Hello again.

I suspect that my request is not currently possible, but I'll make it anyway because you lot are always full of surprises.

I know how to set the transition and pause timings in animations presently, but it would be brilliant if there was a way to have a custom setting for particular scenes (ie, scenes with lots of information that might require a 5 second pause, whereas the other scenes would usually have a pause time of 0 seconds). What would be the best way to achieve this?

NB: All I can think of is to use screen capture software and manually pause the animation at the relevant time - but this seems a bit haphazard

Thank you Cotty

Normally I like to learn by 'trial and error' (in reality this ends up being 'error and error' more often than not), but I need to learn how to use the features and functions of the sandbox efficiently asap. Can one of you point me in the right direction please?

@tig said:

'Flattery' works on PC [and probably MAC].
Are you extracting/installing it properly ?
It is an Extension and needs activating etc ?

Also look at:-
Jim's simple "jf_UnfoldTool.rb" http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-unfoldrb.html
and MattC's "AutoUnfold.rb" http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&p=342121#p342110
There's also the similar "unfoldtool.rb" by anon, that I have but can't remember where from...

The error was something to do with "encryption", I just reinstalled it, clicked "OK" a bunch of times and it seems to be fine

Thanks for replying as I'd probably have given up on it otherwise.

Hello everyone.

I'm hunting for a plugin that will unfold sheet metal models. I've just downloaded one called "flattery" after reading good things about it online, but I'm not sure if it only works on Macs as I get errors as soon as I try to extract it. Please can you suggest a good alternative?

Thank you.

@mitcorb said:

You may be aware that another Trimble owned company/software is Tekla Structures, which I think is a BIM application. Perhaps Trimble plans to integrate the Sketchup modeling process into this application in some way?

I was not aware of that, but you can certain that I soon will be much more familiar with it

@gaieus said:

@grizzler said:

I typed "BIM" into the search bar and nothing came up...

Unfortunately the forum search engine does not "react" to anything that is 3 or less characters long.

I know it sucks. This is how the software is programmed however so we cannot do too much about it.

You needn't worry about that restriction Gaieus, as the rest of this forum is top notch!

I typed "BIM" into the search bar and nothing came up, so I just wanted to ask whether anything is being done to address BIM in SU? I would imagine that it would be a big change if it was to be integrated and therefore a new SU version rather than a series of Rubys to bridge gaps bit by bit - but then again, I'm not sure if Trimble want to take SU down that path at all.

@jim said:

Have you tried to delete the entire SketchUp Registry tree? You seem to have done everything else...

Normally I would not recommend messing with the Registry, but you don't seem to have much to lose at this point.

Doing this will nuke all your SketchUp preferences: shortcuts, toolbars, file locations, etc EVERY setting. Everything, as if you have installed SketchUp for the first time. You'll have to decide if it's worth the effort to start from scratch.

Make sure to close SU first, then open a command prompt and type:

reg delete HKCU\Software\Google\SketchUp8

You could backup your shortcuts first, though.

That would be horrific to have to do that after how long it has taken me to find my feet and get things how I like them. Luckily I loaded the drawing to my old laptop where there are far fewer tweaks made to the original program, and the problem was exactly the same. I tried my two most recent drawings, but as I get a bit more skilled with each piece of work the size of the file becomes larger, and these 2 largest drawings both had this issue. I tried an older, smaller drawing and it was fine.

I'm not sure how to reduce the drawings down any further, they are 19500KB and 40000KB - is this too large?

I am unable to geolocate at all without it crashing (I've never needed to do this before so it hasn't been a problem until now)

Edit 6 feb: this isn't funny now, I've updated, rebooted, cleaned, defragged and scanned with every bit of software I've got - and it still won't let me do it... Bug splat every single time

@unknownuser said:

@grizzler said:

I've just read through the entire thread and I just wanted to say thanks for all the info'. This kind of stuff is invaluable to us Newbies who are only just gtting to grips with Push/Pull .

There seem to be 2 front runners in the "Ease Of Use" category, Podium and Maxwell. I'd be interested to see which of these two most of you think is actually the easiest to use (not necessarily the best at rendering, but simple for someone with my very limited skills to use)

keep in mind grizz that this thread is nearing 5 years old.. while much of the info still applies today.. some of it doesn't..

NNOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!

