Posts made by halroach

@tig said:

If you have a long list in a UI dialog you can click in the list pane and then use the up/down arrow keys to scroll to the item you want.
If you want to jump a long way up/down a list [i.e. to somethings that's off screen!] let's say you are on 'Aardvark' but you want to jump to 'White' then press the W key and it'll jump to the first W - perhaps 'Wheat' [assuming alphanumeric sorting], then you can press the down-arrow until 'White' is the select item...
It's not perfect... BUT it does allow you to access any item in an overly long list in a standard UI dialog...

For some reason my list is not sorted alphanumerically... but your tip is good to know!

1. cool

2. I imagine the sketchup team is aware of the bug... I really wish I could just mark a bunch of selected materials in one go, and delete them...

3. That's a good idea! I just unchecked the texture in the material, purged, saved, and the error doesn't appear anymore.
   The error I get looked like this:
   

4. happy I could be of assistance

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@thomthom said:

@unknownuser said:

1. Does the 'remove specific material work on textures?

You mean removing texture from material?
The plugin would remove the material - entirely. Making no distinction if it is textured or not.

@unknownuser said:

2. I've got a problem when trying to remove a specific material. Have many many materials in my model and the list of materials in the plugin is not long enough for me to see all of them. Any solution?

That's a bug in SketchUp. Only way around it is to create a WebDialog instead - which I don't have the time for right now.

@unknownuser said:

3. The reason I am trying to use this plugin is for removing a material that has a TGA in it (which causes annoying errors when I first open the model). I am not able to find the TGA in the model, but am able to find the material it is in. When I try to right click on the material in the regular materials window, sketchup freezes for 10 seconds or so, and then I see the context menu for only a fraction of a second, and I am not able to actually delete the material. This happens a lot when I have a lot of materials in a model.

Have you tried assigning a different texture to that material - if the purpose is to avoid the errors when you open the model? (What does the error say btw?)

@unknownuser said:

4. 'List textures in console' doesn't seem to do anything other than opening the console box, but nothing happens.
   Huh! I see that as well. Sure is a bug.

1. Does the 'remove specific material work on textures?

2. I've got a problem when trying to remove a specific material. Have many many materials in my model and the list of materials in the plugin is not long enough for me to see all of them. Any solution?

3. The reason I am trying to use this plugin is for removing a material that has a TGA in it (which causes annoying errors when I first open the model). I am not able to find the TGA in the model, but am able to find the material it is in. When I try to right click on the material in the regular materials window, sketchup freezes for 10 seconds or so, and then I see the context menu for only a fraction of a second, and I am not able to actually delete the material. This happens a lot when I have a lot of materials in a model.

This is a sketchup bug that's been around for quite a long time! Any suggestions?

4. 'List textures in console' doesn't seem to do anything other than opening the console box, but nothing happens.

(I'm using latest sketchup pro 8 with windows 7 64bit)

You can render with Vray in full screen now!
Just have to bind a keyboard shortcut for the now hidden render button... or detach the vray toolbar.

Nice Work Anton!

Finally Kiosk Mode for Sketchup!
Lovely!
Works great on Sketchup 8 pro Win7 x64...

A new guy comes to work and you need to configure his new Sketchup with all your favorite shortcuts, so he gets used to them and not to anything else

You try to import your favorite shortcuts .dat file and you notice it doesn't overwrite the existing default shortcuts, but only adds ones where there are no keys already binded? Argggg

This is where this wonderful and simple REG file comes in:
Double click it and all sketchup shortcuts in the registry are deleted.
Once applied, you can either import your favorite .dat file, or add your shortcuts with another custom reg file.

Basically what it does is remove everything that this entry with all the shortcuts in it:

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp8\Settings]

You might get an error message saying it can't erase one of the registry entries, that is just fine!

Double Click to Remove all Sketchup Shortcuts

To create a REG file with your own favorite shortcuts
Go to:
Start> Run> Regedit> go to >HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\SketchUp8\ right click on Settings and export to a REG file. Done! All ready to run that file for adding shortcuts after deleting the originals.

