May 27 Ithil posted a very interesting bowling alley with very simple animated figures in the background. He never got back to describe how he did it.

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=19386&p=161144&hilit=bowling#p160133

@unknownuser said:

anglaret,

I have attached a small "jing" movie of the process. Never posted a "Jing" before so I hope it attaches and plays.

Sorry - This doesn't seem to open. I need a tutorial on uploading the Jing files!!

anglaret,

Maybe this will help. Use the mirror plugin instead of flipping.

select the door and swing arc.
click the mirror plugin
click the midpoint of the line between swing and door
use inference to draw a vertical and click enter
click yes when it asks to erase original

I have attached a small "jing" movie of the process. Never posted a "Jing" before so I hope it attaches and plays.

2009-06-05_1843.swf

I have IE 8 on my laptop with Vista and no problems with any of my software including Acad and SU.

At the office I have IE 7 and XP.

Can't see much difference but I don't use all the little gimmicks they added on to it. It is just a browser,not a way of life as I think they seem to be heading.

@mr s said:

Hi Jim,

Thanks for that interesting insight.
I assume that because of the lack of support from your party that this venture actually left you out of pocket?
OH YES. BILL BOARDS, YARD SIGNS, MAILING AND OTHER PRINTINGS - AND WE RAN A MODEST CAMPAIGN
Members of the established parties always manage to come out of the process making a handsome personal profit. Perhaps thats were you went wrong. WE BOTH WANTED TO STAY OUT OF JAIL!!!

I am not completely familar with the Americian system of politics.
Did your spouse stand under the banner of the Republicans or Democrats?
REPUBLICAN
Was she an independent or representing a smaller party?

If she was representing anything other than the established parties what chance of success is there? IN THE 1960'S I WAS LIVING IN CHICAGO UNDER THE REIGN OF THE "REAL" MAYOR DALEY - THE CURRENT MAYORS DAD, AND THAT WAS SERIOUS MACHINE POLITICS. THERE WAS A VERY SUCESSFUL INDEPENDANT MOVEMENT IN THE CITY COUNCIL. FOUR INDEPENDANTS GOT ELECTED AND MADE QUITE A DIFFERENCE. I WORKED VERY CLOSELY WITH ONE OF THEM AND HELPED IN SEVERAL CAMPAIGNS TO GET OTHER INDEPENDANTS ELECTED IN THE CITY COUNCIL AND IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. WE REALLY MADE A DIFFERENCE. ONE OF MY PROUDER MEMORIES. BY THE WAY, BACK THEN THERE WAS ONE REPUBLICAN OUT OF 50 ALDERMAN. SAME THING TODAY, 41st WARD ALDERMAN IS THE ONLY "R". THE R'S DON'T EVEN SEEM TO BOTHER. THEY WERE NEVER SUPPORTIVE OF THE OPPOSITION CANDIDATES AND REALLY MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LATE 1960'S. WE FOUND THE SAME LACK OF SUPPORT IN MY WIFE'S RUN, BUT THEY WERE THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS AND AS INDEPENDANTS IN OUR COUNTY WE WOULD HAVE A REAL PROBLEM GETTING ON THE BALLOT

In the UK, millions seem to vote in much the same way they follow sport.
"I've always voted Labour/supported Manchester United" and always will" is the type of comment you will often hear.
Since children they have voted for the Red (Labour) coloured party and supported the local "Red" (Manchester United) team.
The same applies to the "Blue" type of people.
No rational thought seems to come in to it.

SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE PEOPLE OVER HERE, JUST SUBSTITUTE THE WORDS DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN. COME TO THINK OF IT, THE NEWS PEOPLE ARE NOW DIVIDING US BY RED STATES AND BLUE STATES FOR "R" AND "D"
The other type of voting pattern springs from the view that the Red (Labour) party represents the average working man. The Blue (Conservatives) tend to support those who think they aren't working class.
A view thats outdated by about 50 years. SEEM TO BE A BIRTH RIGHT - OR BIRTH DEFECT - TO LIVE AN DIE IN THE FAMILY PARTY

Bizarre! I AGREE

Regards
Mr S

Jason,

I am really interested in participating with you and your group. I can't get to my files until later this evening, but have a number of projects using sketchup (I posted some of them on the old forum, but don't know how to access the archived files.) I will find and will post some that show potential for old buildings, design renderings and finished building photos.

My home town has a formal fascade restoration program with matching grants of up to $25K per building for fixing the fronts up. Not a lot of money but it really broke the ice. This fascade program never went anywhere until the cash came up. Now the whole town square is getting involved. Very infectious.

Next week I will be meeting with the council president of a nearby town to help them set up a similar program for their downtown strip. They want to get peoples energy up and photos with some photomatched SU sketches can help (along with a boat load of money of course). Having a historic district helps. I know Jacksonville has a very active historic society, have you talked with them at all??

@mr s said:

Hi remus,

I asked for other views on this issue and you have provided me with your perspective on this. Thanks.

Don't know if it explains why millions will still go out and vote for more of the same?

I would be interested to hear any other explantions,

Regards
Mr S

Mr S

I have lived most of my life in the Chicago area which as you may know is a place of great extreems - good architecture, food theater, music (CSO is great), and also politically, Illinois has been home to Presidents Grant, Lincoln, Regan and Obama and also is a state with one of if not the largest number of governors who left office to serve a jail term - one currently serving time and another - Blaggo - waiting his turn, although he has the arrogance to think he did nothing wrong. That attitude of our recently deposed governor is part of the problem. Corruption is so deeply engrained, it doesn't seem "Wrong" it is just the way thing "Are".

