When I use Styles to switch to Edges/Color by Axis, Sketchup does not (usually) allow me to switch back to black unless I get out of Edges then come back to it. Often, the type is mislaid and overlapping on the Styles Window when this happens.

I'm using OS 10.5.5 (and it also happened on 10.5.2) on a MacBook Pro, running SU 6 Freebie.

Jim

Gotcha. That's why some of the icons were not at first showing up, I'd left them in their parent folder in the original Ruby folder. Now hat I've moved the parent into Plugins, they work. If anyone can follow that convoluted English.

I've also discovered the embedded tutorials, usually in the Directory folder, which certainly help— they include explanations of where the files go.

What a great contribution these coders are making to Sketchup. This explains how a lot of effects are generated.

Thanks, folks.

Jim

Thanks.

I'm not sure why "plugins" doesn't show up in Spotlight or hard disk searches, but that's a Mac or 10.5.2 issue. The folder is where you described it.

I find that if I leave the .rbs in their folder they do not show, but if I take them out and individually put them into Plugins, they (sometimes) do. For instance, JointPushPull Folder contains jointpushpull.rb, LibTraductor.rb, and the JPP_Dir folder. Bezierspline Folder also contains a version of LibTraductor.rb. It seems sloppy to open all the folders and put their contents in Plugins Folder, but that's what it takes for them to work for me. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Jim

I've signed up for Woodworking about a half dozen times. Each time I go back to my Memberships, it is unchecked.

And where does it show up when you have successfully joined? In the Forums Index? In the GoTo selector?

JIm

Maybe this should go in the Ruby Forum, but as a newbie I'm embarrassed to ask there.

I'm interested in trying some of the ruby scripts. I gather you download them and put them in the Plugins Folder, or otherwise as indicated.

I'm on a Mac running SU 6 Freebie on Leopard 10.5.2. There's no Plugins Folder on the whole computer, unless it's invisible. Is this a feature of the full version only, or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance,

JIm

A week or two ago the New Yorker had an article about Bucky Fuller. It discussed his personality and how it influenced his influence, as well as some of the doors he opened.

I also was turned on to him (and other interests) by the Whole Earth Catalog and CoEvolution Quarterly.

I agree that geodesic domes opened a big door, but they have the inherent limits of strongly engineered mathematical shapes. That is, they don't have a lot of heart to them. There is very little you can do aesthetically with a perfect geometry such as a sphere. Living here on earth, we need to respect our physical needs as well as gravity, and a 3D radially symmetric geometry doesn't do that.

Your TIN toy shows how to start building alternate, more flexible geometries. A lot depends on the friction of the joints, as you are really making hexagons, not triangles because of the small distance between the spherical connectors. The hubs can twist under assymetric load.

I was fascinated to hear a lecture by one of the architects finishing Antonio Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral. Apparently, Gaudi also worked from a mathematical base, especially catenaries, parabolas, ellipses, and surfaces of revolution. He then textured the surfaces by constructing them from rough masonry. He took the additional step of refining and re-refining the mathematics until a strong aesthetic emerged. While overly expressive to many (hence the term gaudy) his work shows as strongly physical rather than intellectual like Bucky's.

Wow, is this a wish list or what?

I'm way into the idea of a board stretcher. Perhaps it could have better size controls as well. It would be nice to know what the final size is, not just the difference between original and final versions.

I have a lot of trouble designing furniture in Sketchup because there is so little control of curves. How about the SU equivalent of Beziers? I also have a lot of trouble editing what I've done. Often I trash a work in progress because it's easier to start over than to edit. I'm sure the skill will grow on me, but as a newbie I find the learning curve starts easy but quickly gets steep, at least for anything with delicacy or intricacy.

Another tool I would like to see is a Molding Maker. It would be a specialized hybrid of a components manager and a Follow Me Tool. From a library of cutters (negative shapes) or patterns (actual moldings) you could extrude shapes along lines. Store anything from casing patterns to panel raises to tabletop edges and apply them to selected lines. Ideally, you could control where the profile hits the wood by dragging the shape into the rough stock, thereby setting the depth and height of the cutter relative to the stock.

And as everyone else here has said, put me on the list of beta testers!

Icarus Furniture

(www.icarusfurniture.com)

Nothing like trying to describe actions performed to a 3-D model to illustrate the limits of language.

Click and dgar— wow, what a comcept. In less time than it takes to figure how to construct perpendicular planes, I've finished flattening the model.

Thanks, Chris!

— to those still trying to figure what I meant, here's another stab at it:
To model this prism and check it out in the real world, I made a flat map of the skin of it. I was Move>Copying individual faces, aligning them and Rotating them into a plane. My issue was, how do I define the hinge line of the Rotate tool when none of the default orientations works.

By placing the Rotate compass on an endpoint and click-dragging it along the line I want for a hinge, the compass snaps into the right orientation. From there it's a snap.

This is my first question. Glad there's a newbie forum.

Best,
Jim

I'm designing a glass prism in Sketchup. To check my plan, I'm flattening the surfaces out into a plane, then printing, cutting, and gluing into a 3-D model.

It's easy to rotate the first few planes, which are aligned with the x-y-z axes. Later on, faces are irregular, angles are not square, and no lines align with the axes. The rotate tool will align with an axial plane, or a face, but then it distorts the sides instead of flattening them.

I need to align the rotate tool square to the line I'm hinging on, but can't find an easy way, without elaborage constructions of perpendicular planes. It seems this must be simpler— any tips?

Tanks,

Jim