Ooooh ....just got myself a Kangertech Pro tank to fit on my EGO twist battery mod.
What a great vaping experience. Nice rich taste and lot's and lot's of vape.
I surround myself with clouds and let the vapour flow everywhere ...feels like smoking pipe lol .

Still waiting on more overseas 12 mg e-juice.
More and more the tobacco juices get my intrest.
Especially with a tank it works well.

I went down from 20 cigarettes to 10 in the first few days and now I am on 5.
Getting there .

Hi Olishea,

I too am tempted to go for more mild sweet tastes.
Berries are yum, and I feel really good when vaping the vanilla.
I enjoy letting the vape run through my nose on exhaling, such a nice taste .

I got a bottle of flavorless 24 mg nicotine mix (PG 70%-30%) to mix with flavor juices ('doubling').
My first observation is that any mixture with more than 12 mg nicotine is too much for me.
So I guess I will be a low nicotine vaperer .
It's not just that I feel the nicotine (in back of throat, little tingling in arms even), it's also that to me it tastes bad.
I had the opportunity to taste the difference between no nicotine and 12 mg nicotine of the same vape, and it's clear to me that the nicotine adds a bitter chemical taste.

I am quite pleased by that observation, making me want to reduce nicotine intake to 0 over time .

@Rich O Brien,
Thank you for the link.
I too think that e-cigarettes will take over 'analogs', it is just crazy that we were all smoking the tobacco rubbish for years.
At the same time I remain cautious of e-cigarettes too.
As in the article, we are supposed to breath air, and anything that is chemically added to that, intuitively appears less healthy.
So I keep track if the media on health tests.
The only downside I currently experience is dehydration because the PG extracts water, thus dehydrates.
I will look into pure VG vapes, though would have to change gear for that (a glass vivi nova container perhaps?).

Also , the evolution that the big current tobacco brands jump the bandwagon on e-cigs, gives me a somewhat cautious attitude.
Simply cause I don't trust them....what 'extra' products would they be adding to e-juice, that are perhaps more addictive etc...
Perhaps that is paranoia on my side, still....

All in all, the e-cigarette is my mate for now .
It's the lesser evil one , and I settle for it when it can get me away from the tobacco .

The Plume Room seems to be a well known store (US) for delicate mild sweet vapors so I ordered some of their blends.

My first observations after having the set ....
Tobacco taste vape is yuk.
Vanilla (without nicotine) is yummy .

Still smoking cigarettes , meh ...less though , about 10 a day (opposed to 20 before)

Thanks for the tips guys .
I admit I am smoking more cigarettes now in anticipation of 'Sketchup + Artisan' to arrive .
Indeed, I am attracted to the variable intake so I can fine tune.
While waiting for mail, I keep on 'lurking' (pun intended) here to 'absorb' more tips .

I can imagine vaping away while reading a 'SU 2014 wishlist' thread, makes the annoyance less lol .

Hi guys ,
This is just a wonderful thread.
I smoke 20 light cigarettes a day and seeing all the excitement on digital smoking here, I am jumping on .
Ordered myself a couple of EVOD BCC clearomisers to be fitted on EGO-C twist battery packs.
Basically it's the Sketchup of the e-cigs isn't It ,
Pete is on the 3DsMax of all vapes (Provaria?) so there is a picking order too lol .
As it is not legal to sell nicotine in Australia, I ordered some juice from Hongkong and NZ.

It would be so awesome to be able to say that Sketchucation made an end to my cigarette addiction.
Hail guru .

A couple of weeks before the mail orders are in and I will be vaping away. Fingers crossed .

Hi frv,
Thank you for the little technical detail explanation.
Yes, with a thick wall build up as you explain, it seems easy to keep the beam in front of the insulation in the wall cavity, avoiding a thermal break. Wall cavity measurements have increased since I worked in Europe . Good evolution.
Australia has very poor thermal insulation standards, especially here in West Australia it's a joke.

I totally resonate with the distinction you make between software for arch engineering and design.
Revit works (kind of) for architectural engineering, while software for architectural design is more of an undefined open market.

Also, Revit has serious implications for staff that is being hired.
I regularly see architectural graduates being hired for their Revit skills, not for their architectural design skills.
That's just wrong.

In the 'olden' days (mmmm showing my age now ), it didn't matter as much if you know Autocad or not... the amount of training needed was 'manageable' and not a culprit when hiring people.

Revit is a different ball game. Even people using Revit for more than 5 years encounter moments when they struggle to figure out ways to do things....

I kind of hope Revit will soon be cut out of architectural practices.
It is indeed a money making hoax to some extents.

@frv,
Aside of the topic: I like the project's render and the explanation that goes with it.
Also makes me want to see the detail solution to insulate the UPN . 'Koudebrug'?

In Belgium I used to work with Vectorworks and Sketchup too.
The reason is I could keep focus on the design that way cause both pieces of software are just easy.
Now that I worked for 5 years in Australia, I witness how much energy here goes into 'pulling things of' in Revit.
The focus on design is almost lost as everybody seems to waste all their energy in getting the bloody software to work properly for them....and it hardly ever does.
Revit really puts a downer on the the architect's profession ...unless you have the personality that likes the software more than making good design.

And yes, Layout is not ready for production (yet).
The lag in updating , not enough 2D tools etc....

Wow, I am impressed with Trimble .
A maintenance update so quickly after the official 2013 is a very good sign.
There is hope .
Now a little more communication skills and they are about to regain confidence with the part of the user base that is grumpy.

Well done and hopefully more updates to come

Wow , VisualArch for Rhino looks like the perfect architecture plugin to be a good alternative to Sketchup.
Easy modeling from 2D, efficient setting up section planes to form plans, sections and elevations, free form manipulation for the better architectural projects etc...
Combined with the render engines that work with Rhino (Vray Yaaay ), this looks like a powerful solution.

