Tom you have missed the graphics card of the XPS420

Interesting idea.

I did wonder something similar myself, but using the pedals from a gaming steering wheel set. It seemed you needed to have the pedals plugged into the steering wheel though for them to work and I didn't really want a steering wheel sat on my desk!

This looks like it could be fun Mike.
I shall take a few pics tomorrow and give it a go I think.

That is fantastic, very funny yet pretty amazing!

Hi Gidon,

Im certainly no expert in this either, it needs someone like Ross Macintosh who seems to have a very good knowledge on this sort of thing.

The difference between jpg and png that I am aware of and the reasons I sometimes use it is that png is a lossless format yet still has some compression. It also supports transparency.
I also read once that png is better for text and graphics than jpeg, probably because there is not a lot a jpeg can lose/compress in just text.

This is a really tough one, I guess we all use different ones and work differently.
I would suggest going through our Ruby Forum and see what grabs your attention.

I will recommend one of my favourites to use for architecture and hopefully others may join in and suggest more.
Go here and try TIGs Roof.rb - A really useful ruby for creating various types of roofs.
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=17156#p17156

Moving to Hardware Forum.

I think I read that these later 768mb cards are requiring pretty big power supplies (600 +)
Another thing was that they tend to be a little larger, especially in length and some cases will not take them.

Dylan

Maybe upgrade to one of the Nvidia 768mb cards. Im sure the extra memory will help with SU.

The Nvidia 7900 is a Geforce.

You will certainly see an improvement if you upgrade, but it is hard to measure and say how much.
I would personally never use onboard graphics unless you just surf the net.
Always better to have a dedicated gpu.

Thanks Tom. That is a very quick way of finding the info which can be very useful.
Now I need to remember that command!

It is a dedicated graphics card.
It is handling SU fine although I have not put it through it's paces yet.

What I will do is test it some more later and report back.

I have just purchased a laptop in the last few weeks running Vista Home Premium.
Works perfectly with SU 6.0.515

In fact, Vista is a great OS imo, I really like it.

It seems to be graphic card drivers that are the problem if anything from what I can gather.

My comp has Nvidia 8400GT 128mb.

Full spec for my laptop here:
Sony Vaio VGN-FZ11S

One of the hardest things when doing these is always blending in the SU image with the photo. You have managed to do this very well.

I think the people in the second image would look better without being transparent from the waist down, or probably losing them altogether.

I would just get an image of the text - for example the Sony logo and save as a png, then import into SU and place where required.

I am positive I remember sorgesu mentioning this mouse. I think she actually uses one.

If I am wrong, it must have been a strange dream

Did you come to a decision Rob?

Im looking at a smartphone myself, possibly the HTC Touch.

@kenny said:

I have a Ricoh Caplio R4 and it's great for architecture with a wide angle 28mm lens but also goes up to 200mm or 7x zoom all in a very small pocketable size. It also starts almost instantly. Mine is about 2 years old and it's now up to the R7 model which has a few more refinements from my model including a slightly smaller size and better video. The R7 is just out but you can check user reviews of the R6 and older at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ricoh/

Kenny

My collegue has the R5 and is very pleased with it.
I may go for the R7 myself when I replace mine in the next few months.

Got to have 28mm on my next camera!

I would advise a 28mm lens to anyone who is in the architecture field.
It makes a big difference for internal shots and getting the building in for externals.
There are a few 28mm ones available now which look pretty good.

A link to a few examples
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp

I personally do not use Podium, but there are many here that do.
You will be better posting this sort of question in our Podium Forum. I will move this across for you.

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewforum.php?f=65