I transfer/share skp's from Pc to Mac and vice versa quite a bit. I don't really recall ever having any significant problems.

This sounds brilliant Adam. Great to see that a BIM software function is possible within Sketchup.

@unknownuser said:

So? I'm sorry, but surely you're not implying we should all go "oh, please, help yourselves, blow something up" because of the level of the US's foreign aid?

No but it's a bit hypocritical when the U.S. and the UK trained those people to blow stuff up and supplied them with arms only a decade or so ago.

Back on topic, I think you lead by example, if "an eye for an eye" is the law then we are no better than the taliban.

I have told various linux 3d purists on other forums about our thread here. Not one has shown any interest, they have all dismissed SU. They all seem to be loyal to Blender, wings 3d or k-3d. I hadn't heard of k-3d before, link below
http://www.k-3d.org/wiki/Main_Page

I was surprised they weren't more interested, or at least a little enthusiastic, with the exception of Blender, Sketchup seems to be streets ahead of any native linux 3d app.

kwistenbeibel wrote

@unknownuser said:

I think making it a money game is Googles ultimate goal, just like Google maps will probably be integrated in the moneymaking 'Adword' concept. (pay per click on sponsored map links)

I find Googles approach to money making, or what can be seen of it, very bizarre. They have made it virtually impossible for third party professionals or individuals to profit from Google Earth because of the slow upload process and restrictions on advertising. But it was those opportunities that made 2L so successful, so well populated and ultimately so profitable for Linden Labs. Surely the ultimate 3d world could be Google Earth but enthusiastic hobbyists alone are NEVER going to populate it to any degree. There aren't enough local governments (like Amsterdam) who will model their towns out of good will.

As for SU, Google have no idea how many design professionals use it because THEY ARE NOT BUYING IT!!! I bought it, but I've come across loads of architects and other designers who are pained to admit that they are using the free version but are still fronting their operation with other "more respectable" apps (I keep seeing that SU man walking a dog and responsibly holding a bag of poo in visuals for new developments). If you want to make money Skoogle-people sell your product.

I totally agree with Alan, The SU name should not have been appropriated for the free version. IMHO putting "Pro" after anything instantly makes it sound to be the exact opposite.

In my (all be it small) experience I think the old-school is beginning to see the light but they still act like SU is their dirty little secret. A few weeks ago a large architecture firm asked me if they could have part of a city model that I had done in SU for another practice (I'm not boasting here, the model wasn't anything special). I gladly gave them it but obviously the SU input will be invisible in their finished product - 3DS Viz.
I will say in Yorkshire at least, I hear of more and more firms proudly using SU Pro. Unfortunately I also still regularly hear "How can it be any good if it's free?" but there is no helping luddites like that.

What concerns me is that us little guys cannot afford (and shouldn't have to) front our operations with apps like 3DS Max. It will be a real loss if Google cannot realise SU's potential.
With the risk of sounding hypocritical after ranting about free and pro, I have to agree with Lewis, the open source route could be the only way to preserve any integrity.

@unknownuser said:

It would be nice if we didn't have to spend billions on defense... but unfortunately we do

Care to elaborate why we do? I don't want to start an international argument, but I for one don't want any more of my taxes going on a pointless oil war that we can't win.

Good list tesmeko, thanks.

@unknownuser said:

Notice this one:
http://sketchboard.sourceforge.net/index.php

A SketchUp knock-off?

Lewis I looked at this a while back, it isnt an SU rip off. It's a really interesting concept, you draw a rough shape with your stylus or mouse, it recognises the shape, smooths the lines, and then you can extrude it. And er, that's about it. It didn't seem to work that well for me (could well be a vista related problem and not the app - I'm used to that now). But it's worth looking at, I think the interface and the shape recognition technique could inspire a developer.

Remus,

I seem to recall that this was discussed on the old forum, I'll say again what I said then. The last person to be hung in Britain (in the 1950s) was "innocent" in as much as he could not be held responsible for his own actions because he had learning difficulties. He shot a policeman because his friend said "let him have it" meaning "give the policeman the gun". He was later pardoned, but a fat lot of good that did him once he was dead.
To my way of thinking anybody that can take a human life is mentally sub-normal and should be treated. I know it isn't that black and white though. Granted there are also some thoroughly evil b******s in the world, but for them death is the easy way out. Keep them alive, treat them humanely and keep them in very basic surroundings. I reckon boredom and isolation is a really underestimated punishment.

1.The wheel
2.The Bicycle
3.The pencil.
4.The Swiss army knife
5. Sketchup!

