@jhearcht said: In SketchUp 6.4.265 I find most functions to be simple and intuitive. But the snapping function is the single most frustrating thing about trying to draw with in 3D. I am used to the sophisticated snapping constraints in my CAD application, which also does 3D, but with hardware intensive solid objects. It allows me to turn-off certain kinds of snap objects, such as "endpoint outside active", so the inference engine will ignore them, and snap only to the things I'm interested in. Apparently I'm the only one with this problem, because my searches in Help, Forums, and Tutorials find very little discussion of how the snapper operates, or how you can control what it jumps to. Am I missing something in SU? Does SU7 have any snapping improvements? You cannot toggle or control the nascent SU snapping. It is something you learn to watch and especially look for multiple snap points at your target. Make sure you have the snapping turned off in the model info, units dialog. Unfortunately even in the wire frame view you can still snap to hidden points although geo itself is not selectable in this view when hidden

You can zoom, orbit and pan with a 3-button mouse...a video is always better YouTube - Google SketchUp Toolbar Series: Navigation [flash=480,385:ttxhvef5]http://www.youtube.com/v/hc4TeDuEbfU?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:ttxhvef5] If you dont wanna watch the video, just click middle mouse button and left mouse button at the same time to pan Edit: oops, didn't read your post well, you wanted NO mouse

Definitely cool (however it's been here already)

@unknownuser said: Turn off hidden geometry? Pic might be handy... Thanks, that did it.

@watkins said: Have you tried opening and working on the model on another machine. As I said before, a recent Windows XP security update caused my machine to lock up when working on large models. I don't allow Windows to automatically update for that very reason. I have all the major service packs, but none of the recent "fixes".

The thumbnail of a component is alway created from the view when it is created. So when you want to create a component, orbit to a view you would like to se in the thumbnail and make the component then.

@ntxdave said: . Interesting to see that others have had this happen as well. That along with the random clipping (which has also been discussed in some other threads) seem to be more prevalent in 2015 64bit than it was in 2014. Am getting 'random' clipping too. Haven't had that problem for years. (Still using 2015)

Hi Ridix, hi folks. The inference engine will get inferences from geometry, even if they are part of a locked group or component. The only way of avoiding the inference engine from getting inferences from some geometry is to hide it or to put it on a hidden layer. Just ideas.

The best way really: in the material browser, select the material from the "in model" icon and then click on the edit tab. Then from the edit window toward the bottom under the texture name, there is a texture size width and length. It is telling you that width that a single tile represents. Play with that till you get the look that you want. There is another way. After you apply the material on a surface: right click on it and find the "texture" context menu. Select "positon" from the texture sub menu. Make sure you see the 'fixed pin" view. That is, you will see a series of greyed out tiles of the texture extending beyond your surface and there will be 4 pins situated at the corner of one of the tiles. The fixed pin mode shows 4 different coloured pins and the floating pins mode has 4 yellow ones. if you have the four yellow ones, right click and turn on the 'fixed pin" mode from the menu. Choose the green fixed pin and carefully drag in an axis direction to scale your texture. You may wish to first place your cursor over the center of the tile and drag it down so that the edge of the tile meets the edge of your surface so that when you drag to make it larger you have an edge to inference to. the green pin also allows you to rotate and I personally have trouble making sure it doesn't rotate as I scale. that is why I prefer the first method

If you do that, you won't be any further ahead. You still have to select the bits that you want to erase. It sounds like you may not know the various ways to select that will make things easier. For instance if you orbit your view so that the bits you want to chop off are all facing towards the right of your workspace, you can drag out a Right to left selection window over the geometry that you want to get rid of. Stop your selection window just short of the cut lines. That will select all items even partially within the window. Once selected, just hit the "delete" key. To select only those items that are edge to edge or endpoint to endpoint completely within the selection window, do a left to right selection. To select a surface and it's bounding edges, double click on the surface. To select all attached geometry "triple click on the surface. ( can't use this above becuse the cut line is still shared by the other portion of the model so it is still "attached") Lot's more ways to select also. You are doing a bunch of advanced stuff but I think you may be missing some of the basics that may make life a lot easier for you. Groups and components definitely being a biggie. If you could post your model, and just explain what you would like to accomplish, ( multi-part group??? do it over and over again???) Maybe we can provide some input on how to accomplish faster and easier, yes?

It does look like Space design has been combined into RP tools, as there is no download for it except RP tools. When I download RP tools [image: RPTools-toolbar.jpg] along time ago - the 30 day trial ended and the original tools from the free space design keep working (These are [image: Space_Design_Toolbar.jpg] ) which included the rotate and move as well as copy which have been used a lot. The others in RP tools just say that trial has expired when clicked. I bought the full RP tools for another machine for the plot line thickness and colour and 2d text for cad drawings. Pav are you referring to the fact that in order to get to the download page you fill in your email address and name, and company if relevant? It does then say a link will be sent and suggests that you then make it a favourite which will then by pass this page. I have never had any unsolicited email from Al or RPS. If you email Al [image: Support-email.PNG] of RPS if you do not want to do this I don't think he would mind. They are all very helpful. If want to buy then here is linkhttp://www.renderplus.com/pdf/purchase.htm#RpTools or on the main page there is a link to purchase in contents

Hi, You do not have to create faces to use the From Contours tool. If you have your curves/contours drawn, you can just use the Move Tool to place them at the required height. So create your lines, move them to required height, select all and click From Contours. There is a Ruby script which I use a lot and creates a Polyline from a series of separate lines. It is called Weld.rb. You can find it here

3 years and no one replied to you... that's sad. I guess your post got buried. Did you figure out to upgrade your video driver?

There are the so called "bonus packs" where you can find one for landscape architecture (with a bunch of plant components) too. Still in the warehouse you can find additional stuff creatd by users.

the nvidia quadro range are generally recognised as being pretty good for design applications.

It's late so I'm probably confused...but is this what you are seeing? The grey shadow is on the ground plane, the black shadows are on the ground faces (one happens to be below the ground plane. Turning off casting on faces will mean no shadows on vertical faces as well...not to pleasant for architectural work, IMHO. [image: ev4L_tn_ground-groundplane.jpg]

Nevermind. After I reset the mouse wheel from DOUBLE-CLICK, to WHEEL-CLICK, the SHIFT button will now interrupt a line draw. But I'll have to remember to change the mouse setting whenever I use SketchUp. However, I find that I still end up with two lines instead of one. Is there a way to combine them into one line, other than grouping. Thanks again for the help.

J...time for a pic of "it will cut a wall opening, but it won't Push back into the wall---it will only Pull out of the wall". Can you post a couple of screen captures?