• I uploaded the reg file in ZIP format because reg files are denied upload by the forum (and rightfully so).
  Do rest assured though that this reg file will not harm your computer - All moderators are welcome to examine the harmless .reg file.

Thanks Thom!

You could add it to your already marvelous set of tools in 'selection toys'.

That's it!
I'm all out of keys on my keyboard for another shortcut for such a good tool. either I scrap some short cut I barely use, or I'll bump it up to them less used Shift+ and Ctrl+ shortcuts

@thomthom said:

MysticThumbs got .SKP support. Even .SKM - and lots more: http://mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html

Mystic Thumbs isn't free... and following this thread, it seems like some people are suffering from OS performance issues after installing...
I've got Sagethumbs running, with no aparent problems yet, other than the iny tiny issue that it doesn't support skp or skm

I recently came across sage thumbs (free) which uses XNview libraries to view thumbnails right in explorer in windows 7 64bit.
http://code.google.com/p/sagethumbs/

It works well with PSD files, and all sorts of others, but skp files don't seem to be supported yet. I tried contacting the developer of sage thumbs (I think I contacted the right guy) and he just forwarded me to the xnview forums...
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19690&p=82964#p82964

It seems like someone is trying to get skethcup to be supported, but I can't quite figure out where it's standing right now, I'll keep at it. anyway, If anybody else would like to pour their two cents into those forums to get it going... go for it!

It would be nice to have in addition to the standard diameters an option for user defined diameters, either that the user adds his own diameters or his own library, or a simple type at the keyboard, just like when you draw a simple circle.
"Profile builder" has a nice interface for adding user defined shapes, and has the ability to add whole standard libraries.

Nice Work! I just showed your plugin at work to a Russian speaking fellow worker and he's already sending links to friends of his, who may find your plugin very useful...

Wow!
Very nice plugin indeed!
I noticed in incorporates all kinds of round pipe standards. Does it also support profiles like I and U... like in Profile Builder?
Are you working on an English version?

@unknownuser said:

This is possible, but this requires a slightly different design, especially because you need this information to be persistent across Sketchup sessions. I may give it a try whenever I have time, either as an extension of the plugin or as a new plugin.Fredo

That would be really cool Fredo!
I'd be glad to contribute with the conceptual design whenever you get around to it. I may have some further ideas as to how this tool could be useful, more effective and easy to use.

Hi Fredo,

very nice plugin!
I've been thinking of a similar plugin, which you could incorporate into this one:

1. For planning and adjusting areas of a house (to suit program requirements) - it would be nice to have the option to save a selection of faces, and see how the areas update as you change them in sketchup.
   You have the "areas report" window on ALL THE TIME. You select the faces and components you want once - which gives you the areas. After that you can continue editing the model and the numbers change as you drag lines and change areas - kind of like a set of "entity infos" open all the time for a specific set of pre selected faces. If it cannot be updated "live" you could have an update button (with a keyboard shortcut of course) that would update the info in the box + the different tags.

see attached mockup image (numbers are just gibberish for illustration)

2. you could have selection sets in pre selected colors for interiors, exteriors etc... kind of like the areas by material, but rather by custom selection.

3. you could have sub-totals for faces that were marked together.

4. selecting a face or faces in the list will mark them in the model

5. I noticed that if I use the standard tool for marking the area of a face in a scaled component, it will show the same area for the component in each of it's differently scaled instances (which makes sense). By what I've noticed, your plugin knows how to over come that, right?

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![live or manually updated "areas report" for pre selected faces](/uploads/imported_attachments/Rgwk_preselectedfaceareas.jpg "live or manually updated "areas report" for pre selected faces")

Thanks for all the replies.
I'm currently looking into the following spec - a bit different and better than the Dell XPS:

Motherboard - Asus Gen3 P8Z68-V Pro Chipset Z68
Intel Core i7 2600k
CORAIR H60 (cooling..)
SSD OCZ Agility 3 120GB
Western Digital 1TB Sata33 7200RPM
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600Mhz CL8 4x4GB
Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX560 Ti !GB GDDR5 Overclock Edition
Win7 Pro

I have the option to change the Nvidia Geforce into an NVIDIA Quadro 2000.
Does anyone have any hands on experience with Quadros?
After reading a lot online I think I'll stick with the Geforce which should cover all the programs I use "equally"... !?

