Usually i work on an iMac but recently i tranferred a SU model on the MacBook with GMA 950 Graphics -> SU was unusable because of the very low Graphics performance of the MacBook.
I guess you have no other chance than working with a more powerful machine. This could be an iMac or a MacBook Pro. Maybe also the new MacBook might be worth a look because the graphics performance is up to 5 times faster (NVIDIA GeForce 9400M instead of Intel GMA 950) compared to the old MacBook.
http://www.apple.com/macbook/graphics.html
Though your problem is surely caused because of the slow graphics performance, also notice to use enough RAM using the latest Mac OS (2GB or more provide a huge performance boost compared to the standard 1GB)

i just found out how it works!
it is so easy... such a shame i was not able to check it out earlier...

it' in the menu:
VIEW-> TOOL PALETTES -> LARGE TOOL SET

thanks edson for the detailed screenshots ,
i really appreciate your efforts
i guess my first post was unfortunately not very precisely - sorry for that.
i know how to change the order of the symbols the way you described it.
what i dont know is how to let appear a second menubar exactly like in the screenshot 2 of my first post.

Hello!
Customizing the menu bar in the Windows version of SU is easy to me, on the Mac i can't figure out how it should work at all. I already thought it is not possible to do it on the Mac until i watched a Tutorial of the SketchUpShow (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=205491012) where they have a customized menu bar:

i guess i am simply too stupid at the moment to manage even this simple task.
thanks in advance

another challenge:
http://www.fritzhansen.com/content/us/products/lounge/space
at leats it would be a challenge to me because of the curved surfaces

Hello!
i cant believe it! where can i get it? for weeks now i had to create dozens of profiles in my project, which is really a pain with curved extrution paths. and there are still lots of profiles i need to create. i wish i would have checked out this forum earlier...

thank you remus, Gaieus, Anssi!!
with the infos and tips you provided i can calm down and go on with my project
have a nice weekend.

thank you remus!
these are very interesting infos for me!

according to the faces count (about 40.000 at the moment) and the expected complexity of my model i would expect about 200.000 faces in my model.

Hello!
First of all: Sorry for any bad english - i am no native english speaker

I am currently creating a SketchUp Model on my iMac and everything is working fine at the moment. But i am a bit worried because i just have finished about 20% of the Model and the SketchUp-File is already 6MB of size (i already removed all unused components and materials).

Has anyone any experiences with the performance of an iMac and such huge SketchUp Models (bigger than 20MB) ?
Should i be worried to be bankrupt in a few weeks because i need to buy a MacPro?

Here are some details about my iMac:

iMac (Mid 2007)