Thanks to Drew from PlusSpec for the reply and for everyone else's opinions. I've given it some thought and set out some points for consideration below.

The way the software is offered does appear to be reducing its uptake and I can see why. Like everyone else I much prefer to buy software outright and then it is my choice whether to upgrade in the future if the new features are worth it. With a subscription I have to pay every year whether I want to or not, otherwise I can't use the software any more or potentially not even view the models created in it.

I am not against a subscription in principle however if it is good value. I am currently considering subscribing to Microsoft Office 365 Business. Amazingly for Microsoft it is better value to subscribe. One copy of Office Professional as an outright purchase is just under £400 for 1 PC only. Subscribing to Office 365 is less than £100 per year and it can be loaded onto 5 PCs/devices. For me this is is good value.

PlusSpec however charges what should be a one off (and quite high) purchase price of £500 when actually it is an annual cost. Furthermore I would only be allowed to load it onto 1 PC. If it was good enough I wouldn't begrudge £500 as a one off and then a lower upgrade price as and when I thought it was worth it. Alternatively I would possibly consider an annual subscription of £500 (although £2-300 would be more appealing) if I could load it onto 5 devices. Currently however it is a lose-lose situation with a high subscription cost (more than Sketchup itself) and with only the facility to load it onto 1 PC. As a very minimum I would want to be able to load it onto a PC and a laptop.

Further to the above there is no demo available to even test it out to see if it is worth buying. I know there is a 30 day money back guarantee, however I, and I'm sure many others, prefer to trial software first rather than outlay cash only to very quickly find it is unsuitable and then have the hassle of getting a refund. In a year I might trial a number of different software packages and I would be loathe to outlay £500+ every time I did so. There are also accountancy implications for business users in doing so. Furthermore due to time constraints I may take longer to trial the software than 30 days. Most other software vendors allow demo downloads so I don't understand why PlusSpec does not.

Anyway thanks again to Drew for replying and I would appreciate it if you could rethink your business model slightly in the light of the many comments posted here. I'm sure you would get more takers if you did. If it is as good as you say and would be worth the subscription, then at least allow potential users to demo it first to find out.

Has anyone any had any experience of using PlusSpec particularly in the UK? It looks like a very interesting and promising BIM plugin but there is no demo and I'm reluctant to pay $995 AUD for something that may not work for me even if there is a 30 day money back guarantee.

I also notice that when the developer originally posted on these forums only 9 months ago the price was only $395 AUD and it was for a full one off license. He quoted at the time "Hi Guys, subscriptions are the worst! you get to use PlusSpec like you do Sketchup." http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=80%26amp;t=57343

It now appears that it is in fact subscription based at $995 AUD per year. Given that the price has more than doubled in a year and it is now subscription based I'm also nervous of getting locked into an ever and rapidly increasing annual cost.

I don't begrudge the cost in principle however as it is still much less than other BIM software such as Revit, as long as it works well. In the absence of a demo however it's a big ask to buy software untested, hence my query whether anyone else has used it and whether it is worth the outlay.

Are you printing to scale rather than a perspective view? It sounds like you have checked 'use high accuracy HLR' at the bottom right of the print dialogue. This will produce a vector drawing but at the expense of shadows and textures. Uncheck it to print shadows.

Aerilius thanks for the reply. I did of course mean whether it was possible to legally import the 3d information. Obviously if Google don't want it to be used then that is the end of the matter. I was hoping however that it was currently allowed but just not widely documented.

Given that terrain information can be imported into Sketchup and the close ties with Sketchup I'd like to think that it would be something that Google and Trimble would be willing to support. If anyone from Trimble could comment I would appreciate it.

Since October 1st 2013 Google Earth no longer uses user generated 3d models. Instead it is rolling out the use of automated 3D Models created with stereo photogrammetry (see
http://3dmodeling4business.com/the-story-behind-google-earths-new-3d-cities/).

For those cities which have been created with the new system the results are quite impressive as long as you don't zoom in too far.

My question is whether anyone knows if it is possible to import the new 3d imagery into Sketchup? It would be great to be able to do so. We can import terrain data of course but I can't find a way to import the new 3d imagery. If anyone knows if it is possible it would be great to know how!

TIG, thanks for the reply and explanation. It works fine now that I've changed the properties. With a bit of fiddling with the arrow head manually it should look very similar to the fully manually drawn version and will be a big time saver.

