agree that most plugins are for people that have "learned the basic SketchUp" and are ready to "walk instead of crawl" .... wouldn't want them shipped with SU and bloating it.

Easy download access/organization from within SU's interface for those tools similar to 3D Warehouse something like a "Ruby Warehouse" would be pretty cool (Didier has it pretty well started with his "Ruby Depot")

@unknownuser said:

... incredible bad decisions in terms of project decisions. And It started with them removing the layers toolbar in sketchup 5. ...

which one was that?

@unknownuser said:

i consider pushpulling more than 1 face at a time, selecting and manipulating multiple vertexs, a workable UI, sphere, cubic and cilindrical mapping as minimum uv options (not eve talking about unwarping), or suporting more than 3.3Gg of ram in the end of the year 2009, prety basic stuff needed in ANY 3D app, just to name a few...

all very good points. agree with all of those.

It would be good if the plugin writers were better able to access some things as ThomThom mentioned... can't change a layer's color via ruby script afaik, and the ruby programmers would be better at the other wish list... is there a Ruby wish list somewhere solely for Ruby coders to ask for things?

ThomThom, ran this plugin on a file today - it actually took it a surprising long time to clean the file!

So I opened Outliner and find that there are 920 uniquecomponents in the file. It was obviously imported from OBJ file into SketchUp because each component is called "OBJ_29" etc.

So, if your Cleanup routine had an option "Convert All Unique Components to Groups" that would be great.

It's a fairly simple model, shouldn't really be more than a 1 or 2Mb file if it was build properly in SketchUp... but it's a 29Mb file!

I have tried selecting all the unique components and exploding them but SU appears to be chugging along quite some time on it, and I am unsure if it's completely frozen, or just working hard and ignoring me.

The absolute best for AutoCAD files would be one that said "Convert Identical Groups to be Identical Components"... wished for that many times when you have 50 columns that are all the same, but each is a unique "group" from ACAD.

Yes, to update your version of Twilight Render for Google SketchUp, simply download the new demo from the download section of http://twilightrender.com or from the Update V1.1 thread, and install over the top of your current version. If you already have a license it will NOT need to be re-requested. (except possibly with some 64bit systems)

Please note especially something most people didn't notice:

License deliveryhas changed slightly so that the email will hopefully not be blocked any more by some email admin systems.
Save rendered images as EXR = OpenEXR (.exr) the High Dynamic Range image type developed by Industrial Lights and Magic. It can be used for many things, but some users like it for use with programs such as Motiva SOAP"

@unknownuser said:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEXR)":3eobmx9c]OpenEXR is a high dynamic range imaging image file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), released under a free software license similar to the BSD license.

It is notable for supporting 16-bits-per-channel floating point values (half precision), with a sign bit, five bits of exponent, and a ten-bit mantissa. This allows a dynamic range of over thirty stops of exposure.

Both lossless and lossy compression of high dynamic range data is also supported.[1]

Most importantly the new View Setup Tool exclusive to Twilight really guarantees you will see exactly what you will render, and be able to pick a focal point any where in your scene, making setting up DOF extremely easy and fun.

Please let me know if I am just completely daft and missed this plugin somewhere... the "Skin.rb" tried to be something like I need, but appears to be out of development.

Maybe I'm an anomaly... but I have experienced the weirdness many times... and I need a more powerful or smarter 'make faces' tool... or maybe I'm looking for more than one tool here...

Scenario 1)
You see the hole in the model... could be a triangle, or rectangle shape, or maybe just 5 sides... but no matter how many times you try to patch the hole up by drawing over one or more of the edges the face REFUSES to appear.

So you draw a line that triangulates/divides the hole a bit and as least seemsto fill partof the hole.

Then you use the move alt-click-drag on one end of that line to drag it up to the end of the line and forceit to fillthe hole... voila.

But why wouldn't SU just fill the hole already?! Or am I doing something wrong? The make faces ruby command always fails on these types of holes...

Scenario 2)
I use the Boolean toolbar all the time... and when you use it it may tell you "The second object selected is not a valid solid, would you like to continue" something like that... how does it know?!

I wish it would say "Would you like Boolean Tool to attempt to patch the hole?" or "Would you like Boolean Tool to fix the solid for you?" so I could say YES PLEASE! Because sometimes I can't find WHERE the solid is going wrong (attached example using Fredo's Bend on 3D text combined with boolean operations)... or if I see the spot that maybe the problem, the weirdness mentioned above in Scenario 1 begins and it simply will not let me close the hole.

