I have fixed the geometry by removing the triangulation and by using the Quad face tools. I have also oriented each diagonal on the same direction, this helps a lot with Artisan too.
Honestly I don't exactly know which of the functions works to fix it because I have tried for a couple of times all the convert from tris to quads including the sandbox option.

-Subd_trial a.skp

You need to understand that SubD works with quads. If you have triangulation or broken lines it will give you bumps.
Would you share the sculpture example, I will try to work a bit the geometry so it will smooth correctly with SubD.

2015 also has a 64bit version http://www.sketchup.com/download/all
Not that much of a difference but I believe the upgrade price is $120 - http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000020 .

Go to Window/Preferences/General and uncheck Automatically check models for problems.
Sketchup sees those small faces you created and says wow you have some serious problems, let me fix them... and the mess is the fix.

Using scale and solid tools.

Click to play.

Yes, I selected one pipe and the plenum and right click intersect selected, then delete what you don't need, then heal the open surfaces with the Curviloft plugin.
But you can do it better with the Split from the Solid tool after you scale it up 100 times or more. The scale is needed because at the intersections you will get small faces which can't be created in sketchup(<1mm2 or something).

One I know it was flightpath and another way is to use a circle and cameras all around .
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=79%26amp;t=2583

Scale up like 100 times and do what you want to do then scale back.
Sketchup can't create small faces.
I did the intersection manually. The pipes slides into the plenum. It can be otherwise though.
You can use the Split option from solid tools with each pipe and the plenum. You will have to copy some parts and glue to the pipes. But it depends on how you want it to be.

Well done! Practice makes perfect!

For sharper images go to Window/Preferences/OpenGl and check Use maximum texture size.

Yay ! How is it goin ?

Good to see you around !
Keep it Sketchin !

Why don't you just drape the road then copy the road and undo the drape then paste in place outside the terrain group and then assign it to a different group or layer ?

Welcome back!

It works alright for me, but check the button with the three vertical lines. It will try to keep the offsets as untouched as possible

Yes the smokes was added in photoshop using just the paint brush with a couple of different tones and transparency passes.
I don't use Vray but I am sure you can add some other texture except the bump map, see which material type allows you to do that.
Anyway, at times postprocessing is faster and simpler.

Thanks for the settings. I have been there and played a bit but couldn't make it better.
With these new settings seems a bit better.
Maybe a test would show how it works for each of us. Export your image as 1600Xn(n under 1600) and let's see how smooths it is.

1 test.skp

Great start!
Maybe add some dirt map to the red paint ? Saturate more the background, add some smoke ?

Pro is the same with Make in terms of views, edges etc.
No is not the scale.
As Box said, it is a bit random on each configuration.
Believe it or not, I kind of have the same problem like you, with my new GTX 770 . The old one, Nvidia 8600GT, was showing the smoothest thing you could achieve. I don't know why.. I was really surprised by the difference, but so far I couldn't figure it out.
I have learned to let it go and export bigger images-that makes things look smoother.

Have you checked the Window/Preferences/OpenGl Use hardware acceleration setting ?

Wow !!

The building in the right is a bit too clean for the overall scene, imo.
The signs from the left building are flipped.

I plan on cutting most of the plastics, foams, wood and aluminum.
I plan on having two heights for the table one lower and one higher for aluminum and harder stuff.
Try to make all the possible pieces on a cnc or a lathe machine.
I didn't do that and I encountered a lot of mistakes and problems on the way.
Btw it is good to place all the bolts. I didn't do it at first and then I had to cut some other parts to make way for them.
Further more I made my own design and now I kind of regret it as I am not an engineer and this is my first build. Now I already have different ideas for improvements.
The main problem is that I built it in a kind of pyramidal way and I need to remove much of the assembly to get to some parts. When I will get it to work and hopefully make some money with it I will cnc my own parts and I will rebuild it in a better way.