@bungo198 said:

I still hope to return to the tool at some point .

And when you do, post whatever it is you're playing with so that we will have something tangible (in a virtual sort of way ) to work and help you with.

Unbelievable work!
You're either a genius or a genie.
I haven't decided

Solo! Thanks!
This is exactly what I need right now.
I was asked to design a blind for the eco-garden at my young sons school so that they could do some bird watching.
This will certainly enhance the model.
Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful model, Eric.
It's definately going in my 'Favourites' folder.
Thanks for sharing.

They have daughters, no sons.

I've posted a bathroom unit I'm making at the woodworkers sub-forum.
I hope it comes in handy.

Girls bathroom unit.skp

There's also a simillar unit for the parents bathroom.
Parents bathroom unit.skp

Here's a bathroom unit that might come in handy. The poly count is somewhat high because it's modeled so that the carpenter can see each and any part and the construction method.

Girls bathroom unit.skp

Remus, I also prefer the first and second options. I'm not too worried about damage seeing as no-one will be touching these bottles. They're just for show.

Ross, I'd love to be able to support the bottles on angled pegs but the Burgundy back-board is already in place and I don't like the idea of drilling at an angle with a hand drill at the site.

This is what the display wall would look like with the different supports.

I'm just finishing up a restaurant and the client asked me to come up with an idea for a different sort of wine rack. It's more for show than anything else as most of the wines are in special coolers. He wants something minimalistic. The whole restaurant is in Oak stained to a dark Wenge color with Burgundy colored MDF.
Here are a few ideas I came up with.
I'd love to hear what you guys think and see any other ideas you may have.

A grocer notices a woman rummaging about in the potatoes and asks what she is doing.
" I'm looking for broccoli" she says.
"I'm sorry" says the grocer, "there's no broccoli today".
"Oh, I see." says the woman and moves to another section.
A few minutes later the grocer sees her digging through the turnips.
" Can I help you?" he asks.
" I'm looking for broccoli" she says.
"I'm sorry" says the grocer, "there's no broccoli today".
"Oh, I see." says the woman and moves to another section.
A few minutes later the grocer sees her digging through the lemons.
" Can I help you?" he asks.
" I'm looking for broccoli" she says.
"I'm sorry" says the grocer, "there's no broccoli today".
"Oh, I see." says the woman and moves to another section.
A few minutes later the grocer sees her digging through the cabbages.
" Lady, what are you doing!?" he asks realy pissed off by now.
" I'm looking for broccoli" she says.
"OK look, let me try to explain this to you" he says, "Where is the 'toe' in potatoe?"
"At the end" she says.
"Right! and where is the 'cu' in cucumber?" he asks.
"In the beggining" she says.
"Right again!" he says. "Now, where is the f#ck in broccoli?" he asks.
She thinks for a moment and says "There is no f#ck in broccoli"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" he shouts. "There is no f#ckin broccoli!!"

Paul, please convey my very best wishes and congratulations to your wife. I'm sure the honor to be bestowed upon her is richly deserved.

And, of course, if you press 'shift' you can lock the protractor on any plane you want.
Very handy!

I was recently asked to fabricate an exhibition booth for a company that deals in water treatment using natural self sustaining mini eco-systems through the use of special water plants and microbes. The company that was supposed to build the booth backed out in the last minute and I was called in S.O.S.
Boy! Talk about pressure!
I had to come up with the concept, do the shop drawings and get it built in 5 days!
It came out quite nice I think.

I thought I'd illustrate the point about placement.
I made a simple table and placed chairs next to it.
In the one picture I placed the chairs next to the table in a precise almost mechanical manner. Doesn't look very real, does it.
In the second picture I moved the chairs as though each were moved by a different person. Looks better already.
In picture three I added a small piece of cloth and a bowl of fruit.
Notice that the cloth isn't smack in the middle of the table and parallel to it's edges. Looking even better.
So you see, where and how you place objects has a great deal to do with how real your model looks.

