Excellent advice as always TIG. Thanks

I'm trying to free up disk space. Will uninstalling SU 2015, 2106 & 2017 compromise my 2018 Pro installation ? I was worried the uninstall might take with it some crucial files.

I'm a huge fan of Sketchup, always have the latest edition and use it professionally for my garden design works. However, the "updates" in recent years have been seriously underwhelming and not something worthy of much anticipation. If they brought out some cool new features for 2019, that would be great, but I'm not expecting much.

@box said:

There is an update within the new version to fix this issue. Problem is you need to update it to get the update.
So, go to the Extension Warehouse in a browser and download it as a .rbz and install it manually using the Install Extension button in Extension Manager and it should update as needed in future.

Thanks, I followed this advice and it solved the problem - cheers !

Every time I start up Sketchup 2018, Extension Manager advises me I have an extension to update, which is always "Trimble Connect". If I try to update it I get a message saying, "Failed to update Trimble Connect. Unable to complete download".

It's not an extension I use and so sometimes I ignore the popup. A few times I've tried to update it and I get the message previously stated and I have also tried deleting the extension but it appears again next time.

Any ideas on what the issue is ?

Thanks.

I haven't had a single problem with it yet.

Thanks for this reply. I will have to play about with proxies in my next model. It's not something I've done before. I've tended to go the route so far of having complex plants, etc. on a layer I open only when looking at or rendering a particular scene. I am no expert, so I'm unsure if that keeps the SU model as light and maneuverable, (with the layer(s) switched off) as having proxies in place.

@hornoxx said:

Hi Gary and Pixero
I´m using Shaderlight as my main render tool but unfortunately it is not able to handle Skatter files so far. I hope that this will change, sometime

As long, as Pixero´s DIY Hedges are finished SU files which no longer need any connection to Skatter itself in the background, Shaderlight will be able to render these. Shaderlight's "Replace Me Creator" works fine which makes it possible at least to replace complex geometry by lightweight proxy geometry within SketchUp as seen in this linked example

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40%26amp;t=67665#p620146

Anyway you will probably have to adjust the used textures within Shaderlight´s material presets, so that these present the desired render result.

@ Pixero: if possible Gary and I could make a little Shaderlight testing using a small sample file from you?

Best

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

@pixero said:

They are normal SketchUp files with textures included so they should work with all render engines.

Special render material settings like specularity, translucency and bump needs to be applied for all render engines exept Thea as I have that one myself.
Let's not forget they are D.I.Y Hedges...

Please note that you will need the Skatter plugin for it to work. Skatter has the option to create the skattered geometry at rendertime only but you'll have to check which renderers are supported.
It can also create the geometry in the SketchUp scene but for dense things SketchUp might become unresponsive. That is a limitation of SketchUp.
If you have to do it that way, turning off edges will help speed things up.

Does anyone know if the DIY Hedges package, currently offered in the SU Shop will work with Shaderlight ? It says, "Materials are set up for Thea render but textures are included for other render engines", but doesn't say which ones. I'm also wondering if the package is optimised for Thea Render and has less functionality for other render packages ?

Purchased, read through and thoroughly recommend.

Quick question on this one - how would you create such a texture, just take a screen grab or use some other method within SU ?

[quote="JQL"]And after you've layed your 3d tiles, you could generate a texture from them and follow the first advice:

I think the only "muscle memory" that's involved is the brain ! If I want to draw a circle, my finger goes to "C" not because my hand automatically goes there, (in a typing / Typist sort of way), but because my brain has learned the shortcut. I guess you could say I automatically then select C without looking down at the keyboard, but that's missing the point.

I'm not sure I've made my point clearly but I think typing is true muscle memory in that you don't even consciously think about where the letters are on the keyboard - you just type ! Shortcuts are different in that you DO think about it, (for a split second granted), and then you type the letter.

Thanks Tig, I'll try some of those tips. I always open a SU file through SU by the way UNLESS it says it's locked. If so, I then navigate to the file via Explorer, unlock it and start it from there. I do nearly always have Windows set to detail or large icon view, so perhaps I'll try different settings like you say.

