Looks amazing! I'm on a Mac as well and I hope a Mac version is on your to-do list in the (not too distant) future!?! I'll promote it to everyone I can.

Hi Fredo; Yes, I realized this late last night after I posted here and I gave it a try. It works perfectly, just as predicted. Thanks so much for the assistance and the excellent plugin.

Hi Guys; thanks for the replies.

Fredo: If I mirror the geometry with the surface already marked up with the logo in ThruPaint, then the mirrored car door (using Flip Along Axis or Scale tool) comes out with the logo reading in reverse. Meaning, the letters are backward.

Srx: By sampling, do you mean to use the built-in SU Paint Bucket eyedropper? When I do that, the logo comes out all distorted and unreadable after I try to apply it to the new surface. Is there a method to sample the texture within ThruPaint? I tried using ThruPaint's Transfer UV Mode but I can't seem to get that to work either.

By the way: I was using the Natural UV mode to do the original applications of the logos.

Hello;
I’m working with a purchased model of a car — Subaru Outback in this case. Trying to create a mock-up for a vehicle signage house as a guide for applying spot graphics (and maybe even a full wrap). Jpeg attached.

I'm using Thrupaint, but I’m wondering about how to possibly copy & paste. Once I get one side of the vehicle completed, I want to be able to simply take the completed art and duplicate it on the other side of the car, with every spec retained — position, size, angle, rotation, etc. The Real Dry logo on the driver's side door in the Jpeg is an example. I’m having a heck of a time trying to figure out exactly how to do this — or figuring out if it even can be done with Thrupaint at all.

I’ve watched the tutorial video multiple times, and I may very well be missing something obvious. Is there a method for copying and pasting within Thrupaint like I’m trying to do?

Any assistance appreciated.

@chris fullmer said:

Is this s model you could upload here to the forum?

Sure, I could try.

Thanks Dave. I don't know what it is, then. Must be some configuration problem, or some subtle bug that I can't figure out.

I know we're talking about two different animals, your PC and my Mac, but if you get a chance maybe you could let me know what kind of export settings you've got set up for your animations -- codec choice, frame rate, movie size & type, etc.

I've tried multiple codecs (H.264, Mpeg-4, etc.) and different frame rates and still get the problem with the last 3 scenes being B&W and not color. I have no idea . . .

@chris fullmer said:

Sounds like those scenes are set to not retain style information - meaning they have no style associated with them. They will accept whatever style is current when the scene is activated.

Hi Chris. I don't think so, I've checked all that -- the scenes are all okay and are retaining all style attributes, etc. Also, they all display fine when I "play" the animation within Sketchup. It's just that when they're all output together as a continuous Quicktime animation those last 3 scenes (the "flashy", textured ones, so to speak) are rendered without the color or the texture, and in the very last scene the object that's the focal point turns completely black. BUT . . .

If I don't include the first two scenes (primitive wireframe renderings) then all the rest (including the last 3) render perfectly. It's something about the first two that seems to mess up something with the last three.

Weird.

@dave r said:

Go to Preferences (under the SketchUp menu on Mac) and click on General. Tick the box for Warn of style changes when creating scenes. Then when you create a new scene that has a style different from the currently selected scene, you should get a prompt box telling you the scene is different and asking you what you want to do about it. Choose Save as a new style. This will help from the get go.

This seems to have done it for me. "Save as a new style." It's the only thing I wasn't doing properly, though I have to say that the entire "scene/style/save/update/etc." paradigm was a bit difficult to get my head around (and I'm still not sure I understand it 100%). Thanks Dave.

What I was trying to achieve wasn't being accomplished, especially after I would see the apparent ease of something like this:

Of course, the Warning dialogue box and the entire aspect of that particular preference setting isn't really addressed by him in that video.

Anyway, thanks for all of the advice. Once I figured out this problem, I was halfway home. Now the only thing I need to figure out is why Sketchup doesn't like some of my scenes when I export them all as an animation. Of my 9 individual scenes, when I export everything (including the first two scenes), the last 3 (the ones with the colors and textures turned on) don't render correctly. When I delete those first two scenes, however (the two with a real primitive wireframe/sketchy look to them) then the remaining ones render fine. I guess I may just have to export the scenes in two "groups" and join them in Quicktime (though I was trying to avoid any possible jerkiness that might occur during such a cut-and-paste transition).

If anyone has a suggestion on the animation oddity, please let me know. Otherwise, thanks for the help!

Apologies if this is something that should be obvious to me, but I am pulling my hair out regarding Scenes and the (supposed) ability to changes attributes from one scene to the next.

I CAN get camera positions to change (obviously) but the only other attribute that will "update" for each scene is Shadows. I really want to change the Style attributes (shaded, shaded using textures, shaded using same, wireframe, and Display Edges/profiles, extension, etc.) from one scene to the next. But no matter what I do, or what order I do it in, those elements only seem to change universally (i.e. for every scene). I've even repeatedly watched some tutorials on YouTube and thought I found my answer, but it does not seem to work on my machine.

I've made a series of nine scenes circling around an object I built, all the Style attributes were the same, and then I tried to change them from scene to scene but they'd always just apply to all. Then, I tried to tweak each scene as I created it, and I got the same results!

