I've just tried placing a simple model under the water, and it worked with some problems.

First you have to place the model in sketchup well under the coordinates of the map you get from GE, it seems that the highest point in any underwater topography you import will always be 0 in sketchup.
And to view the model in GE from an underwater perspective you have to turn the water surface off, so no cool pictures from below the seas for the sketchup fans, wich is disapointing.

water 3.jpg

Water 1.jpg

water 2.jpg

Component spray has random rotation.

Well, we already started to better control what appears here and planning to take measures to implement a better (and in fact more content related) ad system.

@elysium said:

Have you ever considered making a version that works inside SU? I'm an amateur on this but i think the future is more on programs that work integrated with SU rather than the standalone ones that require imports. What's your opinion on this?

I agree with you that an integration will be excellent and I'm sure that you will be pleased with the next generation of the SU2KT... 😉

Having said that, you also need to remember that KT isn't made for SU solely... 😉
A standalone render application will still be needed...

Just a comment on your render...
You should change the material for the windows in your model to be thin glass... 😉

Sorry to celebrate your frustration, Elysium...but: YEAH! I'M NOT INSANE!

Stuart, you cant do everything with ruby. As good as ruby is, id much rather have the SU team working on getting a really good base program than have them working on things that can be achieved with ruby.

There are some free models of statues on the net. Someone in 3D Warehouse transformed to skp this free model:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/download?mid=14e3023f03787b204a736b2733b8d89e&rtyp=lt&ctyp=other

James, the file size is 14,1 MB, still much detailing to do so it will surelly go up.

Aegedus, i usualy draw from plans that i find on the web, but i use AUTOCAD to draw the plans and elevations of the vehicle or building, after that i import the DWG file in sketchup and start modeling, extruding and intersecting the drawings. It's hard to draw on sketchup over the plans because it doesn't have so many tools has CAD software, so i try not to do this, the only exception is small parts that do not need much precision.

CAD.jpg

construction.jpg

What a piece of art ! More interesting is the fact, that this model is aimed for historical interaction.

👍 👍 👍

MALAISE

bump

Sigh... You are right, Pete got rid of many of his originally embedded images (this is why it would be preferred to attach them straight here especially in case of tutorial or CMS content).

Anyway, Now as we have UV Tools (with spherical mapping), this tutorial, however interesting solution and useful it was, can be considered sort of obsolte.

I also have two models (or rather high poly spheres) in the Warehouse:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bc92eca8611ed04d2470944666440e50
and
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6ed69ca0de0718c2bb014d52f42fdd7f
where (if you do not mind the high poly stuff) you can simply reload the images and they will still preserve the spherical UV mapping.