I've been getting the annoying message that certain individual Sketchup files are locked and are read only since SU2015 was released. It is intermittent and sometimes the files open OK, other times they're locked. My work around is to use the free resource Lockhunter -http://lockhunter.com/, to unlock the file, with the offending culprit always being the Windows utility, dllhost.exe. Does anyone else have this issue, (I'm running Windows 8.1 but have read the same issue occurs in Windows 7) ?

I also found another sufferer and more info on the topic in the SU Community forum - http://forums.sketchup.com/t/sketchup-fails-to-terminate-all-child-processes-on-exit/9657.

Hi Aces, thanks for the tips but I'm happy with my workflow method and don't need to change it.

In response to your points:

1. If this plugin does the trick and saves you time, surely $40 is a very small amount to pay per year ? That said are you using SU for commercial use like me are "for fun" ?

2. I personally don't see how draping a road on a mesh would work on anything but a very flat site, that is for anything other than a visual only type road - not a representation of a real road with real road characteristics. That said I could see how you could drape the road layout and then delete this area to enable you to construct the actual road within that cleared space. Obviously I could be totally wrong on this and some people may drape a road and then play around with its contours to adjust the levels - seems a long winded route to me.

3. Like I said, I don't "drape" very often, I create the road, (more like paths, decks, lawns and patios in my case), in the 2D plane and then give them some depth to make them a solid and then "insert them into the mesh, (which usually represents the existing lawn and other levels surrounding the property). IF the property is as near to flat as makes little difference, I ignore all levels and create the whole model on a flat 2D plane.

I have to say that although I use meshes formed by taking a site level survey, then creating a point cloud and triangulate in SU to form a mesh, (only smoothing once all model editing is done - because it makes editing easier), I am lost with some of the discussions here.

In that case, I'm not sure if this is relevant or helpful but I personally create a mesh for my garden landscapes, (admittedly they're not huge), and then turn that mesh into a "solid" group. I can then use the solid tools to cut away at the mesh if terracing is needed, cut buildings or objects into it, (which would also be solids) and generally interact with the mesh without creating nightmare geometry. If any terrain then needs tweaking around the new additions, this is easily done by manipulating points on the mesh.

Like I said... Not sure if that helps, but it works for all my garden design projects.

Secondly, I'm not sure how "real world" it is when people drape roads, etc. over existing terrains. It may provide a visual, but obviously road contours would never follow all the humps and bumps of a real-world terrain. They'd be contoured to follow the terrain to some degree, with the correct gradients / cross falls / cambers of the road being used and the terrain adjusted around the road accordingly. I just mention this because some methods of work you see for terrains are great for creating hypothetical / semi-accurate terrain look alikes, rather than models of an actual terrain, (if you see what I mean).

Excuse me for asking what might be a stupid question, (or two). You do mean toolbars do you and not the dialogue boxes, because I have the keystroke "H" assigned to hide / show those.

If it is toolbars as well you're trying to hide, why is that ?

I'd buy it to gain what tips I can. I'm most interested in external works / landscaping, so a chapter that focuses on that side of drawing preparation would be very useful.

I know we're drifting off topic here, (and off Sketchup), but it is an interesting discussion.

Having lived in a 1760's Costwold stone cottage,it was certainly sturdy. We had some really bad gales one day when I lived there and on the way home there were roof tiles off all the buildings, trees blown down, vehicles tipped over, etc. I was dreading what I'd find when I got home, only to find it didn't suffer one jot !

Here's the thing though - we shouldn't have too much of a rose tinted view of these properties because although they are long-lasting, they're constantly damp, (despite all the usual modern day remedies), they end up twisted and leaning all over the place, (on account of no foundations and the crucial element of lime mortar, (which allows movement without cracking). What I'm saying is if a modern building had these defects, we'd probably call it a fail. I know that's not a fair comparison but then comparing modern and old properties isn't fair on some levels either.

We do tend to forget, (or take for granted), that new houses come with double glazing, central heating, fitted kitchens AND inside lavatories !! as standard, (to name a few).

I know what you mean EPD. My wife grew up in a 1650's farmhouse, (ex-inn we believe)and our previous property, (where we lived for 17 years) was a 1760's Cotswold stone cottage. Obviously modern amenities had all been added at some point, but it did give you a sense of the room sizes, ceiling heights, wall thicknesses, garden sizes, (the one thing that was considerably bigger), and other details apparent in an older property. We brought our current house when it was 18 months old - a complete change you can imagine !