I wanted to create a basic animation of an object as the camera pans around it and progresses from something like primitive wireframe with extensions and depth cue all the way to fully textured object with shadows and everything clean and neat at the end. Is this possible?

Please point out my mistake. I looked for a tutorial here but may have missed it. Any help appreciated.

(SU Pro 6.4.245, OS X Tiger, 2x3GHz Quad Core 16GB RAM Mac Pro)

Wow. That is . . . absolutely amazing. The simplicity of it all (after it's shown to you) just boggles my mind. I don't think I ever would've figured that out without the lesson.

Thanks so much, Gaieus.

Okay, this is my second question as a newbie.

Just getting started with rounded shapes, arcs, etc. I've attached the model in question and where I've gotten so far. I'm trying to mimic (not exactly, just in a rough sense would be fine) the front end or "cone" of the ship. But I'm unsure as to how to go about building this kind of rounded/funnel/cone shape in SU. Note: I'm not even necessarily interested in recreating the octagon hullform and integrating it with the cone, which is why I've started with just a circular hull. But I can't even get past building the cone at all and connecting it, so, that's why I'm here.

There are probably some other things I'm doing wrong and if anyone notices any I'd love to have them pointed out -- but the front end of the ship is where I'm stuck at precisely this moment. Any help appreciated.

Todd

How to build a rounded cone shape

@gaieus said:

Todd,

If you've messed your model up with layers and such, the best would be to upload it here so that we can have a look. It's extremely hard to "imagine" the logic of such a mess...

Gaieus, thanks.

No, as I noted in my original post, I'm pretty good about doing all of the primary modeling on "Layer 0". What confused me was why SketchUp didn't create edges where it seemed they should be -- as in when a door frame ends up sitting a little below the wall depth of what I'd designed. As I mentioned, I was (mistakenly) told to use the "intersect" command(s) to create some edges where I wanted them, but it seems that just manually editing the particular component and adding an edge at the right depth is the way to go. I may have had the stray "remnants" from using the intersect command show up in different groups, but I realize I wasn't properly editing the group (or component) in question when that happened.

Again, thanks for all the help.

Thanks guys. Chris -- To be clearer on my part, the problem only happens on "some" components . . . when a door w/frame that was built by someone else has a designed depth deeper than I want to use it for, or when a window sits differently for the person who created it for his model than for my purposes. I was just given the impression by someone else that the "intersect" method is the way to achieve what I wanted, while he had said he doesn't even pay the "missing edges" any mind at all (I guess I have a greater eye for detail than him!).

If I were to delete all of the extra geometry when I use intersect, though, I'd actually end up getting rid of the few added "pieces" that form the new edges of the door or window frames, so I guess my solution would be to delete all of the missing geometry EXCEPT those three or so lines that form the new edge that I want to appear. It was also very frustrating that in the way SU works it sometimes places that new geometry on different layers or in a different group than the actual component. I think I've since figured out that I need to be sure to edit the group first and then (usually) use "intersect with context" on the piece in question. When I do that, everything "seems" to stay connected to the same group.

Edson -- Thanks for that tutorial. I think in some instances that is definitely what is going on for me. Because sometimes I have the above problem occur when components aren't even involved, and it's just two or more "connecting" faces as you've shown. I guess I was just initially under the impression that SU would be more "intelligent" in how it handles adjoining surfaces and edge creation, but I guess that might be a double-edged sword that might also limit some of the flexibility of the software. It would be nice, however, if there were a setting added to an upcoming release -- kind of an "intelligent button" or something -- that could be turned on by the user so that SU would know to automatically create edges in certain scenarios.

Again, thanks for the help guys.

Okay, new guy here.

I'm trying to figure this out but I can't find the answer. I have a feeling that I'm just missing something very simple.

What frustrates me is the following: Whenever I add a door or window component to a house model with double-sided (two-face) walls, I make my own openings since SU doesn't allow component cutting of openings except into single faces. So far, so good. When I go to insert a door or window into said opening, however, there are oftentimes no "edges" where, for instance, the door frame meets the wall, or where the window framing meets the wall surface.

So, I've variously been told to use "intersect with model" and "intersect selected" or "intersect with context" in order to actually "see" edges where they're not. So when I do this, I can indeed see edges appear -- but later on I'm left with all of the stray "remnants" that resulted from the operation. And to make matters worse they almost never end up being part of the component or group and sometimes they even end up on different layers. Other times one of the "intersected" elements ends up with massive chunks missing from it when viewing it separately (understandable I guess, since the "intersect" commands can be subtractive).

By the way, I've since taken to keeping all of the "interconnected" modeling (walls, floors, ceilings, etc.) on one Layer, and I put components on their own Layer. I also use Groups through the Outliner extensively, to keep my models organized.

But please tell me, what simple thing am I missing here in my effort to have edges show up on certain elements of my models when they but up against other parts, yet not be left with all of these seemingly random line remnants dangling loosely here and there?

I have a feeling I'm going to kick myself once someone answers my plea, but in the meantime any help is appreciated.