Just noticed Gully's notice that he was stepping down from the forum due to an abrasive comment he made. While one often suspected his jockeys to be a size or two too small, his answers were always complete and appreciated. He often reminded me of the old curmudgeon on 60 minutes who retired last year. I, for one, hope he does return under another psuedonym as his expertise is a gift to us so in need of SU help.

It's early in the A.M. i admit, but where does a premium member go to download that trove of free downloads?

Gary Anderson

Thanks to the three of you for your offers of help. Jean Lemire sent an illustrated procedure that cured my mistakes.

Thanks for the illustrated reply. I'd swear that was what i was doing but had not incorporated the guideline to start or used the array feature. I tried your procedure and it worked just fine.

I am attempting to create arched beams for a greenhouse but am not able to get a surface. To make the beams I am using the arc tool to create the desired arc and then making two perpendicular lines, one at each end of the arc equal to the desired depth of the beam. Again using the arc tool I am creating a second identical arc using the ends of the perpendicular lines as starting points. All points appear to be connected upon close up inspection and the two arcs appear to be on the same plane. No surface is created that can be push/pulled to the correct beam width. I have used the circle tool to create two concentric circles, segmented the circles and eliminated all but the desired beam segments and get a pushable/pullable surface. It seems I should be able to do the same with the arc tool. Help!

as shown in the attached screen shot, I have created a grove for a sliding dovetail on the face of a cabinet board by drawing the profile and pushing the profile across the board face. I would like to remove that material from the face of the board and leave a cut groove. I've tried moving it, deleting it and repushing it. I wind up with a solid board face without the desired groove. What should I be doing to remove that material from the board?

Dale, thank you for the complete reply. It is very helpful and works. Gary

Is it possible in either the basic and/or the pro version of SU to import a photo as background?

I have designed a pergola using a photograph for proportion, etc, but now, having the pergola designed, I would like to see how it will look in its surroundings, possibly using the original photo again. While I have imported a photo in jpg format I am having trouble getting it to the background,or getting the model to work with the photo. My SU manuals seem short on those instructions.

Thanks for the directions

I am receiving error messages upon boot up of SU 8 and don't know how to correct the problems. Plug in loader_rb gets "undefined method 'effective_load' for nil: NilClass A group of Fredo tools get the error "undefined method 'register_plug for FredoTools:Module

A point in the right direction appreciated.

I hope this works as an illustration. Sorry for being not as computer literate as I'd likeI have successfully installed Sketchups "point at center" tool. However, it produces a different result than I had anticipated and require. I am trying to array 4" dia. dowels over the top of an arched beam to form the latticed roof of a pergola.

Let me provide the measurements for the top arc of the arch to illustrate my problem. The top arc is 227.5" end point to end point and the height is 31.375" measured from the mid point of a straight line connecting the two end points and the mid point of the arc. Using the point-at-center tool produces a center point that is 53.875" shorter (nearer to the mid point of the arc along a radius line) than a radius point calculated using the formula to determine the radius of an arc segment. (the formula is Width squared/8H + H/2 {227.5 squared/8 x 31.375 + 31.375/2 = 221.88}

Using the rotate tool to place an array of the four inch dowels with the point-to-center tool mark causes the first and last dowels to rest nicely on the top of the arc, but those between to be varying heights above the arc. Using the rotate tool with the formula-derived center mark, creates and array with all of the dowels properly arrayed on top of the arc. It would be extremely helpful to have a tool that calculates the radius mark using the formula.

Am I using the point to center tool incorrectly or does it, in fact, determine a mark not the radius of the segment? Being a 70+ crumudgeon with zero programing skills, your always excellent, speedy and courteous help is most appreciated.

Following instructions from the Forum, I've gone to Sketchup Preferences and the extensions section and have checked the appropriate boxes to install the various tool bars, textures and tools. When I click "install extension" a popup box entitled "open" appears with Google Sketchup 8 in the folder box and a number of .skp files listed with the exception of a file entitled "carriage house" which is highlited. However, the "open" button is not highlighter nor operative. How do I get these extensions properly installed?

I'll find those arc centers yet--with your much appreciated help. Thanks

Thank you for the helpful reply. Could you go one step further and tell me where to find "the point of arc center" script and how to activate it. I cannot seem to find it.

I am designing a pergola with curved arches on top of which rest a series of 4" x 12' round dowels. Placing an array around a circle is quite simple, but doing so on top of an arc, created with the arc tool and having no defined radius point is proving to be beyond my imagination. Is there a procedure for placing an array around an arc without defining its radius? As a last resort I used the formula R=W2(sqd)/8H + H/2 to determine the radius and placed the rotate tool at that point. It would seem there to be an quicker solution, especially since I have several applications requiring different arcs.