Hi Tig and Hi Gaieus,
meanwhile I try to switch my SkUp-working style to the "Layer 0" method and yes, absolute beginners will certainly use this method.
Other users (like me and certainly all of you) who have a long-standing CAD background will understand why I have given this (wrong) advice above. For example, not only for AutoCAD or Revit the "Layer 0" discussions fill hundreds of webpages as you can imagine

Luckily the layer visibility per scene worked well so far over years and luckily there was no disaster or confusion so far. I still do not know why but fortune favors fools! Anyway, I am now getting used to the here recommended method. I have already even changed my origin template

I would like to follow and learn your "Explode Group to Layers" advice (thanks for that), but unfortunately I do not understand how to do it - I do not have any experience working with the Console - unfortunately. Maybe you or another member here might post a screenshot on this method? Or maybe someone can recommend any YouTube video tutorial on this topic or maybe there is already a thread on this topic here? Any help to learn that would be great!

Finally I have a very stupid question: how do you (all) do these screenshots here to show content of any other posts on which you refer in your own answer, as Gaieus has done it above? - I am really embarrassed to ask that

Hi, Thank you (Both) for this interesting contribution!
I export almost daily SkUp material to Adobe CS, especially Adobe Illustrator.
Although I am not a PDF expert, I would like to add one little piece of "Learning by Doing"-advice:
If I export a PDF out of SketchUp, the window (below) appears. I will always provide to adjust the maximum possible export size here in order to avoid that line- or polygon segments get below the fixed SkUp-Size Tolerance.
The bigger the better

@ Pete: I would be interested, if your export will work better, if you resize your model up 10 times or 100 times before exporting? (just for a testing)

@ Dave: Thank you! - I never thought about the Open GL settings in this context

A masterpiece !! - Your modeling, renderwork and also the chair itself

Hi Tig, Cotty, David ...

Sorry and thanks a lot for your Comments!
I do not want to confuse anyone - certainly not beginners

Obviously, my workflow is too much influenced by other less flexible CAD tools, which I've used for many years...

Dear beginners, as you can see, there is always something to learn

Hi, here are my German proposals
This type of facade is called "Pfosten Riegel Fassade" here.
The elements which are not transparent, are called:
Blindelement (for google search: Fassaden Blindelement)
Blind Paneel (for google search: Fassaden Blind Paneel)
Füllung (for google search: Fassaden Füllung)

I hope I have understood your question correctly

Hi David

"...I dunno. I use layer 0 exclusively for drawing..."

Why I recommend to avoid Layer 0? When I download (for example) a 3D-tree component from the warehouse, this is (mostly) drawn on Layer 0. Of course, I can assign this component to another layer "Tree". But the "content" of that component - often many subcomponents and subgroups - still remains on Layer 0. Within SketchUp that's usually not a problem, but if you often export to other CAD software, this layer-, component-, and group assignment often gets lost. So I'm always happy when a model avoids Layer 0 in principle - as well as in other CADs ...
So my SketchUp-template even starts with the active layer 1, extended by the layers "010 Walls", "020 Windows" etc ... (some standards, which I always need) and Layer 0 is always inactive and never visible...

I like that "out of SketchUp look" very much!
One criticism: Where are your soundsamples ?!?

CaplsLock Goodbye

many of you know, how annoying it can be if you give any numerical input, but only nonsense appears in the VCB, because the CaplsLock key is pressed by mistake.
With CaplsLock Goodbye (Freeware), you can disable this key with ease without getting lost in the deep Windows menu space. You can also change the settings for some other Win-standard keys, which I have not done, nor recommend.
All changes can be made undone with one click also.
CaplsLock Goodbye is just an EXE-file, which does not have to be installed.

melk.de Software-Downloads

melk.de - Homepage von Markus Melk (Darmstadt, Germany)

(www.melk.de)

Hi Mike
What a view out of the window!!! - If this is your office, I am really very envious!

Since the background image is a nighttime picture, it would be good if you could reduce your global illumination for a lower and less uniform lighting and add some spotlights for example. Also the monitor screen could be used as a light source, in order to emphasize your "Deadlines and a cup of coffee" concept, which is a good setting idea! A nightly light mood would support this idea even better...

PS: the aircraft on the left picture is the DO X - a childhood memory, this thing I have glued together as a kit from Revell lightyears ago

next playing around and having fun:
if you make a model, never use Layer 0 !!!

Hi Todd,
certainly this bug is not normal and unfortunately I have no idea why this happened.
For sure you know that you can save your shortcut settings by exporting them for importing
them later again in case of a crash like yours for example or for sharing them with other users?

Regards

@ baz :
...not necessarily pedantic - but very philosophical in any case

Hi Cotty,
I tried to achieve the same or at least a similar warm wood-look - as you always get it to the point. I had a long tinkering with the lighting until it worked.
Very good is your trick to hover the model a little above the ground, so that the model does not look like glued there. Thanks for sharing!

light, environment, plants, background... - everything fits perfectly!
(even the car is well chosen )

@ leedeetee "...Would love to see the raw SU output for this!..." - me too!

HornOxx

Great - everything fits together so well!
I can not figure out where your model ends and your used wallpaper begins.

I look forward to more work from you

Fabulous Texture!
as if you could touch it

certainly not the right thing for the mountain stage of the Tour de France

Great Model!

WOW !!!
Great vehicle designs - just on the threshold into the future.
I wonder when will you get an offer from Ducati, BMW, Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha ...

Thank you Cotty, and again AUA !!!
How could I have missed this wonderful plugin ????

Forget, what I have written here but
maybe you like the rendering at least ...

Hello Everyone

I am working with the Shaderlight render plugin. From the perspective of an architect, Shaderlight is
a very easy-to-use tool. However, it is missing some features that are very useful for a later post
production in Photoshop or GIMP (etc). For example, there is no possibility to render detailed alpha
channels or material ID channels.

With this work I would like to show how useful it is to use not only the Shaderlight
rendering tool for itself but also the material coming directly out of SketchUp.
Long before a rendering is done, SketchUp provides a lot of useful material, which we can use
later for our post-production.

It’s nothing new that SketchUp can do hidden line renderings. Such a hidden line rendering is always
an important thing if you want to or need to emphasize contours or joints. And even if that’s not
necessary - do this anyway - This does not take much time, and I always recommend here an export
to PNG and always without anti-aliasing.

For post production in Photoshop or GIMP, always alpha channels are needed. Shaderlight is not able
to provide these alpha channels but SketchUp can do this!!!! You just can change the desired
materials temporarily into a high contrast colour within SketchUp (for example black and white). This
way you can also produce material ID channels. Also here, I recommend an export to PNG and always
without anti-aliasing.

In the attached example, the old car should not only cause shadows on the street, it should also
reflect on the wet road somehow in a glossy manner. For this reason I made a second rendering, only
the car and a mirroring surface under the car. In order to merge these two renderings into one
picture, I needed the alpha channel of the car. To insert a silhouette of a driver, I also needed the
alpha channel of the car´s windshield and side window. All of these alpha channels SketchUp has given
me, with just a few clicks and very fast.
Sometimes it even makes sense to do a "Chalk Rendering" which is the Shaderlight name for Ambient
Occlusion (which I have not used in this example). With a Ambient Occlusion Rendering you can give your rendering a lot more depth and spatial appearance later in post-production.

Regards

PS: The Model is downloaded from the 3D-Warehose