As I sit here waiting for SU to finish it's current operation, I've had time to think about signing on and posting a wish... I was wishing it would take advantage of 64bit OS... How hard can that be? It's really really difficult to sit here and watch one core bang away while the other 15 just sit there idle... * sigh *

onzki... So what did you end up getting?

Hello-

Has anyone had any issues with SU's tool menus not working, they show up blank or only parts show up? My guess it's a flash issue as I ran into this when trying to install other software. The install window popped up but was blank. I Googled it and found that it was an issue with flash. I had to go into all of they installers folders and change the .dll file names- I think it was something like that... I've run into this with sketchyphysics, 1001bit tools, Thea...

I'm running XP with SU8.

That's a great idea Jim. I've got tons of plugins I know I don't use, ones that I just thought were interesting and just put them in my folder when I downloaded ones I knew I really wanted. That's the kind file management which leads to 2000 files...

Downloaded the model- change the view a little, changed the field of view to 40ish deg. Then brought the picture in as a new photo match- changed the sun angle a little to highlight the structure (which somehow got changed from how I wanted it...) Added a slab. Exported an image, took it to photoshop where with a few clicks of the clone stamp to add some blades of grass to blend the slab into the ground- cropped the image, done. A little over 10 minutes total.

I didn't want to post this in the plug-ins thread although it's all about plug-ins as to not clog it with advice for plug-in help.

My first issue: For years, pretty much starting with the release of SUv8 I've willy nilly added plug-ins only going and adding and removing them for updates and run errors. Doing this now has SU starting up very slowly and navigating my plug-ins has become, well tedious to say the least. Does anyone have a shortcut way to help clean up plug-ins or is the only solution is the good old fashion make a list approach? I just looked at the properties of my plugins folder- (gasp) 2,500 files, 113 folders...

The second part of this post is dealing with a recent Adobe Flash update. It seems that with one of the latest Flash updates (I'm still using Windows xp) It reset the access values so that Flash doesn't have permission to run in some instances. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly as I'm nobish to the ways of Flash and computers in general. An example of what's going on; after installing the latest version of "tt_cleanup.rb" the dialogue window remains blank. 1001bit tools does something similar as well. Has anyone else had issues like this?

Thanks for any advice in advance-

If only I had that kind of budget...

I'd seriously look at this company- for what you've got to spend, you can afford one of their machines. Not long ago I was just 'window shopping' on the boxx site and the chat window popped up- I talked to a real person who knew all about the in's and outs of buying a machine dedicated for 2d / 3d modeling and rendering. I found them to be very helpful and not pushy at all. I asked them, as I can't afford a new machine, if they sold boxx refurbished systems... His reply was, no, not really. No one ever gets rid of them once they have them...

http://www.boxxtech.com/products/RenderBOXX/rendering_Series.asp

I'd say spend the money on the processing power first, then video card and memory last, as it's the cheapest to upgrade. Solid state hard drives are the future and they are really nice. Fast start up (blink of an eye fast) and fast autosaves, I've been fine with 500gb hard drives on my machines (with back-up hard drives of course) I'd personally stick nVIDIA video cards only. Any ATI card I've ever used or had gave me fits.

I'm still up in the air about i-cores vs xeon multi cores- I've heard varying things about which is better for what use. I know I get angry when SU slows up on me because it only uses one thread of my 8...

Always remember to set aside money for displays as well- What's the point of having a $1800 video card if you're viewing it threw a 14" craptacular monitor. Id say something like Dells 2408WFP 24-inch (1920x1200 resolution) x TWO would be a minimum. Any good 30" monitor is going to be at least $500...

Good luck and let us know what you get.

I just saw this-
Dell Refurbished UltraSharp 2408WFP 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor - for $399 I love mine...

"Nudge" hmmmm... I'm curious how this ruby slipped by me. Thanks for the tip.

Yes- I know exactly what you're talking about. You see someone like Solo and you just want to quit- but actually I think it makes you try harder. PLUS, one thing about this forum, is that if you ask for help you'll usually get more help than you need. We all make each other better by sharing...

I think you might be too hard on yourself. I took another look a one of your images. I think you'd be surprised just how nicely those models would render. I would suggest downloading Kerkythea and a few of the car specific materials from the forum- as it's free and has a great forum like the one here at SketchUcation.

Ah- summer in Michigan... You have to enjoy it while you can.

hellnbak-

Well you obviously know how to model... The hidden line drawings show it. It's nice to see those drawings as it gives so much information of the construction. As far as asking about the time- I was just curious. I often work the same way and have no idea how many hours I have in on some projects (which isn't good if you need to bill for them...)

As for the sculpting tools- A few of them might help you with some of the complex geometry. But then again you seem to be doing quite well with out them.

Please forgive me if I'm pointing out the obvious with some of these links.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=250026 <--- This sis the dizzying list of all the current plug-ins.

Fredo6 has many plug-ins I don't know what I would do without...

• http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=11212 <--- Amazing tool set
• http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=20485 <--- Huge time saver
• http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=6708 <--- Magic haha...

thomthom again has many plug-ins I can't live without.

I think the biggest sculpting tool to date is Artisan by Whaat. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=34868 I don't have it yet but it seems like it's worth the money. I'm so thankful for all of the developers of the tools I use. I can't imagine what I would do if they were taken away. Here's an example of what can be done with Artisan in the hands of one of them most skilled modelers I know- solo http://www.solos-art.com/for-fun/

Oh- and for the renderings, I bet there are quite a few people who's mouths are already watering wanting to get their hands on those models so they can render them. Maybe I, or someone can post a link to a download in the Kerkythea and Thea forums and we can form an thread just of your car renderings?

