Posts made by CraigD

Hmmmm...

Hi TxCelt -

Csaba is correct. If you do not edit your group, anything that you draw will actually be on top of the group and not affect its surface planes.

It's difficult at first to notice that you have a group selected when the geometric object is a rectangle, because the group (and component) bounding box is also a rectangular shaped cube. To illustrate this more clearly, create a circle, then use the Push/Pull tool to create a cylinder. Now make that a group (or component). You'll now see that the group object will have a rectangular bounding box when you select it. Now double click on this object and you'll see that you are now editing INSIDE the group.

This is what you'll want to do with your plywood group objects.

One other note: components are similar to groups, but have a more powerful feature. When you create a component, and then copy that component a number of times within you model, editing any one of the components will affect all of the other instances in the same way. This is very powerful if you are modifying a number of repeating objects because you don't have to edit each one individually. If however, you would like to edit a component and not affect the other instances, you can right-click on the component and select "Make Unique". This will break the link to the other instances and allow you to edit it without causing the others to change.

I hope you find this information useful, and you share with us your successes and questions as you go! And thanks for using SketchUp, we hope you enjoy it!!

Cheers,

• CraigD

Sorry for getting in here late... My initial thought was that the output in PS was set to a low DPI...which is was. For large format print work from PS, some folks even use 600 DPI, which is overkill unless you're making a billboard.

Glad you got it worked out!

Cheers,

• CraigD

Hi Jeff, yeah I agree. There is a time and a place for trying out the limits of your machine, and obviously the racetrack/autocross track is the right place. I feel that training and experience are the key to understanding the risks, and knowing the skills of control. I also think that the U.S. license training classes are terrible, and that access to fast cars/bikes should be based on training and experience.

Giving a 17 year old kid with no training a WRX (or fast bike/other fast car) is a big, big mistake. It's very bad in the motorcycle community because access to wicked fast bikes is as easy as getting some money together. I've heard of motorcycle dealerships talking kids out of buying the fastest bike and getting them onto something appropriate for a beginner and I applaud those folks. Unfortunatelly, more often they just take the money and deny the reality of the risk.

I do really enjoy modifying my machines, and I do really enjoy roadracing my racebike. There are a lot of great kids at the track, and it's really a fantastic family environment that keeps kids out of trouble. That's the environment that really makes me smile. It just seems that great parents make great kids, and too many parents just deny the risks and "hope for the best"... That's not what my folks did, and for that I'm glad!

Stay safe, avoid the ones who aren't, and make great models!!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

@todamgood4u said:

Very cool. Are you a car/import/tuner nut?

Thanks! Yes, I am a licensed amateur motorcycle road-racer, bike tuner, car tuner and I used to race a Porsche in the Porsche club auto-X series, and a CRX in SCCA before that! I'm much more of a GO than SHOW guy, but I like a clean looking machine!

The Scooby is much faster than my Porsche was, but would give up quite a bit in outright on-the-edge handling and braking (heavier, higher roll center, and less mass centralized). I have done a significant amount of work to my WRX (at sea level it puts out 300 bhp & ft lbs) and I did all the work myself! It's a very capable all around sports car that's tough enough to handle some serious work on gravel fire roads! ...although it's set up for the street.

Making the Scooby in SketchUp was a lot of fun, but it was before I had learned the many techniques that would have helped create a much better model. I haven't worked on the model in quite some time, but I'd like to refine it and repost my results at some point!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

I know that you all create much more complicated and impressive models, but I wanted to share with you some work that I did when learning SketchUp 5.0. Enjoy!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

Hey Jim, it's good to have a new member of the SketchUp community! Keep that enthusiasm and you will have a lot of fun making models!

My suggestion is to get the basics of Cheetah (experiment logically, and reduce variables), and then ask some specific questions. You'll find a wealth of knowledge, but without knowing what you need it'll be hard to guide you.

Just a thought!

Cheers,

• CraigD

Hi Goggin,

Re: Question 2 - if you want to change platforms there is a $50 fee for getting your new registration key. It's fast and easy! If you have any problems with the transfer, feel free to send me a PM (private message) and I'll see If I can help you out!

Welcome to the world of SketchUp Pro! Model well!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

When I was doing animation back in the day on my Amiga A4000 (yes, vintage!), the 3D app I was using was called Imagine. It had 2D views that would not allow the user to orbit, and then it had an Iso view that would remember your camera position, lens and zoom level.

Would this be of interest as a feature request for future versions of SketchUp? We already have the Views toolbar, but perhaps we can enhance this so that the 2D views can be locked so that you can't orbit, and the iso view remembers your last camera position.

I can pass that along.

Sound good?

• CraigD

Hi Jim, here is the link to the new Ruby Discussions Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupruby/topics

Cheers,

• CraigD

Could be a component within a group... (I didn't have time to look at the model, but that's the first thing that came to mind when a group cuts through a face..)

• CraigD

Thanks for sharing David! And welcome to this forum! I'm very happy to meet you and am honored by your long standing support!

I look forward to reading more of your ideas and perhaps on ways to improve SketchUp!

Cheers,

• CraigD

Ah yes, Tom, I am aware of the edges showing through alpha pings. I entered that bug in our database actually! Yeah, it's a tricky one, I hear...

Man, it's always hard when one person's bug is another person's daily workflow. I empathize. I will add some weight to the bug. That is part of my "special purpose"..

Cheers,

- CraigD (Is there any other "CraigD"! :wink:

@tomsdesk said:

.
I've moved back to doing most of my work in 5 (until they fix a couple of things they broke making 6) but use a couple of the new things in 6,
Thank, Tom.

Hi Tom, what are the things that are keeping you from happiness in SketchUp 6?

I have ways of prioritizing issues...

Cheers,

 - CraigD

It's simply fantastic Coen! It is a joy to communicate with you all...makes my job much more interesting and allows me to help more people than I could in any other way.

I think my two favorite parts are seeing what interesting projects you're all working on, and seeing the problem spots that you hit while working on those projects.

All of you, working together here with me, have made a very positive impact on SketchUp, including the future direction of SketchUp.

Thank you all for sharing your projects, your pain points, and your wishes!

Cheers,

• CraigD

Hi Joe -

I did a quick search of the 3D Warehouse and came up with a nice Samurai sword holder:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bec2e593cb930d0cbe181f5cf6d90dbd&prevstart=0

Street fighters on a mat: (could be re-purposed with different outfits)

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b7418ad3a5ddf8b1eca7dcbf1c55b11c&prevstart=0

Dojo designs:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d09a050a2933304dc37c5fe12715e7d6&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b0aa27842450d4b6d86da2dab4a648c8&prevstart=0

Martial Arts figures:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b98462ddf8043d0ebc1b367a333141d&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c3c21c2821b93355b781868d90c38c47&prevstart=0

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

We'll take a look.

Thanks guys!

 - CraigD

Bandwidth means the amount of data that can be pushed or pulled through a communication port. Like a larger pipe can flow more water, more bandwidth can flow more data.

Make sense?

 - CraigD

Nice technique Eric!!! Also, nice models Gidon!

That's a very cool trick though Eric, and very useful!

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,

- CraigD

Pretty cool Eric! Way to recycle!

Cheers,

• CraigD