Hi,

I'm looking to get a new desktop workstation for architectural design and rendering work. I considered getting a small render farm but I haven't a clue about programming or setting something like that up, and with my experience with vray for sketchup - it doesn't seem to support render nodes too well without bugs. So a single workstation it is, unless somebody has some better insights!?

I use the following programs:
sketchup - (of course!) multiple instances open - the more the merrier!
vray for sketchup
lumion3D (isn't too relevant with my current setup but would like to start working with it)
autocad
photoshop
3DSMAX rarely...
Might start using one of the GPU rendering software (wasn't relevant with my current setup)

so generally I need this computer to handle both live previews of what I'm working on and also for rendering as quickly as possible using multiple cores.

One optional example spec I came by is the dell XPS 8300 (around 1700$ not too expensive I think):
Intel Core i7 2600 (3.4ghz)
8GB 1333MHz DDR3
1.25GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 560
Windows 7 64bit Home premium
2TB 7200rpm HD

My questions:

1. For the above mentioned programs I use, will the Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 make me happy? maybe a different geforce would be better? I keep reading and hearing about the Nvidia Quadro's that are more expensive, slower in some instances and faster in others, but I haven't had a chance to see one in action with the programs I use. If a quadro were recommended, which would it be? price differences?

2. for a singular workstation, would there be any point in getting a different processor/dual processor from the Xeon family rather than an i7? I know they handle more memory, but aren't i7s the fastest these days? And would I need a special motherboard to get Xeons to work better than a single i7? How many cores can I get running on a dual processor setup, Would I need any special arrangement for that? I have no in house programmer on hand...

3. Motherboards!? they are rarely mentioned anywhere anymore. I imagine a motherboard would make a difference... Are there any general recommendations, or rules of thumb or magic numbers to look for?

4. Would it make a difference if I got Windows Professional vs the Home version? Would I need XP mode for any of the programs above?

5. Anything I should reconsider with the above specs that would really make a big improvement?

Another Sketchup 8 M2 annoyance...
Or maybe it's something else that's causing this? I doubt it.

Every time I create a component, the components window changes it's location to to "in model".
That is very annoying for three reasons:

1. I didn't ask it to.
2. I usually like having one of my own people/cars/trees/materials... whatever libraries open. Just because I decided to add some steps somewhere it doesn't mean I don't want to keep putting in more of those components I cherish so much. (very similar to point number 1)
3. With large models, I tend to never ever ever ever have the "in model" components library open, because it slows things down to load all those components everytime... I'm talking hundreds of components here...

Is there any chance for a quick fix of this? or should I just revert to the old M1? It would be nice to have some quick fixes every now and then, without the need to wait for the super releases...

1. I'm trying to add a keyboard shortcut for "set layer of clicked object invisible" but I cannot find the function name for it.
   Ideas?

2.In the previous version of Layer Manager, I set a short cut for that command - and all the selected lines' layers would disappear.
Now with the new interface I have to click on each line separately which takes a lot longer.
I just might install the older version... Unless there would be a way to have both methods?

Wonderful Plugin!!

@jbacus said:

@unknownuser said:

...and I'll update you guys why it was so difficult to use. Has anyone else had any problems with that?

I'd be keen to hear why you prefer the old "Film & Stage" plugin to the new "Advanced Camera Tools" as well. We think the new version works better than the old one, of course

john
.