I always thought Revit missed the ability to really design, besides the shoebox stereotype generic architecture and Sketchup hasn't got the integrated 2D component (though Layout is not too bad for a small project).
Rhino with VisualArch seems to close the gap between 3D and 2D.

When I get back working, I'll be considering this as a workflow.
And yeah, don't you just love Grasshopper?
Such an intelligent piece of software.

That's very kind thank you . I have been busy Sid, a total different life .
@Pibuz: sorry for the little thread hijack

Thanks guys

Hi Philippo ,

Such an amazing work you're showing us.
Very beautiful .
And so nice to see again what a wonderful render engine (Sk)Indigo is.
So powerful and easy to use...I always took the render time as a minor pain to what the superb quality is like.
And in the end, even speed is fine for exteriors .

I haven't been using Sketchup for months now (I always used SU with Indigo and Vray), mostly because I have a wee cute baby boy now, and am taking a break from the work jungle .

Mmmmm...I couldn't even convince the large architectural company I worked for to upgrade the Pro licenses from v.7 to v.8.
So I can imagine that staff in other firms struggle to lobby internally to upgrade to 2013.
Trimble did put a stick in the door with the Free version not for commercial use .
So they do enforce aggressively converting Free seats to Pro seats.
A lot of money for no benefit...
Also, a lot of firms growl under the yearly Revit/Autocad subscription cost.
Seeing that Sketchup goes the same route (2013..2014...) becomes 'another' financial software burden for many.
No problem for the small one/two person firms that will find their way to piracy...however a concern for the bigger fish.

@vojo said:

Keep in mind that only a small fraction of plugins here or elsewhere actually deliver the advertised function let alone actually solve a problem. Unless somebody either starts to enforce plugins (delivers as advertised) or Trimble states clearly "ah ah ah....I know what you are thinking...does this plugin actually do anything or not....well being sketchup and the plugin community is basically the wild west...you got to ask yourself one question....do I feel lucky"

Seriously, I am not going to call out specifics....but there are authors here that have 10 or more plugins that range from the "gee that was false advertizing" to the "it works some of the time" to the "this just does work at all" My favorite is the plugin (wont say exactly what it is attempting to do) that does 2 things. First, it apparently swaps or inverts ALL the geometries in the Z direction. Second, totally disables selection of any kind (and corrupts the file...only way back is to use an older version of the drawing and redo the work hoping it doesnt mess things up again). And this plugin is highly regarded on this site....nice!!!!

That's a little harsh.
When I used Sketchup (since version v.3 and stopped using it half a year ago), I heavily depended on some of the plugins here on Sketchucation.
To name one :Fredo's Surface Operations (in combo with CPhillips' JointPushpull)
Without it ,and disregarding it's limitations, it would have been impossible to draw roads/siteworks on curved sites.
I would not have been able to do my work in Sketchup without it.

And there are many more examples.
Yes, there are a lot of B class plugins too, however isn't that why the Sketchucation plugin store and EW are now intended for ? To sort them , assess them and create guidelines for new plugins so underperforming plugins won't make it?

My gut feeling says Aerilius has a point.
I have the feeling there are no people available (not in Google era, not in Trimble) that can actually recode the Sketchup core code of the software to meet the expectations of a speedier and better performing sketchup.
Since @Last ceased to exist, no real core code adaptations have been done.
The people that left back then have taken the key ?

@jarynzlesa said:

new icons . why?

...cause the old ones were sooooooo 2012 .

I understand totally.
The intention Sketchucation has in holding strong a beautiful community has been proven over the past years.
The prove is a lot of members being happy to be here.
A nice balance between a great service provided and some revenue coming from it, great for all of us.
Most of this community is still for free and members have choice to pay for extras if they like.

I wonder if Trimble has the same intention.
From what I read in their announcement(s), their intentions are manifested most in words, less in according action.
Yes, when Trimble tells us that they 'listen to their user base' I would expect to hear what exactly they heard from the user base and how they acted to that specifically.

A year is a short term for software development so we could continue giving the benefit of the doubt and wait longer for substance.... however , haven't we been saying that for years now coming out of the Google era?

Hi Mike Lucey ,

Valid points you bring up....
At the same time I see a culprit in your suggestions.
John Bacus refers to the EW as an 'app store' which to me indicates a Trimble source of income.
Do you expect Trimble to incorporate Sketchucation's 'Plugin Shop' (the word suggests intention for revenue too)?
That would make for a shop in a shop, where revenue of shop A goes to x and revenue B goes to y.
Unlikely isn't it as a business model?

It is all in the naming...it is unfortunate.

Seems like Sketchucation and Trimble should get talking with eachother as to how to go about things.
Your above post suggests to me that you haven't found an open door yet with Trimble to discuss.

I am sure both plugin depositories can live together in a good way, with the premise to serve a community in the best way.

Regards,
Kwistenbiebel

@alan fraser said:

@tomasz said:

Right. The "extension warehouse" will reach much broader audience... but it doesn't work in SU8 ((free) for commercial use)

Now when I think about it, there can be more reasons for this: financial, summer holidays coming in the northern hemisphere... I know well that a middle of a summer is not the best time for a release.

The Extension Warehouse wiindow in SU is just a web dialog box. It works anywhere. You can get to it by merely typing the URL into any browser address bar.

Am I reading this right and does Trimble actually consider Sketchucation as a competitor?
If so.....OMG ! Lol

Ooooh, what an amusing thread lol .
Don't you miss the @Last era ? When all was fresh with a fragrance of pioneering ?
Each new version of @Last was a new breath of fresh air.
You could actually feel the passion in the work of the developers.
Good times