Thanks for the reply. I've commented below.

@jql said:

Pretty generic questions here...

Best render engine - Thea! But for what quality? maybe something like Lumion suits you well it's faster to get some nice videos, but it costs as much as your new rig and it won't achieve absolute photorealism. Have you considered Blender? - Luckily I don't have to worry about photorealism too much, that's why a "one click" render engine like Podium has been ok so far. Also, my work tends to be more focussed on getting a lot done rather than perfecting one image - RenderIn has caught my eye in this regard.

Post processing for still images - might be Photoshop... just not Elements, then you could try Gimp that it's free and, in many aspects much better than that or even on some functional aspects it's even better than Photoshop (though PS is king!) - Gimp is definitely where I will be heading for PP. PSE just came pre-loaded on my current laptop

Oh wise and learned folk of the forum, I seek thy counsel:

I've reached the point where my 6GB Dell laptop running SU8 Pro, SU Podium, Podium Walker & Photoshop Elements 9 just isn't really performing adequately. I am willing to invest £2-3k in something that I hope to get 3years minimum out of, but I'm terrified of throwing my money at the wrong thing. I work from home and site so I need to have a device that can go with me and my models are always commercial building interiors and exteriors, so a good library of textures/models is always good. SU Podium served its purpose in the past, but I think it's rather dated now, plus I would like to use render software that previews renders rather than wait half an hour for a render that has failed for some reason or other. Anyway, if you would be so kind as to advise on the criteria below, I would be overjoyed.

Best Mobile Workstation (small details will mean a lot to me here as I've no clue which graphics card etc to get)-
Best Render Engine (must include ability to make video) -
Best post processing software -

I'm posting it in the Sketchup forum as everything hinges on it. Without Sketchup then the other software is useless. I'm also acutely aware of various threads in a similar vein to this, but I'm a new one man business and I am really hoping for some customised advice as I don't know where else to turn to.

Thank you.

Gah! I thought I was onto a winner when I read this post, but alas it wasn't to be. I've been supplied with hundreds of .sat files that would help me out enormously if I could get them into SU. I need two of them for the project I'm working on today, but as I didn't create the .sat files I can't control the settings of them, and I assume that is what is preventing me from importing them into Draftsight.

I don't suppose there are any other suggestions are there?

Thank you chaps.

@tig said:

The 'Intersect' tool is limited by SketchUp inbuilt tolerances, so if the curved surface is very very faceted, and it could result in new edges <~1mm, then some might be missed out... [your screen-grab did not have hidden-geometry 'on']

The intersection geometry appears in the current context, so if you are editing an object when you do the intersect the cut lines appear in that context...

I did alter the number of facets from 12 to 48 for the curve, so maybe that's it, but 48 doesn't seem too much of a request for something that size... or does it?

@cotty said:

You should not explode the object before the intersection.

I tried it before exploding and after exploding (basically every possible combination of grouping, one item grouped, all exploded etc)

The thing is though, you can see the outline part way up the 3D shape where the intersect must have occurred, but the face/plane remains unaffected.

I'm in a mega rush with this job as I've been given it at extremely short notice, so I've botched a fix by manually tracing round the 3D shape, which has worked.

Dave R, I'm afraid I've saved the botched version now so I don't have the faulty one to upload to satisfy your curiosity thanks for the offer though.

I can't believe that I'm actually having to ask this, but I'm in a real pickle here as I can't get a 3D curved object to intersect with a plane! I've grouped, exploded, intersected the 3D object, intersected the plane. I've attached an xray view which shows the line around the 3D shape where the intersect appears to have taken place, but when I select the plane it also selects the segment within the 3D shape.

You're looking down on a ground floor ceiling that I have just begun and the shape is a cut out in the ceiling allowing light in from the 1st floor glass roof, so now you know why it's important that I sort this out

This is stuff I've done a millions times before and I don't know why it won't work.

Thanks Mitcorb, you're correct, my issue is more to do with how to show the water rather than the terrain through which it runs. As it is a 'brook' and not a 'stream', the water trickles unevenly over rocks etc and drops into pools in some places along the way and I'm not sure how I should attempt to show it.

PS: The waterfall you mentioned sounds interesting, I'll try to look for it.

Wow! I've actually managed to catch you guys out for once. No worries, I'm sure I'll come up with something ... awful

Hello chaps. Please could you advise me on the best way to draw a natural stream please? I'm planning to design a garden that has a brook running through it and my main problem is showing water running through it in some manner that doesn'tlook too awful. Once ccompleted I'll render using Podium, so I don't know whether that might gave a bearing on your preferred method.

Thank you once again.

Yay! Positive feedback from the big boys! Makes a pleasant change to being told off for "plane clipping" and such like

It took me a while to figure out what on Earth i was doing, but i eventually generated something kind of like i envisaged. There's a way to go I reckon, but I've taken the first tentative steps

@dave r said:

Unfortunately you won't be able to get that sort of thing with styles in SketchUp. That's going to require some post processing.

One easy way to get the watercolor feel to the drawing is to run it through Fotosketcher's Watercolor filter. I do this sort of thing once in awhile. I make separate exports of the edges and the faces so I can manipulated the colors and add texture without impacting the edges. I then overlay the lines in an image editor. I can show examples if you're interested.

Sounds Great Dave (though maybe a tad complex for lickle ol' me )

I've just found some great Styles provided by Lidelin/Lin, but I'm interested in your suggestion too Dave.

I can't believe I'm only just finding out about these styles being freely available! I also can't believe I've never heard of Fotosketcher before today either!! What other fantastic secrets have you all got hidden?

Thanks chaps, I shall have a look now.

PS: by "hints of colour" I mean something along the lines of a watercolour painting where the colour within the enclosed surface is very imprecise and maybe doesn't go to the edges, or maybe even goes beyond - though I doubt the latter is possible. The main SU "watercolour" isn't really what I'm after, so the search begins!

Hello again.

I was wondering if you could let me know of any other places that I might be able to download some additional "styles" from other than http://sketchucation.com/shop/styles ?

I'm after a kind of 'arty' style with hints of colour ideally, something that would be nice for gardens etc.

Thanks in advance.

G

... ie. using some software as a go-between, maybe AutoCAD for example? I've a pal who bought Vectorworks years ago but then never bothered learning how to use it properly. She presently sends me a screen grab of the extremely basic plans that she draws up using Vectorworks and I start from scratch drawing it again in SU. It seems a terribly long-winded way of doing things so I'm VERY open to suggestions.

@box said:

In the shadows dialog box, un tic Display on ground.

Perfect, thank you.

@box said:

It looks like your model is placed below the ground plane.

You're correct and this is intentional due to excavation work, but why does it have this effect when the "Google Earth Snapshot" layer is turned off? What can I do to fix it other than make the garden higher than it will actually be?

This problem is a new one on me. If you look at the attached image you'll see that I have two floating "footprint" shadows - one on the bbq and one leading to the door. What have I done wrong to cause this to happen?

Thanks as always,

G

@gaieus said:

No worries - I have presentation bundle (on one of my broken hard drives ) so I remembered.

Good plugin bundle, too, although nowadays I do not do much animation inside native SU.

Thanks as always chaps. Gaieus, what do you use as an alternative to animating in SU?