It's funny that this discussion is happening at the same time as the one I started in the ruby section http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=19140. It just shows that there really is need for another cooperative modeling ruby!

I'm guessing (from having a play in blender) the system is optimized so that after "subscribing" to the model only changes would be received and sent by the system. There are pros and cons with a system such as this. I guess one pro is increased speed, and one con is the chance for bugs to arise such as getting out of sync.

I wouldn't discount blender if I were you Solo. If you ever get the time to learn it like I have recently then you will start to realise its potential. I admit it isn't easy to learn like sketchup, but I recently found a really good course on the internet http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/PDF_Tutorials.html

I didn't approach blender with many expectations, seeing as I had only dabbled with other programs, and over the course of 2 years i've tried to learn truespace (and failed because of it's (IMO) oversimplified UI) and had a go at 3ds, I've returned to blender and have really sunk my teeth into it. Achieving realistic material results with blender takes practice, and I haven't had enough of that yet, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. But of course there is no need for all that for you solo, because you will be happy to hear (and probably already know) that there is currently a development version of Vray for blender. And for anyone else you can always give yafaray a go.

In my opinion blender is the best 3d package when: price, features, free support and development are taken into account. Although some people complain about the UI, and I didn't like it at first, after a few weeks I actually became fond of it! If it doesn't agree with you then there is always hope that blender 2.50 will: (there are some exciting new features coming up! including a redesign of the UI system) http://www.blender.org/development/current-projects/blender-25-project/

edit: oh yeh, I just realized Solo, blender has a fantastic compositor and sequence editor all built into it. This is great for special effects after rendering, and for anything else you might otherwise use after effects for. The sequence editor is also pretty good considering you don't even need to leave blender to do all your video editing!

ps: I'm not saying people shouldn't use sketchup here of course, because differences in time it would take to model any kind of building or geometric shape would make that proposition ludicrous!

yeh the apps that come with verse work fine, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get blender to connect to the same server, because I think the (old) compiled one on the blender site isn't compatible with the newer server.

I also had a play with the included apps but I just can't get the hang of the modeling one, mainly because I don't have a middle mouse button on my laptop! Naturally I prefer SU!

Yes, I think you're right Remus and as I said before, and I also think you can edit the textures with verse for gimp.

I can say now that I've tried the system out with a few friends over an ad-hoc wireless network with blender and it is pretty much realtime! Even if the system doesn't produce that kind of performance over the internet, it is still just as useful. It does have a few limitations, and I'm yet to work out whether they are to do with the blender side or the verse server side, but I'm sure work arounds could be found.

I think that on a large, perhaps commercial project, cooperative modeling could be very useful, because if you are working over the internet then it can be difficult to see what and where you are supposed to model and how it fits in with the whole project. It would be relatively (compared to other methods whatever they may be) easy to direct a whole team of modelers over the internet with this system.

Another really cool feature I noticed about it was the plugin for Gimp. During experimenting I loaded a Verse Project example onto the server to test out in blender, and tried connecting Gimp to the project. I think I discovered that you can edit image files (textures, whatever) in the project. Which means that someone could work on texture editing while another person could be doing modeling.

Linea, I'm not sure I got all of what you were saying but I'm still glad you think it was an interesting Idea!

ok then, no potential?

I've been mucking around on blender, trying to get to a stage where I can make an animation for a school project when I stumbled across this little gem: http://www.uni-verse.org/ also more on the site hosted by blender: http://verse.blender.org/

The really amazing thing about this project is that it has the potential to unite any 3d app for cooperative modeling, and I've noted that plugins for blender and 3ds max have already been developed, although the blender one is only included in the source code (not implemented as a python script) and is a little archaic (the compiled version on the site is for blender 2.2 or something) there is still potential for this project to be revived.

I'm not a programming expert by any means but I also noticed that someone has worked on "ruby bindings for verse" on the links page so that might also be usefull (i have no idea about these things, just thought i'd mention this cause sketchup uses ruby too, it might be usefull! )

So the framework is all there for doing cooperative modeling, that's just what the project was designed for: "Our goal is to create an open source Internet platform for multi-user, interactive, distributed, high-quality 3D graphics and audio for home, public and personal use. The platform will support high-quality 3D-graphics as well as high-quality 3D-audio and acoustic simulation." we just need some experienced ruby programmers to make the link to sketchup.

so if anybody else out there thinks there is some potential in this idea, please comment!

I have been looking forward to a plugin like this for so long! thankyou so much!

just create the html in word or open office and add hyperlinks as menus. Pretty Easy I reckon?

thanks so much guys. I'm making it for my granddad and hoping to render it or get it 3d printed.

I will take a look at all the models. I thought I did it cleanly, but now I can see that I made quiet a few mistakes!

thanks chris! This will be perfect I imagine!

thanks gaieus, yes it is smooth now. It isn't quiet clean though. I was wondering how to achieve a more clean subdivide (what kinds of edits I need to make to the geometry to give I nice clean subdivide with no little glitches). In some sections of the hull when subdivided result in small, triangular bumps and concaves along the hull.

I'm having trouble getting this boat hull for a paddle steamer that I'm building to subdivide nicely (it looks ok in sketchup but when rendered you can really notice the problems with it). Can anyone help me? It is to exact dimensions so I don't really want to change the overall shape too much.

paddle steamer model

I'd also like to participate. I can see great opportunities arising out of this!

A water bottle I found living in my fridge. Modeled it a little while ago. Rendered in indigo.

my friend has su working fine on his 64 bit vista machine if that helps you...

if you just put a little bit of effort to learn it, mapzone can be a really powerful tool when used in conjunction with an image editor like gimp or even by it's self.

well after much trouble with my graphics for sketchup for linux (It works fine on windows) I did get sketchup installed using wine, but one of the other problems, and one that I've also noticed when using the wink screen recorder on windows is that the mouse sprite doesn't have transparent edges, (black mouse with white box around it) this is probably an issue with my graphics and with the way sketchup was made. But this problem doesn't crop up when I use sketchup on windows.

within a tool? (hmm I need to study more! ) well I was wanting to make a line drawing ruby that involved two clicks like the example file. But from just trying to examine the file I realized that it was quiet a complicated process, much more than just drawing a line using ruby! I wish that google could have made this function a little simpler, seeing as like 80% of the plugins I have used use something like this. I guess I need to start on some other more simple things. I have read a book on O O programing before but things are a little rusty now! (classes, methods... arrgghh! )

I've started trying to learn how to use ruby but I'm having a lot of trouble getting input points to work. U'm what would be the simplest way for me to make a simple tool that tells me the coordinates in 3 dimensions of whatever I'm clicking on?