Scenario 3)
So this "Patch Hole" tool would be even better... It would auto-find and patch a hole for you, or it would allow you the option to select the edges around a hole yourself, and if they are not precisely co-planar, it would find the best way to close the hole and close it anyway... make the faces that fill the hole. The tool I know that comes closest to doing THAT for me without fail is the Soap Skin Bubble.

very sorry for the long-winded post.

BooleanWarningCantFindProblem.zip

to 'zoom in' use your Magnifying glass tool, and hold shift key while dragging your mouse, this 'activates' the field of view, change it from standard 35 to 55 or 70...

I do this almost automatically now without even thinking of it... I almost never use 35 for a production shot. I even prefer to work with 55-70... see more of your model at once.

David, please post this question at Twilight's forum, you will have your answer quite quickly I imagine.

fymoro! That is absolutely lovely! great work!
Any client should be thrilled with it!

exactly - I had a window with large fancy hinges and the rivets holding the hinges to the shutter... each hinge had 3 or 4 rivets, these were supposed to be identical components... but instead they somehow got sequentially numbered, yet they WERE components! Then the hinges were supposed to be identical components (3 on each shutter) - and THEY were somehow made to be sequentially numbered components! Then the Open Shutter was a component...

trying to clean up the mess took me about as much time as if I had just re-built the stinking window from scratch.

I probably had too much detail on the model anyway .... serves me right.

Have you ever seen the Glangoids?
That render style seems like it may inspire you...

sorry - can't recall who did these - but I saved them, and really admire the style.

hope someone can tell us original author?

@tig said:

@fletch said:

here's the 'final' where I used the logs. thanks again Miguel!

Had I know the intention you could have had these...[attachment=1:rtt0x3zm]<!-- ia1 -->logs.png<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:rtt0x3zm][attachment=0:rtt0x3zm]<!-- ia0 -->logs.skp<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:rtt0x3zm]

wow! 2 gifts in the same thread! Thanks a ton, TIG!

You can see the 'final' image in the House and Pool thread (using Miguel's logs, I didn't see your component here 'til just now.

@ecuadorian said:

I feel these questions are better asked in the TWL support forum.

agreed, but this question is in the "Extensions & Applications Discussions" forum... so...

several.
open the options dialog (gears), and reset the dialogs.

@danbig said:

OK -

Here's a specific occurrence of groups (not components) renaming themselves.

I had six groups, each containing several hundred instances of a component....

I selected all six groups, then placed them on a new layer. Upon reassigning a layer for all six groups, the names of all six groups were reset to "Group". ...

glad I'm not the only one... but you didn't mention - did the hundreds of components also get renamed to be unique individual components and therefore you have hundreds and hundreds of "unique yet identical" components in your file now?

being from places where no one generally ever had a pool, I did not have opportunity to render them.
I have found they are surprisingly simple and fun.

As tourism is Croatia's major industry, they are still building like crazy here despite the 'hard times'.

I simply love the simplicity and elegance of modeling in SketchUp.





You can read further and see more rendered images of the project here.

I am working on roof tiles, and think it's best to build one as a component, and distribute that on the roof. This method shown here is ok for distant roofs, but not for close-ups.

Solo's palm model - renders splendidly...

existing building in progress:

je m'excuse d'avance que j'ai pas lu tous ce qui est ecrit la dessus... je veut seulement demand sinon vous avez besoin que construire le bateau en SketchUp sois exact, comme pour le construire, ou c'est seulement pour s'amuser quoi - et pour avoir qqc qui se ressemble bien au bateau...

si c'est la deuxieme raison... j'aurais utiliser Subdivide and smooth ou Soap Skin Bubble....

If I can paste a path into the web dialog I'm very happy.

The typical computer screen is wider than it is tall... so it would be good if the dialog were to work that way... I always end up having to scroll down and it's frustrating when the junk graphics card is already struggling just to show some shadows and hi-res textures.

thanks for being willing to look into this one again... can't wait to see the update!

I can not more HIGHLY recommend people buy this one... the pro version is simply killer already... saves hours.

regarding CAD output - I think I requested that too

Smashing work, Miguel!

thanks for the laugh guys!
bare bear... elaphino.. oh my...

Oli... if client likes them/understands them - it's all that matters - sketch it on a bar napkin!

but with these - they're missing some glass reflections... IMHO. suppose you didn't want them to distract from the views inside?

eye candy for architects... I like it a lot!

...but I'm afraid my clients would be confused by it.