Never mind. Not working properly now... weird. Will test some more.

you are one of the best supporters ... when we want to modify a TIG's code which teacher is better than author himself ?

@fakircho said: I don't really understand what the issue is? It just a disk image, of course you can keep the dmg file. You can make backups of it until your heart is content and you can save them anywhere you want. The issue is I have no idea what they are or how they work, as this is a return to a Mac for me. So, if I can hang on to this and it will work without a web connection or access to the big G, great. Thanks.

Those simple yet excellent features!

@nolamikey said: ...that Sketchup uses a third party library for its ACAD import capability, and that there was a bug in the Mac version of that library. SU uses (as many other CAx apps) the Teigha Toolkit from the Open Design Alliance for exchanging DXF/DWG files. The support for embedded solids using the ACIS format (by Spatial, a Dassault division) may depend on the Teigha revision and platform. SU2013 Win uses the Teigha version 3.3 (libs starting with "TD_"), recent is v3.9... time to update maybe for M2 Norbert

It may be a problem with IBooks Author rather than SketchUp. I've exported Collada models to a number of other heavyweight 3D programs without them changing orientation. Some model formats do use a different axis for 'up'. Models in the obj format, for example, are often to be found lying on their side. SU recognises this and has a setting to swap YZ axes on export. There's no such setting for Collada, because it's not thought to be needed. If the problem persists, then the easiest solution would probably be to make the model as usual, then on completion, but before dae export, right click one of the axes and select Move from the context menu. Then in the dialog box, experiment to see which combination of rotating 90° around the one or all of the axes gives you the result you want in iBooks Author. Once you've discovered the right combination of rotates, it ought to be just a matter of the same few mouse clicks for each model.

Your copy is working fine directly placed in my Plugins folder... so, Thanks!

@unknownuser said: fwiw, i've been going on about this for years now.. i've pretty much given up on them ever fixing it so by default when i launch sketchup, i always give it a cmmdW -> cmmdN (close window -> open new window).. (and that only works if you don't have one of those pesky plugins which alters a new window prior to you doing anything to it.. if you have one of those plugins, you'll have to close the window -> answer the 'would you like to save?' prompt -> open new window) i see, pretty much what i've noticed after testing a few things. frustrating, for sure. i think i got rid of the plugin i had hanging around that would ask the 'save' question. that was annoying as well.

copied out what i needed and pasted into a new drawing and this strange behavior disappeared. so, very likely something with the CAD import... but i brought over 3-4 groups of CAD lines. thanks for the help.

Thanks all.

I bought a blue tooth full keyboard from MacAlly for when I'm at home. After he died, I wound up with the flat screen TV we gave my dad for Christmas in 2010 and I use it as an external monitor at home.

this is the most obviously needed addition, to be able to lay out pages and annotations properly and accurately in professional use. cant wait for it!

@bjornkn said: Assigning a shortcut to "Make unique" would take you 10 secs, and 0.1sec every time you use it after a Move/copy. yeah... thanks.

Wow looks intense!

@tig said: The 'section-plane list' dialog could select [i.e. highlight] the 'ticked' section-plane [picked from the list listed 'by name']... BUT then you'd have to make it 'active' manually [at least at the moment the way the API is]... Hide the other section cuts? <span class="syntaxdefault"><br />def&nbsp;display_sectioncut</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">(&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">sectioncut&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">all_section_cuts</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">().</span><span class="syntaxdefault">each&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">{&nbsp;|</span><span class="syntaxdefault">s</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">|<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">sectioncut</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">.</span><span class="syntaxdefault">visible&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">=&nbsp;(&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">s&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">==&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxdefault">sectioncut&nbsp;</span><span class="syntaxkeyword">)<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;}<br /></span><span class="syntaxdefault">end<br /></span>

Starting to use the materials editor... Running pretty slow on my laptop. If this works its way into my workflow I'll need to step up to a workstation. [image: OErV_honeoye-rendertest7.jpg]

@tig said: Do you have lots of Materials or Components to be loaded into the browsers ? That will slow it down... Materials - just the standard install stuff, as I rarely do rendering, just splash a bit of color here and there. Can I get rid of or hide the stuff I don't use? Components - I think I have 2-3-4 of them in my template that opens when I start. Nothing crazy - a bunch of boxes (timbers).

Thanks for that tidbit. That'll get the dimension above the arrows. One could also type \n<> or \n\n<> to put the dimension on the other side of the arrows. I learned about that once but didn't use it and thus forgot. thanks for the reminder.

Thanks BertB! I'll be doing something similar... SketchUp for modeling / presentation. I'll be running AutoCAD Architecture 2009 in BootCamp for intense structural work (3rd party overlay) or VM for easier work, review, take offs, etc. I don't do much 'rendering' aside from sketchy images that pull out as JPGs. Plenty of slideshows and walkthroughs. -Mike

Ok, here's a starter. The attached is a staring point. It shows 2 components, one is the starting size of your T1. The second is a copy of the component, made unique and re-sized. The report shows it is scaling properly with correct output (although the model is in mm and the report is always in inches). Pay particular attention to how the X Y Z positions and X Y Z sizes of the Beam and Beamguide vary because of the different orientation and location of the AXIS for each sub component. See if adding the other subcomponents to this start to affect the way it scales. Hope this helps. timbertest3.skp