Just for a sidenote, in Kerkythea speifically, you can use the alpha channel as a clipmap. You put the png, tiff, whateve format with the alpha channel into the diffuse slot and at the clipmap slot there is a checkbox (aomething like) "use alpha mask as clipmas" you can check. But other applications may not have this option so to create two files - a diffuse and a clip - may still be useful (not to speak about file sizes that Alan mentions).

Edson, I expect that since those are all ruby add ons that perhaps the programming, especially with respect to MAC, may be flawed.

@solo said: I received an email today advertising this product for $149.00, is there a demo available in order to evaluate before purchase? yes, there is. it seems that they just released a windows version. for once, the first version was for mac.

jason, i certainly meant jason. sorry about that! mateo, yes, besides having a lot do in real life, i have been trying to learn how to render. it is the missing part in my one-man-architectural-office plan. biebel, thanks for the encouragement. even though it does not show i have learned a lot from you. regards to all.

todd, you were absolutely right. mac A had the latest build whereas B had an older one. i had just to update the older copy of SU to fix the problem. thanks!

Thanks for the tip on the massmaterialimporter. I have been looking for something that would do that.

I recently purchased Modo 302 and from the little time I have spent with it I can say it is well worth the money. Not only does it have the tools that many SU'ers have been asking for for quite some time but us also has a very intuitive UV mappper/unwrapper and does excellent rendering all within the native app. Again, I have not got too far into it I am still going through all the tutorials and manual but they are also developing a Sketchup plugin. Currently it is still in beta and is a but buggy. Once that is worked out I can truly put this into my workflow. Scott

I've noticed it, and I think it's an issue with ruby in SU - creating a lot of new geometry in an already dense model takes a LONG TIME. However, I'll check the code for Windowizer to see if there's something in it that might be a culprit.

Ross, i'll give you good odds

I'll have to check - I may have hard-coded an expected (PC) path that will be different for Mac. Regardless, the script should work, even without the cursor change.

Crap, i found a really good and very comprehensive glossary fo renderign terms a while ago, ufortunately i cant think where i found it hmmm, i'll go and browse a few forums

This maintenance release only targeted Mac version.

thanks. it worked.

i think i'll join mr.frederik's class too!

Hi Edson, I think its a matter of saving the possible 'downloaded' file or whatever in Mac US and then the little image shows up in the file! Mike

OK then I did remember well from the KT Forums. Thanks for working on it - it would extremely speed up the workflow (imagine using it with Didier's component spray tool!)

Edson, the couple of examples I posted here were just quickies made from a single png...didn't add a shadow face, sorry. Yes, to the Alan link...if you the "shaded" face style you'll see the shadow face(s) of any of my trees. The other thing you can do is explode the png image (then hide the 4 edges), now it's just a material you can edit the color and transparency...and I'm afraid it's also a bit more bytes. If you really want to get into it you can export the image (right-click menu on a PC...Mac?) and edit it in PS, then import it back into the component (you'll need to change the name of the new png) and erase the original.

Just make sure you have a face selected while adding the shortcut since the whole path doesn't exist in the shortcut list otherwise. I needed some time to figure this out and wanted to save you that minutes ....

no, it did not happen on a clean file. i have already discarded the texture. let us see how it goes. thanks.

Edison, I think I may a have a workaround for you. I am certainly not an expert at dealing with contours, but through recent experimentation and the availabilty of newer scripts this could be what you need. You'll will need to check the accuracy of the "re-segmented" contours, however, to see if they are within the tolerances/lever of accuracy you want. See the attached .skp for a mini-tutorial. You will need the Weld.rbby Rick Wilson and the BezierSpline script setby Fred06. If you plan to create a terrain from the contours, then I would suggest TIG's Hidden2Layer.rb (version 1.2) script and use it as mentioned here: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=8726 . In summary, the procedure is this: A. Import the contours. B. Triple click on a contour of segments and WELD. C. Then right click on it and choose the the BZ context option of PolyLine Divider. Do note that for some reason (I think it has to do with the number of segments), the BZ context options may not be available; in that situation then bisect the weld segments into smaller lengths (see the mini-tutorial, Step 2). D. After completing Step 3, then you may want to weld the "segment-reduced" contour path back together into one continuous polyline.[image: Fygv_BZContextMenu.jpg]Mini-Tutorial for BZ method of segment reduction UPDATE: If Weld.rb does not work on all segments of a contour, try a selecting a smaller set of segments. OR, try selecting a few contour elevations (use one of SU's side views to do this), copy and paste them into a new file (or create a component out of them and then do a context menu Save As to create separate .skp), then try to weld, etc., then repeat the process for another set of contours; finally paste these back into one file. Otherwise, have the segments simplified by the surveyor in AutoCad first, or have them subdivide the one DWG file into 4 or more subfiles.