@tig said:

If you have some Scenes when you want 'solid' people/cars and others where you want 'wireframe' use Layers and Scene-tabs.
Make two Layers named SOLID and WIREF.
Your people/cars should be components.
Put them all on the SOLID layer.
Now make a copy of all of them and put those on the WIREF layer.
Switch the SOLID layer off...
Select all of the people/cars [on WIREF] and use make unique on these - this way you keep a 'solid' set unchanged.
Edit each person/car component in turn.
Select all faces [use one of the selection-tools available] and delete them [a quick way is to use Wireframe view mode, select all edges by fence, Edit>Cut so the faces auto-delete and them immediately Edit>PasteInPlace so only the edges are left - go out of Wireframe mode to check they've gone!].
Use 'Entity Info' on these selected edges to stop them casting shadows etc and then you have what you need.
By toggling the two layers ON/OFF you can have solid/wireframe people/cars in different Scene-tabs...
If you move one need to remember to move the other - easy done if both layers are temporarily on while you edit...

The awesome trick worked 😄
thanks indeed ! 👍

Oh thanks a lot, your observation is cool,
thanks again!

KT support normal mapping (I don't know about displacement maps, anyway, displ. maps take long time to render). Normal mapping is the best choice for that kind of pattern. There are several software that can do normal maps from photos.
If you can model a segment of that pattern (it doesn't need to be concave, because you will map the texture that way, on the ceiling ornament), you can use this plugin to make a normal map from SketchUp directly http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=33183, then map it on the concave surface and make the KT material 😄

I typically blur, and lighten the background image before creating the watermark or render.

Thanks very much.
it just saved me of doing the precise version of the model again.

I second Unity! 👍 👍 👍

Just export an fbx file from SU, then make a folder called "models" in Unity, drag and drop the fbx folder, then drag and drop that same folder into the main model view window in Unity. Add a collision mesh and a First Person Controller, and that's it! So simple, I could cry with joy!!

Oh yes, you need to make a floor, or you will keep falling off the edge of the world- which I suppose is a bit like falling off a 1750ft transmission tower- but with less pain! 😆 😆 😆

@gude said:

I couldnt understand the way they did it here
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-197347.html

That is the method I mentioned earlier - it selects the faces which normal is pointing towards the camera - but it doesn't take into account other faces blocking the view.

@gude said:

Tig
Wow. Thank you so much..
I've just downloaded the script.
Again thank you.

Does this script unfold faces?
I've attached the su on the release page.
Thanks and keep up TIG. I'm so Amazed.

Tannks...
To 'unfold' find Jim Foltz's 'unfold.rb' 👍

@gude said:

I wanted a 2d view with my components kept as block

ah sorry - my method just exports lines

Thank you for your quick response Tig

I wanted a cleaner 2d geometry generated from sketchup with all my section cuts and finally to work further on cad. I would like my su model to be usable and export 2d dxf each time i update my su model. can i get something like the exportlayers2dae for dxf so that i can merge together the files to a single cad file with layers.

@Tig
I just Saw that you already have witten a nice script export_by_layer.rb
is it possible to make it export 2d dxfs in different layers ?
Thanks again.