Hope this helps some.

Bravo! Nice to see someone taking the time a care like this. I've got quite a big soft spot for cows... Great work.

Wow- those look great. The texturing looks really well done as well. I never get tired of looking at those classic cars. I guess you've seen some of the sculpting tools plug-ins?

I'm curious how many hours you have in those?

Are we going to see them rendered?

I'm looking forward to seeing future progress.

"30th at 10pm so she has about 13 hours in.." errr- WHAT? No way? You must model like a mad man... I would love to see a time laps video of that- oh wait... you wouldn't really need to speed it up!

That's quite amazing really- I know when you start modeling, you go from nothing to something quite quickly- Then the process starts to slow down as you add the details that might not be as noticeable. There are a few places you can see the polys, but you have to be looking for them. You think you could post a few shots with the polys turned on? Like Solo does here- http://solosplace.com/designs.aspx

Great work... I'm very envious of your modeling and texturing skills.

"Plugin downloaded 12179 times" I just wanted to say thank you for all of your work. You and others here have made SU such a great tool.

Seems like a fantastic tool, although I can't get it to work- "Can`t click "Next point". Any tool." Same as maxosmedia. I'm using windows XP with SU v7 and reloaded it as TIG suggested. I was wondering if there is conflict with another plug-in? Just a guess as I have no experience writing ruby.

haha... Thank you Gaieus-

I guess we will just have to wait... I guess it's worth downloading some animation capture plugins now and learn them? Does anyone know how the camera paths will be exported? Scene to scene as before or will it incorporate some sort of camera capture method like "Camera Recorder" http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=23517&p=199772&hilit=animation+path#p199772 or "Sketchup Floating Camera" http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=35140&p=309857&hilit=animation+path#p309857

Oh well... I guess I know the answer- Wait and see. * sigh *

Thank you! I don't think I've seen the Eiffel Base Chair Modeled before... It's one of my favorites.

Those sails are looking pretty good. I found this piece of software (I think it was this one...) years ago before there were plugins like curviloft. I messed around with it some and made some very sexy shapes and at that time, SUv4 or 5 was slow importing very high poly .dxf's.

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(www.sailcut.com)

@gaieus said:

Currently Thea can already do this "follow object" camera movement.

Hmmm... This is something I don't understand- Why would you create path with a 'ghost' object, then copy the path and paste it to a camera? Why wouldn't you just use the camera as a the 'ghost' object?

I guess what I really mean to say here is that I wish you could get a Thea camera to follow an imported or a editable spline path and be able to lock the camera on a selectable target... It's hard with all of the amazing advances with SU with all of it's amazing plugins and all of the partner software, that SU isn't 3dmax, Cinema 4d...

It's questions like this I wish I knew more about programing and I would know that you just can't do that yet...

Gaieus, Thank you for your response. I don't know how Tomasz (and many many others) have any time to do anything. I find it difficult to check up on posts here, work, eat, brush my teeth and keep myself relatively clean. Thank you guys for all the knowledge you help pass along.

I hope I'm not totally off base with this question as I'm not familiar with Ruby, but when I saw this plugin- Floating Camera http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=35140 I thought my question might be applicable here. There are quite a few really interesting animation plugins for SU now. I'm overwhelmed with the advances and look forward to seeing how far some of these plugins can go. Mods- please feel free to move this post if need be.

I've been trying to learn how to set up camera movements in Thea. The tools and well the whole program is constantly being updated and the camera movement tools are very basic at this point. I've looked up how to set up camera movements in 3Dmax and you can attach a camera to an object, like an ellipse, and have the camera follow that object as a path as well as lock the camera to a specific target object and as the camera moves along the path the camera stays locked on the selected target object.

The current version of SU2TH exports scenes to cameras but that's as far as it goes. I was thinking that since the 3dmax export to Thea supports camera movement that there might be away to do the same with Ruby in SU? I know SU and 3dmax are apples to oranges...

After going on and on... My question is- Would it be possible with a plugin like Floating Camera to record node points which could be linked as a camera path which could then be exported to Thea or other software?

Thank you guys in advance and I hope I'm not a complete nob asking this question.

Wow- Thank you thomthom- I've been scratching my head about this one. This has happened to me before a few years back when I think it was when they released a new beta version of SU... I wouldn't have ever thought that it would be a 64x bit incompatibility issue. One of the first things I did on my new machine was to go and turn off all of the fancy shading, animation and transparency windows thinks it needs to look like MAC (woops did I just type that out loud?!?) I did notice that I couldn't get the icons to show a preview and I thought that was the logical place to look. Sure enough you can tell Windows Vista and 7 to turn off icons. When that didn't work I gave up and came here... Thanks thomthom- SU wouldn't be the same with out you...

So when are the SU people over at Google going to come out with a 64x version of SU? Seems way way behind the curve...

On another note- you seem to be so good at solving problems... I'm having trouble with my girlfriend, she seems to think I .....

Thanks again.

Aa

EDIT- JULY 5

Ok- I downloaded mysticthumbs, took it home, loaded it and it worked great. What I did notice is a huge performance slowdown with all my other software. Everything seemed to be running great before I loaded and after I uninstalled MysticThumbs so this leads me think this was the culprit. Anyone else have similar issues? I'm running vista 64bit.