I do have Layout but I use Adobe Indesign for graphics but I'll maybe have another look at it as it's been some while since I've tried it.

Is it possible to allow a line to cast shadows and apply styles such as extended lines with 2D tools?

The attached example arrow on the left was created manually and shows what I'd like to achieve after a line style is applied in order to produce urban design annotation with a sketchy hand drawn effect.

The arrow on the right was created with line styles but the faces do not cast shadows and effects such as extended edges and profiles don't appear to work on it. Each one of the dashes appears to be a face when I click on it but they don't cast a shadow.

If it isn't possible at the moment could it be made to behave in the way I've described?

Also could arrowhead styles be added to the settings?

Thanks for the reply however the png/TIFF file is not editable. I need the ability to amend the linework and colours.

Does anyone know why the UK Ordnance Survey Mastermap displays coloured faces in CAD software but not in Sketchup? Attached is a JPEG file showing an example of the colour faces in DoubleCAD (any CAD software will display it like this). I've also attached a DWG file of the same.

If you open the DWG in Sketchup there are no faces displayed only lines, as well as all the text being lost.

Is there a plug in available, or could one be written, which displays Ordnance Survey maps in the way they would in CAD software i.e. with faces and text?

At the moment I have to use the create faces plug in and then painstakingly colour all the resultant faces the correct colour. Text isn't quite so bad as I can explode the text in DoubleCAD and then import into Sketchup which then displays the text. I could really do with a solution for the faces in particular as large maps can take several hours to recolour, something I'm about to face yet again this evening!

Thanks

OS Plan Colour DWG.dwg

Tig

Thanks for the reply. The mesh was created by a company providing a 3d model of a site and context (similar to Zmap). I presume they don't use Sketchup to create it! I just used regular Drape in the end and painted each triangle individually. Thanks for looking anyway. Super Drape and regular drape do seem to be prone to crashing. I've sent a few models in the past to Google where the problem was apparent but they don't seem to have fixed it.

I have a relatively simple group to drape with Super Drape and it crashes every time. I've tried it on Vista and Windows 7. Does anybody have any idea what could be causing it? The file is attached. When I use the regular drape tool it is fine. I know there was an issue with Sketchup 7 but I'm using version 8.

Thanks

super drape crash.skp

Thanks Kristoff it looks interesting but won't achieve what I'm after.

I'm presuming this is probably not possible, however if anyone thinks it can be done there is a fee available if you PM me.

This software does something similar, however I'd far rather work within Sketchup. :

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(www.holisticcity.co.uk)

You can also of course use the outliner (Window-Outliner) to quickly select/hide/unhide objects. Although you probably knew that already!

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions. All are useful however none of them give me the result I'm looking for.

I'm hoping someone might be able to tell me if the following is possible. I'm working on a large housing masterplan at the moment and I've set out the development blocks. My next job is to insert the houses. This is very time consuming and I'm wondering if there is a script that could be created to achieve the attached. I suppose a cross between component spray and path copy would start to address what is required.

Essentially the block edges and required house components are selected then parameters would be input. These would be distance from block edge, spacing between components, alignment (parallel to edge) and if possible, rules for turning corners where a distance from the rear face to the side gable is input (It would probably be green to red axis edges). It would be great if this were possible and any suggestions would be appreciated.

There was an application called Google Map Buddy which would automatically stitch together GE files to allow very high resolution images to be created from Google Earth. You would however have to import them and project them onto the terrain manually. Unfortunately Google took exception to it and made the software writer take it down (http://www.augmentedrealitysoftware.co.uk/gmb.html). It might still be available if you (ironically!) do a Google search though.

Thanks Rich. The solid inspector is essential I've found when creating these sort of volumes.

TIG, thanks once again for coming up with the perfect answer. I have a deadline for the project today so that's very helpful.

Rich, thanks too for your suggestion. Whilst it is the volume of water I require it would still be useful to be able to work out the excavation volume with your method. I've downloaded Tgi 3D however I can't actually figure out how to skin the loop and get the solid. If you could point me in the right direction I'd be grateful.

You could try switching on colour by layer in the layers box. I would avoid bringing in hatches at all however as they will clog up your model and make it very slow. It's better to bring in a simple line drawing and shade it in Sketchup. A quick way to fill faces is the 'make faces' plug in (http://www.smustard.com/script/MakeFaces).