Rocky,
Thanks for clarifying, we are now reproducing this. If you disable the object snaps before you hold down the shift, then this will work as we expect. You can then re-enable the object snaps (while still moving the object and holding down shift) to complete the move -- snapping to something else.
Thanks for your report, we will get this corrected.
Rocky,
Regarding the Shift Lock -- what I meant was it does not lock it at an arbitrary angle. Currently, it locks it to either Parallel to X, Y, or Z IF your cursor is on one of those axes when you press and hold the SHIFT key. (This allows for easy orthogonal movement while aligning with another object...) 
Remus,
There are lots of advantages to a hybrid system. For example, if you draw a smooth Sphere, you have spherical controls and you can control it as a sphere (with radius, closure options, partial sphere options, etc). If you decide that you want to edit it differently, you can simply Convert it to NURBS, and manipulate it that way. And if you decide that you now want to start manipulating individual facets of the object, you can Convert it to Facetted as well. It is really the best of all worlds.
Really the only disadvantage is that there are more options and more ways to manipulate data -- so there is more to learn. But of course, you don't have to start out knowing everything to be effective. Learn and use the basics -- and just know that when you need more, there is more available.
(By the way, if anyone is interested, a bonzai3d Webinar just started and there are still a couple of spaces available. See this link to sign up if you want: http://www.formz.com/landings/webinar.html)
Rocky,
Thanks for your extensive suggestions. We take all user feedback very seriously, so they will certainly be considered. A few comments / clarifications:
The (missing) options to Align and Snap to Ghosted was an oversight, and will be added with the next update (in April).
While moving an object, if you enter an angle and tab to the distance filed, then the angle will be locked. (Likewise, entering a distance and tabbing to the angle field will also lock the distance and allow you to select the desired angle graphically -- or you can enter both numerically and just hit Enter to numerically modify your objects.)
The Shift key while moving objects toggles the Snap to Self on and off (and does not lock the object) but the idea of a modifier to lock the direction of an object sounds reasonable. (We will see what we can do. )
Arail,
Sorry to hear that you did not have sufficient time to evaluate bonzai3d with your Trial version. Please send an email to support@bonzai3d.com to request an extension, and we will see what we can do.
Rocky et al,
Bonzai3d is perhaps properly called a "hybrid" modeler. It is a solid modeler that works with both Smooth and Facetted data -- AND it also works well with Surfaces AND NURBS.
We are looking into additional file formats, but for now, NURBS objects can be imported and exported using the OBJ format.
Bonzai3d's NURBS are quite sophisticated, and we have more improvements coming. To see what you can do currently, check out these videos:
You can also check out a few of our sample files here if you like:
So when you first create a Sphere in bonzai3d, it is a true sphere, with a center and radius and corresponding controls. If you want it to be a NURBS object, click on it with the NURBS Convert tool:
If you want to add or remove control points, use the NURBS Reconstruct tool:
Hope this helps!
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Rocky,
I almost always work with the Grid Snap enabled (and set to a small value that will not get in my way -- perhaps 1" or for cabinetry, perhaps 1/4 - 1/16"). This makes it easy to keep everything aligned.
As far as referencing other objects while editing groups, if you make a Guide (either "temporary" using the Space Bar, or "permanent" using the Guide tool) you can then snap to these while you are editing a group.
(Again, allowing snapping to ghosted objects would make this easier, and we hope to have this feature enabled soon.)
Does this help?
Rocky,
If you do have a crash and save the file, open this file from your Documents folder: BNZ@date_time folder. (A crash save will not affect your original file.)
If you repeat the steps and you repeat the crash, please let us know what you are doing so we can investigate this. You can also look in your Documents folder for a file called bz_dump... that will contain the crashlog information, and if you find this, you can email this to us (support@bonzai3d.com) and we can take a look at what this might indicate.
Currently Snapping to Ghosted objects is disabled -- but we are looking into adding an option that can allow this for an upcoming version. (It sounds like you need this option in this case!)
Rocky,
Does unchecking Hide Ghosted from the Display Options do what you want?
Rocky,
Copying and pasting objects to a new project works well (and has its own advantages) but in case you have not yet found it, you can also select objects within your file, right click and select Isolate Objects from the Menu. Then all the other objects will temporarily disappear, and when you are done, right click once more and select Reveal objects to bring them all back.
Rocky,
You make an interesting point about moving certain tools to their palettes -- and the ability simply drag a component into a project. We will have to think about these ideas.
Regarding reference plane changing, if you do not want this, just click the Lock Plane icon at the bottom of the screen to prevent this.
Adam,
We are not trying to "defend" our software as much as we want to try to help Rocky (or anyone else) understand why things work the way they do in bonzai3d. If anyone has questions and they email us, they will get a very quick response that will allow them (hopefully) to understand and get back on track doing what they need to do.
Your point about SU users learning from another's mistakes when trying to learn bonzai3d is 100% correct -- and we encourage Rocky (or anyone else) to post their "errors" -- but hopefully they can do this AND post the "answers" at the same time (because they will have already received them from us). This way they can say "that constantly changing reference plane was driving me crazy -- until I realized that I could turn it off with the lock plane icon at the bottom of the screen" -- instead of "I am getting really frustrated by this plane changing stuff..."
Mike,
Yes, we will be launching our first Webinar for bonzai3d next week. Feel free to visit our site to sign up for this if you are interested.
Rocky,
Thanks again for the thoughts that you are sharing. We hope that it helps other SU users as much as it helps us!