I just installed M2 and it jogged my memory why Advanced Camera Tools make things really confusing and even harmful in an un-sketchup like way of thinking:

1. creating a camera automatically creates a scene (sounds nice at first) but when you delete that scene the camera is still there. that can be fine, but when I click to look through that camera the scene is created again, why!?. Things have to be more straight forward and simple. If cameras are necessarily linked to creating scenes, deleting the scenes should logically delete the cameras. If they are unlinked, so creating a camera shouldn't automatically create a scene. It must be a straight-forward process! The reason this is annoying is because it is in combination with the next few points...

2. When you select to look through a camera - you enter the camera mode (with the dolly tilt roll etc. movements) - that's fine. When you select a camera scene, it does the same! That can be very problematic when going through different scenes when some aren't cameras... If I select a camera scene(A) and immediately select a regular scene(B) the minute I move my view a bit the camera is moved to the new scene(B) - I now have 2 scenes that are the same, when all I really wanted to do was move between scenes... That creates a LOT of confusion. And since scenes aren't undo-able you're totally screwed if you accidentally worked in a natural way and skimmed through your scenes with page up page down... without right-clicking on 'done' every time you happened to go through a camera scene...

3. When you copy a camera instance it doesn't automatically create a scene, does it!? not until you look through it and then it still refers to the old scene. So I now have two cameras in two different locations referring to the same scene... that's royally screwed!

4. I generally liked to use the cameras to copy scenes from model to model. I'm not sure what kind of scenes will be created now when I move to the new model. In any case with the old film and stage it was very straight forward. Maybe a bit tedious selecting each camera and then creating a scene for it, but at least it was straight forward and it worked every time...
   Try copying 5 different cameras between models and tell me it's not hell... You can always say this plugin wasn't intended for copying cameras... - for me, that's what makes sketchup what it is! Sketchup is all about copying and pasting - it's the only 3D program that does this well - and it's one of the things that make it SUPER!

5. Camera scenes are always created at the end of the list of scenes. When you have 200 and up scenes, and you want to create this camera scene right at the beginning of the list you have to click 200 clicks in the scene manager... On the other hand when you add a regular scene, you are able to add it anywhere by right clicking on the already created scenes. Why should camera scenes be any different!?!?

6. camera volumes adds a ridiculously large selection box around the camera. Once I used to be able to select the 'move tool' and I could easily rotate the camera from the outside... that's impossible now - at least with the move tool.

Fortunately "Advanced Camera Tools" can be disabled in the extensions list under preferences - so I can use the good old film and stage!

Ideas for further development:

1. It would make things simple and straight forward if entering a camera scene didn't automatically put you in "camera mode". then you could browse through different types of scenes without worrying scenes will get confused/erased. have a toggle in the preferences for automatic camera mode!? what ever it is, it has to be well thought out... KISS - keep it simple and stupid!

2. like you can copy and paste cameras between models, it would be nice to copy and paste scenes between models (without adding ruby plugins that still don't do it well or intuitively). click on a scene tab or on a bunch of scene tabs or on the border of a scene tab (something new maybe). press ctrl-C and you've got the scenes copied for pasting in the same model or in another model. Think about it like copying power point presentation pages from file to file. you can always insert a new page in between existing pages by having the mouse on the line in between...

3. camera volumes - It would be nice if you could scale the volume and that would adjust what the camera sees accordingly...

4. You guys need some serious beta testers for things like this... I'm up for hire!

@unknownuser said:

Advanced Camera Tools are now installed by default, so they no longer require a separate plugin

I hope this will retain the ability to still use the old "film & stage" plugin which works so much better.

I mostly use film and stage to create cameras for scene position information, and for copying cameras between models for easy scene transferring.

I actually tried out the "Advanced Camera Tools" plugin when it first came out and it kept messing up my scenes every time I wanted to create, move, remove a camera. The idea behind the advanced tools was good, but it really messed things up... maybe an option to disable automatic scene creation would have helped. I can't put my finger on what was bugging me most then, but I am sure to install M2 sometime soon, and I'll update you guys why it was so difficult to use. Has anyone else had any problems with that?

I just noticed that I don't even have to load a model. Sometimes it's enough that I just draw the first line, or move the camera a bit and it jams up again.