Look up Ramit Sethi's blog - he has awesome advice for young people looking for a job.

Hi Slim (is it OK if I call you that?)

I've done a lot of 3D printing so will help you out the best I can.

@unknownuser said:

1.) Does the model that I export to .stl have to be in one group that is a solid? Or can I have a bunch of groups making up one model?

You can have as many groups as you need in one .stl, but each of them needs to be solid.

@unknownuser said:

2.) What happens if a group is not a solid in sketchup?

The printer cannot make it. You can fix it in Sketchup using Solid Solver or Solid Inspector, or try fixing the .stl with Netfabb Basic(downloadable program) or Netfabb in the cloud.

@unknownuser said:

3.) Circles and arc. Is it a good idea to have more sides to a circle than the default?

It depends on your needs. If you have a larger diameter circle, and want a nicer looking arc, then add more segments. Just be careful you don't go overboard on big projects, as more segments create a larger filesize. Try to fit the arc segment size to the resolution of the printer...so if your printer has a 0.5mm resolution, if you make the arc segments about 0.5mm long or smaller then they won't be visible.

@unknownuser said:

4.) Which plugin to you recommend for exporting to .stl?

Sketchup to STL - it imports STL's as well.

For more info, you may read this article I wrote a few months ago: 8 Tips for 3D Printing with Sketchup

What will you be using to print your models? ...print service, Makerbot, etc.?

I hope you forgive me for posting an ad, but I think its Super Bowl quality

@srx: I teach Sketchup at a local makerspace and coach independent designers as well. Some people just do not have the patience to sit down and watch video tutorials - they would much rather watch somebody else in person and ask questions. Further, they think their particular needs are not addressed in online tutorials, or may not be internet-savvy.

@Rick: I've not taught at college level, just some intro to SU classes mentioned above. I think it may be helpful to teach a particular use of Sketchup...say Sketchup for architectural rendering, or Sketchup for Woodworking. Interest and attendance was high for free classes...for-pay classes not as much, understandably. One of my friends suggested that I teach at a community college, but I haven't pursued that...am interested though!

Those two have a whole youtube channel full of that kind of stuff...look up PrankvsPrank

@krisidious said:

If anyone would like to use the viewer to walk through the model it's located here.

Not Found

(revizto.com)

Kris, I get this message from you link: "You don't have sufficient rights to access this page"

@solo said:

the fact that it's called water may have helped, there is no bump, however in LumenRT it creates it's own animated water.

This is exactly it. LumenRT picks up the water from the texture name and applies its own water effects. Same for glass, if I remember correctly.

That's a great scene, Pete and the animation looks awesome for the amount of time spent rendering it. Of course it helps that you started with a good model.

Awesome. I like how the plugin you're installing doesn't need to be an RBZ

Google+ lets you share with certain people via "circles".

Does Photomerge do what you want? I've used it for rectangular panos.
File > Automate > Photomerge...

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-75e8a.html

http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/

Some free hints here: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=40151&hilit=alvis+chair

...and more chair tutorials by Alvis in the shop

@pieterv said:

...
1. Like most of us I use mostly shortcuts to acces my tools. My question is: are the buttons on the Spacemouse Pro (or a similar 3d mouse) handy enough to use them as shortcuts? Are they fast enough? Do you have to switch back to the keyboard a lot to use some shortcuts that are not mapped onto the 3d mouse?...

I own a SpaceMouse Pro and find a regular 3-button mouse & keyboard shortcuts to be faster than using the 3D mouse.

I have not tried the mouse on different platforms.

If it comes in ~$2K, I'd go for it. I don't need the bigger graphics card or extra HD though.

SSD's are coming down in price - I'd want at least a 256 GB SSD - the rest looks good.

@olishea said:

EDIT: I deleted this image because it was borderline too raunchy for SCF
...

If in doubt, you can always just post the link with a NSFW tag so folks can choose for themselves, but don't get caught with their pants down

Ha yes, so I learned! Figured I'd share that in case anybody else had the same problem.

Does it work with Text that has been created with the native 3D Text tool?

I've also had this problem when I've named two scenes EXACTLY the same in Sketchup - the scenes all show up in Layout, but when clicking the second one, the view comes into layout as the first scene with that name from Sketchup.

My favorite is this 3D printed lamp which creates interesting patterns on its surroundings.