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    • RE: [Plugin] Zorro2 (beta)

      No ruby console messages before the crash, but I realized that I wasn't using it correctly. When I used the cut tool I was picking points at the edge of a cube, and I thought I had to pick 3 to define a plane, vs. just two. So here is how I made it crash.

      • draw a rectangle and extrude to a box
      • select the Zorro tool
      • click on one of the top edges of the box
      • next click on the opposing side
      • now click on the same point as above
      • and last, click on the bottom edge on the same side of the box

      screen shot just before crash (when I click at the cursor)

      This crashes it for me. I have a screen shot of what it looks like before the click that causes the crash. There doesn't seem to be anything special about where on the edge of the box I draw my cut lines for the crash to occur. When I use to tool as intended, single cut line beyond the geometry, then everything works fine.

      By the way, what would be really cool new feature for Zorro for me is to have the "slide model at section" create separate groups out of the trimmed parts vs. throwing them away. Could have the new groups named something like "mygroupname_cut". An extra cool feature would be to create the plane at the cutting edge so the new groups are still solid. This would kind of be the anti-outer shell, allowing you to split a volume into two. Even with SketchUp Pro this would still be a useful tool. Right now I can't draw a section plane and split into two groups. I have to create a big box to use as a cutting volume, vs. a more simple cutting plane.

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: [Plugin] Zorro2 (beta)

      No dialogs open (including Outliner). I even tried disabling Dynamic Components, Sandbox Tools, Solar North, and Photo Textures.

      I'll try again tomorrow after a fresh restart. By the way, same results on SU7.

      Split at section cut seems to work. Just cut tool that crashes.

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: [Plugin] Zorro2 (beta)

      TIG, is this working on SU 8? I'm getting crashes on XP without any other plugins installed.

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Tracing - any suggestions?

      One of the last companies you might expect to have freeware, but a few months ago I ran across this new free cloud light version of AutoCad. That could be an option, but I don't remember what kind of curve tools it had. You do have to create a login, but it is free.
      http://autodeskbutterfly.wordpress.com/

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Tracing - any suggestions?

      If you happen to have Adobe Illustrator you could trace the photo there, and then export as dwg/dxf from Illustrator. But as others suggested, probably ways to do it well from within SketchUp.

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Matching real camera with SU camera

      Thomthom,

      Is the fourth photo that is giving you trouble by chance more vertical than then other three photos? The reason I ask, is that I used to use images as a watermark on a scene that I wanted to register to my model geometry. The model and the watermark image stayed in sync so long as the aspect ratio of my display windows was wider than the aspect ratio of my watermark images. That is to say that there are bars on the left and right of my image that I can then crop later in photoshop. If I changed the aspect ratio of my display to be taller than my watermark image (now there are white bars at the top and bottom of my image) things go really bad.

      I attributed this to the fact that while my model is still resizing based on the vertical AOC of my model, my watermark image is now resizing based on the horizontal AOC of the watermark photo. I never liked how this works, they should always both resize in the same way and stay in sync.

      An alternative to trying to setup your SketchUp windows correctly is to use Layout where you have more control of the aspect ratio.

      An interesting thought I had to aid in lining up your camera view is to add points into SketchUp based on google Earth data for other buildigns that appear in the photo, or even points on the distant mountains, but I suspect if you pull in points too far from your origin SketchUp won't like it. I wouldn't trust generic GoogleEarth buildings, but if you could make BuildingMaker buildings they would be very reliable, although I don't think you have BuildingMaker in your area yet?

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: [Plugin] Dxf_In v2.2 20110517 Dxf2Skp

      Here is the attachment. Thanks for the tips. I left the file at work, so couldn't send last night. Sounds like we can do dxf's now.


      GeometryTest.dxf

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: [Plugin] Dxf_In v2.2 20110517 Dxf2Skp

      @honoluludesktop said:

      David, Thanks. Can you provide a sample dxf (smaller the easier for me) with layer and texture? Perhaps I should provide a options menu.

      Sure, here is a 50k file from the example above. Now this was made from EnergyPlus, so it may not be the best test case since it wasn't generated by AutoCad. I'm not sure if a similar file from Autocad would like the same or not.

      This file has layers and color (not image textures)

      (hmm, can I not upload DXF file?)

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: [Plugin] Dxf_In v2.2 20110517 Dxf2Skp

      Looks great! I ran it through a test with some DXF's created by EnergyPlus (as part of an energy simulation run).

