesn't fix these. When I export to my 3D printer software the part looks a real mess and won't print.

Can one of you experts check the file and let me know how to overcome this?

Thanks! Brendan

Hi Rainer,

I just installed your IGES Export plugin and exported a couple of parts. However, I can't see where they exported to. They don't seem to be in the Sketchup folder, or anywhere else. I've searched for IGES and .iges on my computer, but nothing comes up.

Please help!If you can help, please can you email: bren@brendan-power.com

Thanks! Brendan

I want to Imprt STL files with the specific plugin. Export is not a problem. I can Import with the standard plugin but it's not working, as explained. How do I access Import STL with this plugin su2stl.rb?

I downloaded and see su2stl in my Loaded Plugins list, but it's not in the Loaded Extensions list.

How do I open and use this plugin? I can't see any toolbar button and it's not in any drop-down menu.

Thanks, BeePee

Your SU Plugins are excellent! Clean-up is especially brilliant, I use it all the time. One query though:

I'm having trouble importing complex STL files into Skethcup using the usual STL Import and Export plugin, so I searched and found su2stl to see if it would work better. I downloaded it and it's in my Loaded Plugins list.

However, there is no menu button to open it, and it's not in my Loaded Exrensions list. I downloaded your Simple Plugin Installer in the hopes it would do the trick, but no luck.

I know this isn't your program. but how do I get su2stl.rd working so I can use it to imp[ort STL files?

The STL files I'm trying to load (small complex models in mm) pop up instantly in Rhino, but Sketchup struggles. It will load simpler ones after quite a time, but not the more complex ones.

Final question: is there another STL importer that is worth trying for Skethup?

Thanks for your help,

BeePee

I should add I have Windows 7. Sketchup has gone from being a pleasure to use to an almighty pain with the 2014 version.