Dale & HDT, thanks for the replies.

I entered the group to select the lines/edges, but they are all broken into segments. I used a Repair Broken Lines script in an attempt to reconnect them, but it only works on some of the lines. My 3D CAD app has a "Compose" command to connect all selected lines into a single closed polygon. I haven't found a similar command in SU. So it looks like I will have to manually draw over the outlines, in order to create faces. Unless you have other suggestions.

In trying to reproduce the elliptical outline curve in SU, I found that the default segmentation (24) is too coarse. But I haven't found a way to add segments. Typing in the Entity Info box doesn't change anything.

I also noticed that the Help file in SU8 says the toolbar should have a Circle and an Ellipse tool. I only see the Circle tool, so I stretched it to make an ellipse. Would the missing Ellipse tool be better suited to my purposes?

SketchUp8 on Windows XP

I have imported some 2D DWG line drawings that I want to use to create a 3D model. I have created a solid box of the correct size, and then applied the front, side and rear outlines. Now I need to transfer those lines to the faces of the box, so I can then push/pull the solid to carve away the excess material.

After that I will sculpt the basic outlines into a compound curving shape. But my attempts so far, to transfer/project the lines, have not been successful. They probably need to be converted into something other than DWG line segments. A little help would be appreciated. TIA

@escapeartist said:

SU tiles textures, so you'll need to make the border around the graphic you wish to see large enough to prevent the repeating tiled image from being visible. Also, try "projected" for the image.

Thanks for the reply. I tried the "projected image" technique, but I still get the same results. The single image is painted over the whole surface as a texture. But, even as a texture, I can't find a right-click command to "Position" the image, or to crop out the copies I don't want.

How can I draw "a border around the graphic" or on the surface to contain just one copy of the image? I tried selecting just a few facets with "Hidden Geometry" turned on, but that still didn't work. The original border was omitted when I exploded the image.

Maybe I'll try the Manipulating an image as material using Free Pin mode next.

SU8.0.3117 on Windows XP

I want to apply an image (not a texture) to a compound-curved surface. I found some instructions in the Help file under : << Can I Drape a raster image in a half sphere? >>. I followed the instructions from Gully Foyle as best I could.

I copied the yellow fabric face to a new group, revealed hidden geometry, and selected one facet in the middle of the surface. Next, I exploded the image [shown lying on the deck in the picture below], sampled it, and used the bucket to apply it to the selected face. Then I turned off hidden geometry, and applied the image to the rest of the surface.

The logo appears on the surface, but as a multi-image texture. I imported the JPG file "as image" instead of "as texture". When I context click on the applied images I don't see an option to Position Texture, or any way to edit the image. So how can I do away with all the extra logos?

I was hoping there might be a Ruby script to simplify this process, but I haven't found one. Any suggestions?

Chris

Thanks for the response. I eventually got a reasonable facsimile of a fabric saddle shape. But each time I save after generating the curved surface, SU vanishes, and I get a BugSplat error. So I still have nothing to show for my work. I'll check-out your other recommendations.

@mitcorb said:

Well, a great many of the plugins that were introduced here were, in my opinion, adequately explained by their authors with videos, illustrations, or verbal explanations in the relevant threads/topics.

I guess I may have misunderstood your issue.

My issue is : where can I find some of those "adequate explanations by the authors". So far, keyword searches on Ruby library and SketchUcation have revealed nothing useful. A the moment, I'm looking specifically for some guidance on how to use the Simple Loft script by Chris Fullmer.

Some scripts have brief instructions that download along with the script. Shouldn't the Ruby Library include links to videos, illustrations, explanations, etc. for each script? If it does, I missed it.

PS---After some nosing around I finally found the Simple Loft videos. But a link on the Ruby Library would have abbreviated the goose chase.

SU8.0 on Windows XP

I would like to create a simple fabric structure in SU. The fabric will stretch between two slanted arches in a hyperbolic saddle shape. I see examples of compound curves, apparently done completely in SketchUp, but I find no indication for how it's done.

