@dan rathbun said:

Just a note, that in playing around (I did not realize this before,) that custom "User" Axes can be saved within a ScenePage.

Yea, I often set up Scenes that adjust just the axis. All though, with SU8 now automatically adjusting the model axis to match component axis there's less need of it for my use. Works well when you have a building with axis in various directions.

Hey I get the same problem,
Just copy iconv.dll from C:\Ruby\bin in the directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8 to fix the problem.

Sound more like the model isn't modelled with their normals correct. All 3D software tools will use cause odd results of the normals in the mesh isn't modelled correctly.