End of the World? According to the Mayan calender December 21st 2012. Four days before Christmas! So no presents to buy then.

Interesting. Thanks very much everyone for the explanation, and thanks dsarchs for the link, I`ll have a good read of that later.

I believe degenerate quads are quads made up of two triangles, as opposed to a normal four sided one.

I have watched numerous Sketchup tutorials where there are triangles used in the mesh quite regularly to achieve the desired shape for the face and it seems quite normal to do so. However I recently downloaded Blender 2.5 and in those tutorials triangles are considered to be a big no no. Modellers go to great lengths to avoid them, making sure that there are four sides to the sections in the mesh instead.
As they are both 3D modelling programs and both use meshes I would have thought the same system would be best for both. Which really is best and why do you think one might be preferred above the other?

I think youll find it was only 1 day because he just stole 2 t-shirts. While Im not condoning it, any theft is wrong, its not as if he set buildings on fire or anything. The more serious offences are being referred to the Royal Court because the judges in the civil courts just dont have the power to hand out strong enough sentences.
What they should be doing,though, is contacting the parents of these young thugs and make them responsible for for the actions of their kids and fining them as well. What the hell are they doing letting kids as young as 7 roam the streets at night anyway? Outrageous.

This is superb!

I wondered the same thing as slimdog when I saw this though. Where would the gears meet and what could be powering it? ( just a thought)

Downloaded Blender 2.58 about a week ago. I think the new UI has made such a difference. I tried the previous version several times but just could not get on with it but this new one is so much easier to use. Well, easier in that it has a more user friendly interface but the learning curve is still pretty steep though. At least I managed to create an image with this one - which is more than I managed before.Very basic but a start.

Here is my go at making some chrome balls using SU8+Shaderlight. As I only have the free version of Shaderlight and am restricted to 640x480 size renders I decided to just render the balls and the glass base, then add the background in Paint.Net .

No good to me - I use £`s .

I came across an excellent piece of software the other day called Clipboard Master by Jumping Bytes. What it does is vastly extend the capabilities of the Windows clipboard. Using this you can copy more than one file at a time, unlike the Windows default. When you install it you can use the default hotkey setting or use or own. I have used Ctrl-B (B for board makes it easier to remember). There are numerous settings to get it working just as you would like. I think it`s a great addition to any PC.
Here is the link for anyone who is interested - http://www.jumpingbytes.com/en/clipboard-master/manual/mainwindow.html

My FF4 is great. Hasnt crashed once since I installed it. Maybe you should try re-installing it. I did try Chrome as well but it suddenly just stopped updating itself and I could not get it to work properly so I had to get rid of it. I always preferred FF anyway. As far as speed is concerned the difference between them is hardly noticeable now. Its more down personal preferences and functionality.

And you can even afford to buy SU8 Pro!

Compared to some of the others mine is positively barren. But I very much doubt I would need or use all of those plug ins anyway.

Does that mean there should also be an update to the free version on the way as well?

Sorted it. I downloaded LibFredo6 3.7b but forgot to download the actual plug in! Sorry.

Downloaded and installed the latest version but it does not show up in SU. I copied both the LIBFREDO6_Dir_37 folder and the LibFredo6.rb into the plug ins folder as shown but it just won`t show. I thought the .rb file might need unblocking - which I did. But still no joy. I already have the Fredoscale plug in which works fine.
Any ideas?

I use Win7 Home Premium 64bit with SU8.

All I will say is that after watching that video - I was stunned. Never realized the US was in such a pickle.

Great plug in.Thanks.

Ive assigned G' as a shortcut to it so I don`t have to keep going to the Edit menu.

Finally finished. Ive deleted the old one and uploaded the new, improved, version to the 3DWarehouse. Ive changed the link posted earlier so it should take you straight to the new one.

Many thanks to Dave for the advice and to Luca for his excellent plans.

Dave the only reason the images are fairly small is that I use Shaderlight to render them but unfortunately the trial period finished some time ago so I am restricted to 640x480 size renders and I cant really afford to upgrade to the full version . I have tried Kerkythea which is free but could not get on with it. Ive downloaded it twice now but both times I end up uninstalling it. I think Shaderlight is OK for my needs at the moment though.

As for sharing the model, I`m not sure how to upload it here but you can get it from my SU Warehouse page along with others I have built -

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=fab515c13a72df3fc0ef0e4ab2c6bcbb

Thanks Boofredlay. Lets just say I found one of those good end grain pieces Dave was talking about.

I`m sure someone will invent one just for you!

I just figured that nobody would be interested in the inside where the parts are hidden. I`ll get them sorted.
And thanks for the tip on the nesting.

Edit - Ive had that driver prob twice more while trying to adjust the textures. Its the rotating part that seems to cause the problems. Just moving them around is fine.Means having to start all over though.