This doesn't seem to be a Sandbox "draping mesh", so I assume it requires a lofting tool. I downloaded Chris Fulmer's "simple loft" tool from Ruby Library. It places a Loft button on the toolbar, but gives no indication for how to use it. [Seems to me that all Ruby scripts should include basic operating instructions, for us newbie dummies] SU Help offers no entry for a search on "Loft" or "Lofting".

A brief "How-to" or a "forgetaboutit" would be appreciated.

@gaieus said:

Is the model correct otherwise? You could rotate the whole, ready model to be vertical then.

Rotating the model is not the problem. I want to rotate model and background at the same time, which doesn't seem to be possible in SU8---unless I'm missing something.

I have tried to rotate the model & image after exporting to Layout. Then I planned to use a mask to crop the border back to square. I was able to rotate the image by 1 degree, but don't find a way to use a rectangle as a Clip Mask. The Split tool doesn't seem to work on the image, so now the Tower is erect, but image borders are askew.

Are you suggesting I use Photoshop?

@gaieus said:

Could you attach the model, pleas. It is hard to exactly imagine what's going on (especially with a PM'd model)

The mostly horizontal background image looks OK within the border/frame. But the vertical tower looks askew, even though the model is aligned with background buildings. At first I told myself it was just an artifact of perspective. But the added lines prove it's just a fact.

The whole thing needs to rotate counterclockwise about one or two degrees relative to the frame. I'm hoping I don't have to recreate the model match again from scratch.

SU8.0 on Windows XP

In SU6 I placed my model onto a "matched photo". The model axes are in alignment with objects in the photo. But the photo itself is slightly misaligned with the frame, which makes the world appear to be tilted. Since the model is a tower and is taller than surrounding buildings, the leaning tower of Pisa effect is annoying to me.

Now in SU8, I want to rotate the model and photo around the Y axis by one or two degrees, so that the Z axis will align with the vertical frame edges. In other words, I want to rotate the picture relative to the frame. But I haven't found a way to do that. Any suggestions?

@gaieus said:

There should be a layer manager. Try Window > Preferences > Workspace and reset your workspace there.

Ah yes! That did it. Thanks.

SU8.0 on Win XP

I recently upgraded from SU6 to SU8, and now I find that the Layer Manager is missing from my group of palettes. Under the Window menu Model Info, Entity Info and Layers are checked, and the other active palettes have a dash next to them. But the Layers palette is not displayed, and nothing happens when I check or uncheck the menu item.

The Layer List displays in the top toolbar, along with a button for Layer Manager. But nothing happens when I click on the button. Unless I'm missing something obvious, the Layer Manager was not included in the installation, or was mis-filed.

Tomorrow I will try a reinstall. But I'd like to know if anyone else has noticed the same problem.

@gaieus said:

May your group be scaled to a non 1:1 scale? Try to right click on it and see if "Reset scale" or "Scale definition" is available in the context menu.

Gaieus, as usual, you da man!

I found <<Scale Definition>> in the context of the original group, but not in the added objects. When I clicked on the face, voila, it changed to match the other face.

But I still don't understand what I might have done to "rescale" the group. It was not done intentionally. Actually, other than using the Scale Tool, how would I go about changing the scale definition?

SU 8.0.3117 on Win XP SP3

I place a lattice material/texture on one surface, and it looks good. Then I edit another group, add the same lattice, but the scale is way too small. Even when I place both faces in the same group, the same texture looks radically different on each face. Why doesn't the lattice look the same on both faces? Apparently, each instance of the texture is unique by default.????

Do I have to edit and resize/rotate each of the many faces individually? Am I missing something? Or is there an eyedropper to pick up a texture at the correct scale, and paste it onto another face? I didn't find any such thing on Ruby Library. So I tried the RP Tools Place Material tool, and the dropper picks up the texture, but when I select the paintbrush to place the picked-up texture, I get an << ERROR during command . . .set material globals . . .>>

SU 8 on Windows XP

I setup a model with photo background in SU6. Now in SU8 the model doesn't render the materials and textures for that scene. Lines are displayed, but not surfaces. The trees at bottom are 2D follow-camera props. The images below show before and after.

