As a total noob here I'd just like to add that for someone who doesn't know their way around there is so much to sort through.

Personally I think it would be helpful if the gallery had subsections.

It seems to me that a gallery is a place to display finished work, be it good or bad.
Perhaps a subsection simply called the drawing office or drawing board or the workshop, something that gives it an obvious use, where all the WIPs can be viewed with a link to the final Image, or images, that have eventually been placed in the gallery with a link back.

This way you can look through the finished work and easily find the relevant WIP or happily follow the WIPs themselves.

I also agree with others that have said it's better to post a separate thread when you want an answer to a question. I have a lot of experience with forums, as a user and moderator, and threads with a specific question in their header get a much higher answer rate than questions buried in other threads. It also makes searching for answers more effective.

And I'm have been happily amazed by the helpfulness of all the people here.
Thank you all.

Thanks TIG I'm using it as we speak, however I can't find the lasagne plugin, the wine plugin is working wonders.

On a related note, once I have these slices, is there a simple way to print them?

Each one, for the scale model size, fits on an A4 page.
I imagine there must be a simple way to export them 1:1 into layout or as a pdf or some such, so that each is centred on it's own page?

Depending on the shape of your model and the alignment of the digital photo, you may just be able to import the photo as an image and attach it to the model.

I was thinking the same thing as I wrote it.
They were just two images in the different states that I had to hand.

Nothing wrong with a little hijack, it's got my post count moving so I don't get moderated anymore it seems.

Yep, you got it.

And any edge shaping I do by hand.
This gives me the blank pieces of glass to start working with.

Yes, well, I make all sorts.

Well, so far I've tried several ways, all of them work, some better than others, I've yet to decide on the best way.

The most basic way,
I create a block of "Layer" the thickness I want, just by making one then doing multiple copies stacked on top of each other.

Then I extrude the profile shapes, which I draw separately, through that block from the two different directions, Intersect all and then erase the bits I don't want.

But having found Slice modeller and now Slice 3, I will probably attack things differently.

Basically I'm trying to learn the best and quickest ways to create the shapes I want and get them down as workable plans.

I'm not too interested yet in rendering etc, this is more for me to take the ideas out of my head and get them to working drawings.
Generally I sculpt everything from Polystyrene first and then slice it up, rather messy and time consuming no matter how much fun it is.

This is a rough unfinished torso in poly.

And then I make that into something like this.

That might explain why I can see the benefits of being able to draw in 3D

I think I understand what you are getting at, but all I need is the overall shape or outline of each piece. So in effect each of the layers you see in the image is nothing more than a square sided rectangle, so setting the slice at the centre of each piece gives me a cutting plan, and also a positioning guide.

If I was using shaped edges on the individual pieces then, yes, I think it would create a problem.

Thanks Pilou, I had tried to do it with those two plugins but found it a bit cumbersome. My main problem was getting Eclate to explode it the way I needed. I also tried exim, but didn't manage to get what I wanted there either.
It may be that I'm not quite understanding exactly how those plugins work.

Slice 3 does it perfectly, couple of clicks and I have my plans all ready to make a scale model.

Thanks for the help.

I'll give it a try a bit later and let you know the results.

Thankyou gentlemen.
I had already tried slicer but hadn't found slicer 3 which gives you the flattened copy.

Excellent, I knew I shouldn't have been so reluctant to ask, didn't want to get the old Use the Search answer.

Thanks again, now go back to arguing about who got there first.

Hi all, I'm very new here, and quite new to SU.

So a quick introduction.
I'm a sculptor and have found SU a great way to think through my designs in 3D, I can see it making life much easier for me.
I've managed to work out how a lot of it works but have a long way to go.

I've reach a point where I would like a point in the right direction, the number of threads is pretty daunting and I haven't yet found the right ones or a tutorial that applies to my specific needs.

So any links would be great if you know the ones, or even a run down if you know a simple way to do it and have the time.

So to the problem, I am creating sculptures made up of different pieces of Glass, each one a slightly different size. They are all groups. All I want is to be able to explode them out into plan form so that I can either print them out or add dimensions etc
I'm well aware and able to do it manually, but was hoping that there is a way to get it done automatically.

This one is only 100 pieces, but I have others that have far more and often multiples on each level.

Thanks for looking.

Yes I was using a cube of grouped faces, and at first I was getting a bug spat every time, now it is random.
I have rebooted and added updates and a few other bits and pieces since then, sorry that's not a very useful bit of diagnostic information but I've been doing too many things at once.

So to put it simply, It does work for me but it is unstable and I have yet to work out what, if any, conditions cause the bug splat.

I'm using the latest version of sketchup and I get a bug splat every time I try to use Eclate.

Even with a simple cube. As soon as you click yes or no on the copy dialog it shuts down and goes to bug splat.