Good, thoughfull, intellegent people are repelled by the taint of politics so the void is filled with creeps. People vote the way they are told to vote by spin masters of the creeps. Many vote to preserve their personal status que - fear loss of jobs, favors etc. Many do not vote because they have lost sight of the power of an individual vote. Most of the "machine" political systems hope for a low turn out on election day because they know they are getting their supporters out - the rest they HOPE stay home.

A few years ago my wife ran for a county office in our corner of Indiana (our County shares a border and ideology with Chicago). The office was traditionally a stepping stone for emerging youth of party in power and was always unchallenged. My dear spouse decided it was time to stand up especially since most of the candidates in the primary were known to be the worst kind of hacks. As in Chicago and Cook County, the winner of the primary election is the winner of the election. We gave a good fight! But lost. However my wife had the third largest number of votes in the County for our party. It wasn't enough since we were outnumbered, but she could not have gotten those numbers without crossovers. People ARE looking for change but are disheartened by the odds. We were both burnt out by the campaign - it is hard to imagine the uphill battle of fighting an entrenched system-machine, especially if your own party does not give its full support. We were both so pissed off by that lack of support it will take some time to restore the energy for either of us to consider running for anything. What hurt even worse than losing, after the election and the numbers came in, the party chairman lauded my wife as his "shining star" - same jerk that wouldn't give us the time of day during the campaign.

Sorry for the rant - this touched a nerve. Apparently the worldwide political situation is nothing new - to the UK or the Colonies and not unique to this time either. Human nature. Lots of inertia to overcome but it can be overcome.

I could go on, but will now count to ten.

I saw something similar at Disney World a few years ago. Took the grandkids to this theater where they interact real time with a CGI "critter" on a large screen. They talk back and forth, the virtual creature recognizing and holding a conversation with the kids sitting on the floor in front of the screen. I assumed there was some control from the "man behind the curtain" but it was a very convincing effect. I wonder how much of this AI is actually being manipulated by a bank of operators off screen? Sorry for the skepticism.

Susan,

Many things come to mind from this story, most of the thoughts have "run, don't walk, away" as part of the theme. If they are that tight on their budget, they need to buy a box of crayolas and a book on sketching. Reminds me of a church group I ran into years ago that taught me a lesson in business. I found out after having been burnt, that they went to a number of architects and had each do a portion of the work, said they were not satisfied, parted company with each but got enough generic work from each architect to pass on to the next - asking for a lower fee since they already had sketches etc. etc. very dispicable especially for a chutrch group. They never got it built. God got 'em.

Very dramatic skies - there is soo much contrast and detail they don't look real

Ithli,

Really great walk through . I like the way you take us through in black and white and stop to render key views along the way, very good technique, very effective way to give the feel for the space and connections and the still shot rendered sections are very well done. As some of the others have asked - how did you do the animation of the people? Also, could you describe some of the technique and what renderer you used?

Hi August,

There is a "sticky" at the top of this forum with about 2 million links (mind boggling)to free texture sites, which I glanced through but could not find anything. The quickest solution was to go to "Form Fonts" I found a set of hatches that I think are what you are looking for. There is a small subscription fee to FF but well worth the time it saves. I have attached a sceen capture of some of the textures I found there. Hope this helps you.

@gull said:

while i'm at it, have exploded a cylinder that was part of a component and i cant dimension the diameter because its been blown into segments. can i make those 24 line segments forming the end of the cylinder, back into a dimentionable circle??

gull, take a look at the link below to a ruby created by Chris Fullmer. This will help you find the centerpoint of any curve. While you're at it take a look at all of Chris' rubys, it is quite an impressive toolbox.

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=18963&hilit=plugin

@wbarch said:

. If you haven't yet, check out IMSI's DoubleCAD, they are attempting to build a bridge between sketchup and 2-D documentation that allows continued changes to SU model to reflect/update in the construction documents (would work similar to your Revit analogy re: detail drawings).
-WB

I just read the Doublecad newsletter update today and it seems like once again effort outside Google are making the main SU wish list items happen. It appears, unless I am mistaken, that the SU interactive feature only works in the pro version, which is not a bad price for a full function Acad clone. I have a copy of the free version and it is good to work with and seems to work and play well with Acad. Has anyone had a chance yet to try Doublecad with SU as Mr. Manning has described below?

"SketchUp users can benefit
from advanced workflow
By William Manning, IDX Renditioner Senior Director

Test DoubleCAD XT Pro and try this... If you are a SketchUp user, consider opening the .SKP to automatically generate viewports in paperspace with all the correct layer visibility from SketchUp. Then replace the geometry in model space with an Xref of the original .SKP model. Changes you make when you continue to edit in SketchUp will be reflected even in your paperspace views the next time you open the DoubleCAD .2CD file or update the reference in the block palette.

To take it a step further, if you then use the Drafting Palette on the Xref in model space, even your sections and fragmented views will be associative to the SketchUp model."

Chris,

I just wanted to add my thanks for this very helpful plug in and again for all the others- a very impressive collection of time savers.

Thanks Chris, this is a very welcome plugin and I will find it very useful.

Dave,

There are a number of free "Sticky notes" programs on line that I think would give you what you're looking for

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/download.html

This link is to one of them, it is customizable and non entrusive. Just do a Google for " free sticky note software" and you will get a bunch to pick from.

Good luck.

Jim

Great tool Chris - I can see quite a few uses.

I could see this type of script speeding up the process of putting a model together from imported cad elevations. Attached is a WIP showing a model I just started to assemble from autocad parts. My process now is to make faces, rotate and snap together. I wonder if there is any chance that a divided surface might eventually take advantage of this script?

This will be a great tool with many practical 3 D design life uses. I like using curves in building shapes and items in buildings-furniture-millwork etc. but have felt very curve challenged. The curved surface push pull was a major step forward and this should be an even bigger jump forward.

Thank you Thomas. I will find this useful.