      What I noticed is that using your plugin the DXF came in 12x smaller. In the Pro I have units set to feet vs. inches, which works with these DXF's. Easy enough for the user to fix but could be nice option to add down the road. One other thing I noticed is that on your DXF import a few faces were reversed from how there were with the pro importer. The pro importer was not set to "orient faces consistently" but maybe it was doing it anyway, and the source file really does have some reversed faces.

      Other features that would be nice, but aren't critical, are to support the layer and color applied to a face.

      DXF_In 1.1 and pro side by side.

      posted in Plugins
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Ripples In Water

      If you just care about this for still renderings, then there was a great Photoshop plugin by flamingpear called flood that does a great job for still images. You have a lot of control over the perspective and type of ripples on the surface.
      http://www.flamingpear.com/flood.html

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: 3D Warehouse - downloading nearby models

      @cmd said:

      Hey Rick,

      After loading "Nearby Models" into your component browser, click on the Details arrow and select "Save as local collection" (do not mark as Favorites). This will download all the buildings listed in the component browser onto your computer.

      I hope this helps

      CMD

      Nice tip, although I see they still all save as individual skp files. It would be great if this collection itself was saved as a single component making it easy to place in our model, or if there was a check box in the save as local collection dialog that said something like "place components in model after they are downloaded"

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Auto snapshot?

      Snaggit from TechSmith is also really nice. Not free, but not too expensive. One thing it does great is allow capture of cursor and mouse over effect.
      http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Scenes thumbnail generation

      This should only happen the first time you open an SU7 file in SU8. It will then save the thumbnails in the fire for the next time you open it.

      You can cancel this on a case by case basis as you open files, but not sure if a way to globally disable it.

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Workflow - best way to use Sketchup > Illustrator > Indesign

      My preferred method is to bring SketchUp into Layout, setup scale and layout on the page for multiple pages, and then export that to a PDF.

      I can then work on the PDF's in Illustrator or InDesign. Then when the design updates, it's one easy click in Layout to re-export the PDF's. If you are working in InDesign, the PDF's can be linked so they are updated.

      If you are working in Illustrator, you may have a little bit of grouping work to setup Live Paint. It has been a while since I used it, but I thought all linework gets put into one group?

      No matter what you do, I think layout is worth it to correctly scale and position your file. No reason to do that by hand. If you use vector export you get linework as vector but still get an image for fills and shadows. If you use a style with no face colors then you can isolate shadows this way.

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Ruby to rotate overhead view 90 degrees around blue axis?

      You can also take an object oriented the way you want your plan, and create a new axis using that object. For your new axis blue is still on the Z axis for your model, set the green axis to go in the direction that you want to be at the top of your screen in plan view.

      You can save this as a scene and always jump back to it.

      posted in Developers' Forum
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Paste your Face

      P1070152.jpg

      posted in Corner Bar
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Travelling long distance?

      @dale said:

      Pete, No my wife is coming along, and since we have four days to get there, we only have to make about 400 miles a day. Were going to poke along. If anybody has any suggestions of things to take in along our route please let me know.

      If you go South out of Yellowstone should get a great view of Grand Teton NP. Of course its great to go to if you have time, but you looks like you have a lot of driving to do.

      By the way, for anyone with extra time in Boulder, and a car you are are only an hour from Rocky Mountain National Park. but if you go on Labor day weekend, I would go early, could be big crowds at entry and parking if you don't arrive early. If you don't go there, plenty of good hiking and scenery elsewhere in the area.

      By they way, I may be have shortest travel time. About 4 miles (15 minutes by bike).

      posted in Corner Bar
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Get together before base camp

      No making fun of the local micro brews here in Boulder. By the way, I think the Beer Festival is already sold out. Always a popular event.

      posted in Corner Bar
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Cutting a graphic image into specific portions

      If you want to do it all in SketchUp. place the image in one window, scale, it and then use the eye dropper to paint to grab the texture to pain in other windows.

      Then one by one make each texture unique (I don't think you can do that with multiple selection). Once unique you can export the texture as an image.

      posted in SketchUp Discussions
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
    • RE: Get together before base camp

      So I just checked with the Baker Street Pub. They are all set for us. I won't be their until later, so whoever shows up first can just say your with the Google or SketchUp group. They also have my name which really isn't DavidBoulder. It is David Goldwasser.

      Sorry Pete, I forgot to check on the beer-rita. You'll just have to take that up with the bar-tender.

      See everyone in a week.

      posted in Corner Bar
      DavidBoulderD
      DavidBoulder
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