5 Most over-rated inventions:

1: The Dyson vacuum cleaner, the filters clog in no time at all and then the suction is crap.
2: Clocks; apparently the Hopi Indians described time as "an over-rated measurement"
3.Microwaves - mushy tasteless food
4. Toyota Prius car - producing the toxic batteries for it apparently outweighs most of the environmental benefit of driving it.
5. Processed foodstuffs - speaks for itself

An NHS that stands for good health care and best medical practice would be great.

An NHS that is under pressure to prescribe certain pharmaceutical drugs because they are cheaper or because they are manufactured by companies who are subsidising NHS managers and consultants incomes is, in my opinion, just one of the sad realities. The NHS is widely opposed to natural medicines and treatments because there is no money in it for them. If they spent more time teaching people how to stay healthy they wouldn't be so desperate for money and could help the people who really need it.

Rant over.

Hi Mike

From what I have read it can be done but the oil corporations have been trying to stop this for a long time. Have you heard about Stan Meyer who drove a water powered dune buggy across America on 22 gallons of water. He'd developed a way to extract hydrogen from water with half a watt of power. He died in suspicious circumstances.

@unknownuser said:

lets asume 100 Euro for travel there and back again.
then we are at 765 Euro (and haven't took any excursions or alkohol in account)

I am afraid for some (poor students like me for example) this will be quite a lot of money

for comparisson: you will get a hotel room (double room) in London - expensive city - for about 300 Euro a week

I would like the idea of a whole ship full of SketchUp nerds very much though

Plot my initial thoughts on the cruise idea were that it will be
very expensive. But all things considered it might be one of the cheapest, nicest options.
If we stayed in a major city such as London we could easily get budget hotel accomodation but we would have to pay London prices for meals, conference facilities, excursions, etc and also pay for travel to and from these places. Conference facilities aren't in short supply in London but they aren't cheap, getting a venue with individual computers for each participant can cost £200 a day per person.
Obviously the further away we go from a major city these sort of facilities are cheaper but we could then find that interesting excursion venues are further away too, so travel time and expense would go up.
Alternatively I think Watkins mentioned using a university campus as they will have the conference facilities we need and accomodation stood empty all summer (probably a cheap bar too!). I think that is a really good idea that we could consider but for an all in price in surroundings that would suit everybody I reckon a cruise ship is a very good option.

This has whole heartedly wound me up;

I've just got the palm treo 500v phone running Windows Mobile 6 Standard. It's like having Vista on a phone! It really is. This is not a good thing. Total crap actually.

The handset is lovely, similar to a blackberry, but it's totally let down by the o.s. It's supposed to run third party apps, so far it hasn't. I just get vista-like security warnings and error messages and it's the same on the internet. The o.s. has so many shortcomings that Palm even include some of the workarounds in the manual! It's laughable that a seemingly good device is so limited because of a botched, lazily put together o.s.
When I told the salesperson in the phone shop that this phone doesn't do what is claimed I was told "Well the technology isn't really there yet, you can't expect too much.....". I told her she had mis-sold me this phone as it struggles to run third party apps but she said she hadn't as I can download games for it. Aargh!!!

Dylan will probably back me up here: in Yorkshire we laugh at the rain! We have to. Although today it has been sunny. Today I went to Dylan's town of Sheffield for a meeting. I hadn't been there for years and I was amazed by all the fantastic looking new contemporary architecture. I would like to nominate Sheffield as a possible Base Camp venue, as yorkshire is quite a surprising place these days.

NameBright - Coming Soon

(www.freewarepocketpc.net)

This has been around for ages apparently, but judging by the reviews it works. I've just got a new Palm treo phone but haven't bought a memory card yet so I haven't tested it.

This would be great but as Adam says different materials, masses and densities absorb/deflect sound differently. To model the conditions with any accuracy there has to be a way to express the sound attenuation effects of actual materials. This would be very useful for testing acoustic insulation but it sounds very complicated to achieve.

Also sketchup deals with surfaces not solids, I'm presuming its easier in a solid modelling application to model acoustics.
edit: You could group some geometry that represents, say, a concrete wall and then calculate the acoustic properties by its volume.

In British law at least, any inanimate object photographed on or from a public street is public domain and therefore free of copyright.

Kill Bill, House of flying daggers, Indiana Jones, Blade runner, Shawshank Redemption, Love Actually. But I'll watch just about anything.

Sadly armies aren't motivated by ethics but by profit.

The people that have bought that house must have very deep pockets. In the current economic climate, once the design has been "value engineered" the contractors can usually only afford to build something cheaper and simpler. It is happening all over the UK at the moment.