What do you mean "sharp borders"?

I get that a lot too. Mentioned it numerous times in the past 8+ years and no improvement. Sometimes it works correctly, but I cannot define what works and what doesn't.

OK, I can live with that. It would be similar to a "material" I created for an airplane HUD that was transparent but with symbolic imagery. Just have to rethink what that logo would be in 2D.
Thanks to both of you.

I'm missing something. It may be I'm using 2015 Make, but I can't find "create watermark".
I find "add watermark" but that takes me to materials to load a .JPG image.
I want to make a watermark from a drawn object.

Pbacot; A background image would seem to move as the camera moves, and would be blocked by any object in between.

Dave; That seems like it might work. How do I make a watermark?

This one stumps me.
I need to make an object remain stationary in viewspace, exactly like "un-pinned text".
I need to also be able to change view angles to all other objects as normally done when un-pinned text is visible.
Sorta like an object that always faces camera, but doesn't move either.
I want to put a stationary 3D logo on some of my model print exports.
Grouping an object with a text group doesn't work. The text moves with the object, but always faces camera.

You will need to break up the projected surface into several parts. Curviloft needs at least 3 segments to create a surface and that large shape is only one.

I do this sort of thing a lot, for airplane fuselages and fairings.

Just put a line vertex to vertex across each narrow part and curviloft (skin) each part separately. Don't do several at once.

For the end parts, just break the curve with 1 or 2 temporary short lines at vertices.

If CL scrambles the surface (quite common) break into smaller sections.

But be prepared to redo a lot of lines created by CL to smooth it out and reduce the lines count. I have redone some surfaces almost entirely, following the CL mapping, but with reduced lines that meet at vertices and not in mid line.

Then group all the section groups before exploding the curved surface section groups.
You may want to edit the vertices between each group to smooth it all out.

Within the group, you can push/pull (not with the native SU push/pull) up to thicken the roof surface, then push/pull out to create the overhang/eaves.

A tip....
Change the color of your guidelines to something not normally used in SU, like a medium orange. Not green, blue nor red. Yellow is hard to see as well.
Being black and dashed they tend to hide.
It would be nice if the guidelines could be 2 pixels wide, but, that ain't gonna happen.

@fredo6 said:

@jgb said:

It's not that I have issues with CL in SU-2013, just I thought the latest CL update versions were 64 bit only. I will D/L the latest later this week.

In principle, Ruby script are independent from the OS details (hopefully), but sometimes dependent on the SketchUp version.

Thanks again. I'll now upgrade SU to 2016 (32bit) and all my plugins/extensions as well.

@fredo6 said:

@jgb said:

I wholeheartedly agree, but please also update your last 32 bit version as well.
I cannot run 64 bit apps on my old PC. I'm still running Make V.13.

What do you mean?
Do you have issues with Curviloft on Sketchup 2013?

It's not that I have issues with CL in SU-2013, just I thought the latest CL update versions were 64 bit only. I will D/L the latest later this week.

I really need to refresh the plugin with more explicit control of the different options (and maybe selecting a few ones which make sense).

I wholeheartedly agree, but please also update your last 32 bit version as well.
I cannot run 64 bit apps on my old PC. I'm still running Make V.13.

He wasn't exactly clear on what the final orientation should be, so flipping is just another way to do it.

Select whole model, then Right Click and FLIP ALONG. Probably along Blue axis.

This problem was solved years ago, but now it's back (last 3-4 weeks ago).

I want my toolbars to stay where I put them, ie: Measurements defaults to the lower left. I put it in the lower right. It used to stay there between SU reboots, now it goes back to the left.

Other toolbars stay almost where I put them, except, I put a bit of space between them for clarity. When I reboot SU, they all move back to the left, except for a few that stay put on the right horizontal top row.

And the ones on the left side (vertical alignment) stay put.

Reset Toolbars has zero effect.

Really irritating.....
SU 15.3.3 (No, I can't go to 18 as I am locked into a 32 bit OS on my 64 bit PC; Long story)
Win 10 Home (32 bit)

Fredo
Is there any chance you could come up with a 32bit Animator version? I have SU 2015 32 bit and I cannot upgrade my system to 64 bit O/S (Win 10). The h/w IS 64bit, my Win 10 was mistakenly upgraded to 32bit.
Even if a few features are disabled, it would be better than nothing.

Looked OK to me. You did what I was going to suggest, but didn't as I got sidetracked out (wife!) as I was going to reply.

Fredo said... Well, the issue is that if you join vertex to vertex, you get a skewed surface, even assuming the number of vertices on each opposite side matches.

True, but I move all of the vertices along a line, not just at the perimeter. My surfaces end up smooth. But each line set has to be adjusted as it approaches the opposite perimeter line or as you said, the smoothness suffers. Usually around the middle of the set I do a 1/2 move to each side to avoid a skewed surface.

Like I said, it is tedious.

I really can't live without CL, even with all its worts. I have learned to live with them and get around most of them. Still far easier and smoother than manually lofting a surface.

Curviloft does not align its lofted lines exactly to the vertices on the opposite side. If the spacing of the 2 opposite points are not aligned CL will just draw lines from each vertex to the opposite side on edge, and you get a lot of extra lines, some very close together.

I spend a lot of time adjusting lines to reduce that overall line and face count.

Use the ALT-Move Tool to move a vertex over to its closest partner. Pick the vertex on a perimeter that is on a straight portion of that segment.

It IS tedious, but in many of my big drawings I really need to reduce line count.

Archiblog & Fredo

I haven't forgotten my promise to create a tutorial. But soon after I started playing with Animator I got seriously sidetracked on some other (non SU oriented) project and just recently got back to using SU again. I have to clear much of that and then restart the Animator Tutorial, which I will need to learn to complete that SU project, in order to demonstrate how a very complex piece of machinery works.

Animating SU models is something that has eluded me for many years. Since SketchyPhysics (which I found to have a too steep a learning curve) I have tried most so-called SU Animators, but found them either too complex or just unworkable for my needs.

What I need is akin to SketchyPhysics but without the gravitational aspects and with better controls. I need to simply animate articulated models of aerospace components more than anything else. I'm hoping Fredo's Animator will do the trick, but haven't got into it far enough to say it will.

If you want me to collaborate on a tutorial, I'm game on for that. Please PM me as we can best communicate by Email. This is not a convenient forum to do that, although we should update progress here for the "masses".

Archiblog

VERY Useful.

Thank You.