While Rocky's thread will definitely be useful for anyone interested in migrating from SketchUp to bonzai3d (or just adding bonzai3d to your tool set), we would also recommend checking out the FREE Video Tutorials that are available for bonzai3d.
Just click on Videos from the left sidebar of the following page:
We take great pride not only in our software, but the support that we provide as well (hey, we're even here, right?), so if anyone has any questions, feel free to email us directly (support@bonzai3d.com) and we shall be happy to respond.
And if you feel enlightened by our reply (and you think it would help others) feel free to post your question and the answer here!
Rocky,
We certainly do not want to tell you to stop posting! We just hoped you could better show how bonzai3d was Designed to work -- and perhaps a little less how it does not work when you try to use it like SketchUp.
We are sure that your thread can be quite useful to other readers of this forum, so if you have any questions or problems, feel free to email us. Then you can post what you tried and what we suggested all in the same post.
Anyway, glad you are getting more familiar and enjoying bonzai3d!
Rocky,
We only check your thread occasionally (as much as time allows) but you will REALLY get faster answers if you ask them directly to us! (You can also post these questions on OUR forum, but this is a third party forum after all!)
But anyway -- to answer your questions (now that I have seen them): The "follow me" tool is properly called the Sweep tool in most CAD software. You can find this on the Derive tool row.
Picking objects in bonzai3d automatically picks the "most appropriate part (or all)" of the object, depending on the currently active tool. If this part is not the one you want, you can either hold down the Ctrl key (Win) or Command key (Mac) and place the cursor over the desired part to pick it, or you can also tap the TAB key to cycle through the available options.
So, to color a face, drag the desired color onto this face while holding the desired modifier key, or get the Paint bucket tool and press the Tab key when the cursor is in the desired location (and click when the desired part is identified).
Does this help?
Rocky,
Thanks for sending your file. We checked this geometry with the Object Doctor tool (check all options from all tabs, use Add to Selection, and Display Results) and we found quite a few problems:
We then changed the Add to Selection option to Fix (unchecked the Coplanar Surface check since I believe that you want these) and ran it again. This fixed the problems and now the insertions work properly.
Does this fix the problem for you?
Rocky,
Sorry again that you are having trouble. You certainly should be able to insert any shape hole you want -- regardless of whether or not the object is a controlled object. (It should automatically convert to plain if necessary.) We can't tell why it is not inserting properly from your image alone. As we have requested previously, if you have any problems, can you please send your question to support@bonzai3d.com and attach your BNZ,zip file so we can get you an answer?
(Perhaps leading a tutorial and learning software at the same time is not the best practice. Please allow us to help you get up to speed!)
Rocky,
That driver is pretty recent, so we would not expect any problems specifically with this. However, we have seen some cases where using the "automatic" Update or installing a newer driver over the top of an older driver can cause a problem. Per nVidia's recommendations:
Uninstall the existing driver first before installing the current one. (With Windows 7, it may be necessary to uninstall more than once...)
Does this help?
Again, if you have any further specific questions or problems, please email us at support@bonzai3d.com. You can also call 614 488-8838 (9am-6pm EST) if you like.
Hope this helps!
Rocky,
We see that you just mentioned a few more crashes. Are these crashes always occurring in the Shaded display modes (or do you also get these with Wireframe)?
Also, what video card and driver date do you have?
Rocky,
Looks like you are off to a good start, but sorry to hear that you have had some crashes. We have tried to follow your steps and reproduce the problem, but it is working properly for us. Also we checked to see if you were able to send any crashlogs to us (which we could analyze to see what might have caused it) but we have not received any reports from you. Did you get the opportunity to send a report, and if so, did you press Send?
If you repeat the steps where you encountered the crash, do you reproduce this? If so, can you send your file and steps to us (support@bonzai3d.com) so we can test this further?
If you select the option to Save the file, this will be saved into your Documents folder into a BNZ@date_time folder. (This will not touch your original file as it can sometimes be dangerous to save immediately after a crash -- although usually this saves just fine.) Also, if you do want to enable AutoSave, you can do this via the Preferences:
(Just remember to also save your Preference File if you always want to use AutoSave...)
Regarding Guides, you should not need these very frequently because of all the other input options, but if you use the Guide Tool, you can then "offset" these using the Move tool (and simply enter the distance in the Input palette). Instead of using guides in the case you show, you can hit the F4 key -- which will reset the Relative Zero and change your coordinates into Relative Input -- so you can just enter your 14.5" offset directly.
Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any further questions or problems, and good luck on your project!
Frenchy,
Sorry, we are still waiting on our French Distributor for the translation. As soon as we get it, we will release it.
Modelhead,
We have been using installers for almost 20 years with formZ and other software, so we do have a lot of experience with this. Thanks for your suggestions.
(Is there anyone else that prefers the complications an installer adds rather than simply copying the application folder?)
Align,
This is something that we are considering, although we do not have a definitive answer at this time.
We have also just released our 2.0.1 update, which adds support for a few more languages:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are pleased to announce that a Beta version of the SketchUp version 7 Importer plugin is now available for Windows users of bonzai3d version 2.0. For more information on this, please see the link below:
(This is available to Trial users as well as registered users.)
Please give this a try, and send any feedback to support@bonzai3d.
============
**If you are not familiar with bonzai3d, see what other SketchUcation members are saying here:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25915
And checkout the Features: http://www.bonzai3d.com/products/bonzai3d/bonzai3dFeatures.html
Tutorial Videos: http://www.bonzai3d.com/products/bonzai3d/bonzai3dVideo_320.php?startMovie=Interface_320.flv
Or download a Trial version: http://www.bonzai3d.com/products/bonzai3d/bonzai3dTrial.html**