@unknownuser said:

Please don't mind the mess

My grandmother always used to say: "A house has to be clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be comfortable"
I agree with the comment on details. We don't live in a blue-print. We live with the chairs un-evenly spaced around the table on which the kids left a glass half full of orange juice because they had to run out and the door was left slightly open. So you see, details isn't just a question of components. It's also a question of placement.

Shana Tova basicaly means "Happy New Year" in Hebrew and since the Jewish new year is this Wednesday (here in Israel), I thought I'd convey to all the Jewish members here my wishes for a fruitful and healthy year. As long as you've got that covered there realy isn't much more you need.

And obviousely I wish the same to all members regardless of religion, race or creed. Just consider this an early (or overdue) greeting.

Peace to you all,
Gidon

Happy birthday guys!

Geoff hi,
If you want to know how to start off your model just ask your self: "How would I draw it with a pencil and paper?"
If you want to draw one of the legs you'd draw a rectangle and the lines going up and another rectangle at the top, right?
Well, that's how you draw it in SketchUp. You just have to learn what the icon for the pencil tool is and the icon for the rectangle is etc.
Actualy, its more of a cross between drawing with a pencil and playing with clay. You draw the rectangle and then use the push/pull tool and the drawing becomes a piece of clay that you can stretch to any length you want.
Playing with clay is fun, right?
So is modeling with SketchUp!

At the risk of letting this discussion become something like a crash course in Jewish tradition, I think I should add a kind of foot-note to Alans post.

@unknownuser said:

After all, you cannot be sealed in the Book of Life with a major "tsimmes" hanging over your head, can you?

"Tsimmes" is thinly sliced carrots cooked with raisins and served rather sweet. Why is having to carry an irksome debt called "a tsimmes over your head" ? Go figure. It's probably a Yiddish thing.

@unknownuser said:

Tisha b"av (the 9th Day of the Month of Av, is another major fast day and if you have the time, take a read of the events that day remembers, "Nightmare on Elm Street" is kid stuff

It was on the 9th day of the month of Av in the Jewish calender that the First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. A Second Temple was eventualy built but it too was destroyed, and also on the 9th day of the month of Av. With the destruction of the Second Temple the Jews were exiled from the Land of Israel and were systematically scattered throughout the diaspora. The destruction of the Temple and the subsequent Diaspora is therefore understandably regarded as great tragedy by observant Jews.
Personaly I think it's one of the best things that ever happened to the Jews as a people. The exile became a focal point, an incredibly powerful adhesive ellement in the Jewish psyche. It forced the Jewish people to hold on to their collective identity with a fanaticism that would not have endured had they not been exiled. The Jews kept themselves apart and isolated themselves from the local population just as vehemently as they were shunned by the native cultures. The IDEA of the Land of Israel and Jerusalem became more powerful than the actual land and city. Jerusalem and Zion were idealised and described in poems and song and prayer as beautiful and bountiful, with milk and honey flowing freely, with the most lucious and succulent friuts growing in abundance etc. The real Jerusalem was never like that. The land was mostly arid. But ideas are not subject to drought or municiple missmanegement. The cohesive power of an idealised home-sickness and a ritualised yearning for a miraculous deliverence back to the sacred ancestral Land cannot be under-estimated. Had it not been for the Diaspora, I doubt the Jewish people and culture would have survived as the unique ethnic entity we are today. The political and social squabbling we see today in the independant State of Israel is a case in point. The single greatest cohesive factor in modern day Israel is not our history or religion or language but the thraet of an anihilating war. In other words, it is an external influence that is keeping us together more than some internal strength.
If anyone has any doubt as to the effectiveness of exile as a bonding and empowering agent, one simply has to read some Palestinian poetry. The descriptions of various places left behind when the Palestinians fled during the war of Independance are as romantic and removed from reality as those that appear in Jewish Diaspora writings. The Palestinian struggle in that respect **(and in that respect only!)**is almost identical to that of the Zionist struggle for independace before 1948.
Personally, I think the 9th of Av should be cellebrated rather than mourned. The Diaspora did us more good than most Jews are willing to admit.