The Style in the first image is Google Earth with sky and ground. The Style in the second image is Shaded with Textures. When I switch between Styles the textures still don't show. When I select a part of the model, the texture is shown in the Entity Info, but not on the model. Ironically, when I reduce the model opacity from 100% to 10% the faces go from clear to white.

Other than upgrading the software, did I do something wrong? Any ideas on how to get the textures to render?

Scene with textures

Scene on photo

Nevermind! I finally discovered that SU8 set the photo in the foreground by default, but in SU6 it was in the background. It's all better now, except for time wasted.

Shouldn't the default be to put the photo in the background????

SketchUp 8 on Windows XP

I created a cylinder and added a diagonal texture. When I tried to trim an opening with a rectangular solid, I discovered the cylinder was not a solid. So I created another cylinder and made sure it was a solid.

But now when I add the same texture it is not continuous around the cylinder. The diagonals align between some vertical facets, but don't align with others. I tried various smoothing angles, but had no effect on facets. Shouldn't the surface of a solid object be continuous across edges? The discontinuous facets don't seem to be caused by the trimmed opening.

Is there a way to make all the facets contiguous and continuous so the texture will be uniform? If I have to start over again, how can I avoid the same problem?

Cylinder on left is faceted

PS---I haven't been able to get the RpTools cylinder to work.

I had given up on the idea of showing internal illumination of an LED-TV screen on the shaded side of the building. But I just discovered a glitch that looks like internal illumination. The first image is the normal image with two signboards. The second is what happened while I was playing with the UTC setting for time of day. The rendering would stop with everything dark except the screen facing the sun. Then after a few random clicks, it would render properly.

I don't have any idea what's going on here. But maybe someone can figure out how to take advantage of this anomaly to simulate internal lighting for an object in shade.

Normal View :

Glitch View :

@unknownuser said:

Any reason why you're still using v6?

Jeff

Thanks for the nudge. Due to recessionary cash-flow cessation I was trying to get by with SU6, since I don't use it often. But I was having so many challenges, your question caused me to throw caution to the wind and take the plunge. If I drown in debt, it's all your fault.

SU8 does seem to be somewhat faster, but I just had another Select-Tool-fail event. SU is not autosaving in the background, and the CPU is not busy. It acts like the selection "call" gets stuck in a traffic jam from SU to the OS. Eventually, the jam clears, and the intended selection is highlighted or deselected. Other tools work OK, and I can minimize the page. Other programs don't have this problem.

I'm just throwing this out to see if it's operator/hardware at fault, or some glitch in SU. For now, all I can do is find something else to work on until I get control of the clicker again.

@shura said:

While we are taking off on this so passionately (wich in fact I enjoy a lot!) we still do not know if it is of any help to our friend Jhearcht...

I tried the stoplight technique, but I must be missing something. I placed a rectangle on the shaded side of the building, and turned off cast/receive shadows. But the face is still shaded due its position. I haven't found a way to turn-off shading for a single face. It's on a separate layer, but the Use Sun For Shading function seems to be global, regardless of the layer.

PS---Due to various other SU6 limitations, I finally upgraded to SU8. Does it have any new capabilities that might "shed some light" on this situation?

PPS---I found that a yellow face looks brighter in shade than a white face. Fortunately, yellow is one of the school colors.

SketchUp 6.4.265 on Windows XP ; Intel 2.8ghz Dual-Thread CPU; 4GB memory; nVIDIA Quadro FX300 graphics card. MS Wireless Laser Mouse.

In my 11MB SU file the mouse left click sometimes stops working to select objects, and there's nothing I can do to select or deselect anything. Eventually, after 5 or 10 minutes the selection tool will start working again. Meanwhile, it works in other applications, so the problem is only in SU. A shut-down and re-start of SU usually fixes the glitch.

The CPU is not overloaded, I'm on the right layer, and the no-response is intermittent, so I'm guessing that the mouse clicks are somehow blocked from the OS to the Selection Tool in the application.

This is a very time wasting problem, on top of the generally sluggish screen redraws in SU. My searches in MS Mouse Help, on this forum, and on Google, haven't turned-up any discussion of this kind of selection glitch. Has anyone here experienced such a frustrating non-functioning drawing? If so, what can be done to cure the malady? Thanks for your help.