That did the trick, thanks for the help!

Thanks Jim, I will try that and tell you if it works.

I am new to Dynamic Components but I am encountering a problem with a dynamic gun turret component I made. When clicking on the barrels of the gun turret, they are supposed to just change their elevation angle but the groups inside are stretching upwards for no apparent reason. Help would be greatly appreciated. Below are some pictures and a link to the component in my dropbox. Thanks.

Dropbox: Medium Turbolaser Cannon.skp

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How about built in file compression that can be used optionally to keep filesize down? And not just for Pro, but everyone.

That's the thing though. The color is correct when 2D exported or when using Print Screen. It's just an orange cast when viewing the model in realtime. It's really not too much of a problem it just a bit annoying. I was satisfied with the secondary color of my ship until I saw the color shift. I went ahead and approximated the actual color I wanted in Photoshop the replaced the value in SketchUp with that so now at least when exported it now looks right.

I'd just like the pure red hue to stay pure red. Obviously the faces should be shaded but the hue shouldn't change when displayed in the program versus how it prints or is exported.

It's weird because even when I get a screen grab using FRAPS that captures the OpenGL output the capture is still pure red and not the hint of orange I see in SketchUp. This would be easy to fix if SketchUp used color profiles like Photoshop.

It doesn't matter if I export the output of SketchUp or use Print Screen, the resulting colors do not match what I see in SketchUp. I tweaked the color in Photoshop to approximate what I see in SketchUp for the first image and the second is what is exported from the program. You will see that the red is slightly orange in SketchUp but the color is actually a pure shade of red in the materials dialog. Has anyone experienced this and do you have any idea how to correct it?

Now it can fire straight up. The gunner will love that...

@roidsan said:

Do I have this right? The change in engines is to put them on a level position and make them both the same size (they looked different in size to me on the original configuration)? Just curious if I understand you.

Yes, I decided they should be level with each other. The reason for the change is to make the "wings" flat because the old ones looked too Romulan and I though I also like Star Trek, that's not what I am going for. I also wanted a trench on the leading edge that would match the rest of the ship. Before, the two innermost engines had an additional segment which made them 20 feet longer than the other two. I decided to make theme all the same now because the ship doesn't need to be so long.

@roidsan said:

Another small question – if I come straight down on the turbolazer cannon will it be able to elevate to meet my attack? It looks like about a 10% blank spot in the barrel elevation angle. Wouldn’t want you discover that AFTER launch.

Good point... I'll fix it.

@roidsan said:

Thinking about ship weaponry, have you ever read David Weber's Honor Harrington series? Possibly the most unbelievable deep space fleet battles in Science Fiction. I will never forget the unfortunate and awesome destructive power of "bomb pumped lasers", yeow!

I haven't heard of that but sounds cool. I have a lot of Star Wars audiobooks but they seem to deal mostly with planet side battles.

I decided to change the engine layout and the way they are mounted to the ship to make it more consistent with Star Wars style ships.

@daniel said:

Careful, Charles. According to a well-known little green Jedi master, one shouldn't judge by size! The model is looking good.
[attachment=0:9wbxos1v]<!-- ia0 -->Rebellion for dummies.gif<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:9wbxos1v]

Correct, you are, correct, you are! But, the gun did look silly considering, the main weapon for a 280 meter ship, is it. Yes, hmmm.

Bigger Barrels, Better!

Here is the first weapon for the ship. It is a heavy turbolassr cannon based on the ones from a Venator-class Star Destroyer. I might scale up the size of the barrels a bit. It is going to be manned by a trooper.

Sunday, 1 January 2012 - Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Happy New Year! To ring in the new year you are asked to model a wristwatch. It can be of any design, shape or size, digital or analog. As long as it tells time and straps onto a human wrist, the sky is the limit! Make sure you finish before time runs out...

3D Warehouse Tag: 3D Challenge 134

To learn how to participate, please visit the challenge blog at: http://sketchup3dchallenge.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the information Jason, that will help me a lot.

I worked on the Docking Rings and the Landing Struts and decided to try the free version of Maxwell for SketchUp. I might just buy the paid version. Keep in mind I'm new to rendering. Check it out:

Voting is now closed.

I am running the SketchUp 3D Challenge and I am in need of voters to determine the winner for a special challenge. I created a challenge to design a bank in SketchUp but when a 9th grade art teacher saw the challenge he decided to let his students participate. To accommodate his teaching schedule I created a separate challenge for just his students using the same topic. They are all first time SketchUp users. If you have a few moments, I would appreciate it if anyone could help vote for a winner. All you have to do is go here to review the entries: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=3d+student+challenge+001 then pick your top 3 choices and post them in a comment to this blog post: http://sketchup3dchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/12/sketchup-3d-student-challenge-001-banks.html

Thanks and happy sketching,
JediCharles