I've just read through the entire thread and I just wanted to say thanks for all the info'. This kind of stuff is invaluable to us Newbies who are only just gtting to grips with Push/Pull .

There seem to be 2 front runners in the "Ease Of Use" category, Podium and Maxwell. I'd be interested to see which of these two most of you think is actually the easiest to use (not necessarily the best at rendering, but simple for someone with my very limited skills to use)

@cattz said:

Can't help with the problem but the screencast works fine for me on IE7 and Chrome.

Thanks for taking the time to let me know

@dave r said:

I guess I'm "nobody." Maybe others can see it. I do have Java but evidently it still wasn't happy.

Yes, checking for and getting rid of extraneous geometry should help but if the entire model is at some distance from the origin you may still get the clipping. It also seems to be more likely to appear in Parallel Projection which you didn't say anything about.

If you wanted you could send me the SKP file via PM and I'll take a look to see what's going on.

I've just selected everything and copy/pasted into a new file and it seems OK now. I still don't know what I'd done wrong, but thanks for the offer of help.

@dave r said:

I can't get your video to run. Why don't you put it on YouTube or something?

It sounds to me as if you are running into the clipping plane issue. Are you working in Parallel Projection? Is your model or part of it at some long distance from the origin? These are common reasons for the clipping plane to rear its ugly head.

I suspected that it might be that after I ran into a similar thing when I first started on here. I made sure I could view all hidden geometry and used the Zoom Extent so I could delete any extraneous bits and pieces, so I should be OK for that shouldn't I?

PS: Thanks for letting me know that you couldn't view the vid. I was planning to use Screencast-o-matic all the time for work, but if nobody can view it then what's the point? I know it requires Java, but I assume you have that.

Hello again kind forum folk, I hope you're celebrations are going well.

Right, to business. Can you tell me what feature I've accidentally activated that is stopping me moving my drawing in all axes without it disappearing before my eyes please? Walls that I want to work on are vanishing and even when I select the preset "front" or "side" view and use the "Zoom extents", I get absolutely nothing.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/clltoZViVb

@rich o brien said:

I use Screenr for anything under 5 mins

That is perfect, so much better than Jing. Thank you.

PS: Pilou, I'm sure yours is very good too so Merci.

EDIT: 1 hour later and despite four attempts to "publish" my short clip, Screenr has failed every time. Now on to attempt number 5

Once again I'm after some advice if I may.

The only FREE screen capture software I know of is Jing, but I find that the Screencast website that the clips get uploaded to is very slow. How would I go about getting the clips onto Youtube?

Thank you in advance.

@olishea said:

Sorry when I read what I wrote it came across a bit snappy, it really wasn't meant to be like that. I thought you meant default materials by the way.

...It's better to push your skills so they begin to outgrow the software, then you can move up to a more complex engine. Otherwise a beginner would get lost in features/options that mean nothing in the overall resultant render. Some features are best automated/streamlined for beginners or nobody would know where to start.

no probs this end matey, I certainly didn't think you were being stroppy. I completely agree with your main point above too, that's why I'm trying to eliminate the "top end" rendering software from my enquiries, so to speak. At this early stage in my development I have no idea which are the Ferraris and which are the Fiats (to continue the car comparison), and that is where the wise folk of this forum come in (not you Oli' obviously ). A ferrari is too powerful and complex for me, I need something that will get me from A to B without too much difficulty.

I think I should finish this post by apologising for overdoing the car comparison.

@solo said:

here is a challenge, upload a model and tell us what you want to achieve, and show what you were able to achieve. I bet you will find folks here that will help you in reaching your goals using any of the rendering apps you have tried so far.

I've always been reluctant to do this as it makes me feel really inadequate when I see what you chaps are capable of .

However, I'm never going to learn by hiding away so the attached is something I've been doing for a friend who is planning on renovating her house. I've not quite finished it yet, but that's because she keeps changing her mind. All I've done so far is use the trial version of Podium to "jazz up" a few images, but to be honest they're no better than the SU images - just a bit different.

I don't require a "photo real" finish, I'm just after a simple way that I can make things look better as I'm still learning how to use SU.

Thanks

EDIT: It's too big so here is a link to Google drive for the full file (fingers crossed as I've never shared one of these either!) LINK REMOVED AS FILE TOO BIG - see stills attached on post further down.