Hi

I have the same printer and have the same problem. Convert to pdf and print that, problem solved.

You are keeping it real Lewis! Let me know how you get on hacking the eee. I have a theory that I could mod it to feature bluetooth and then use it for measured surveys using a leica laser distometer (bluetooth enabled) and Powercad Sitemaster. However, freedom lover that I am, if there is a way to do this with open source apps on a linux o.s. that has to be a more efficient use of the eee.

Good luck with the gaffer tape, maybe try a folded out paper clip too.

By "parasite selling" I mean reselling others work

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3D-CAD-Workshop-for-Google-Sketchup-Acad-Video-3DVD_W0QQitemZ220214276774QQihZ012QQcategoryZ96946QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m122

This is is just one of many posts ebay where people are parasite selling.

I thought this might make a good discussion. What do you think of this? Personally I think (unless the seller has created all the work themselves) it is totally wrong and ebay should stop profiting from counterfeiters.

That is brilliant! If you can would you mind uploading the skp so we can have a look at it?

@unknownuser said:

Drawing a line to my own points rather than SU's: Still no luck on this one. Didn't manage to enlist VCB. What I've ended up doing is creating temporary faces, using Nudge to move them so their corner points are where I want my line bends, and then drawing the line. The inference engine helpfully forces my line onto the temporary objects and I delete them when I'm done. It gets the job done, but there must be a better way.

Hi
Upload your file here, we'll take a look at it.

Hi
Thanks for explaining that, that is pretty ingenious then!, I take it back. It looks very interesting.

Thanks Tom

Great trees!

@unknownuser said:

I did find it kind-a disturbing when the guy kept kicking it. You can see how if someday lifelike robots become common there will likely be a movement to give them 'rights' to protect them from mistreatment.

It already exists http://www.aspcr.com/

Stop looking at porn and d.i.y terrorist websites! Problem solved.

Only joking, download C-cleaner - it wipes all the temp files on your system.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/CCleaner.shtml

That is amazing, so animalistic. Have you seen this? I thought it was fake, but the general consensus seems to be that it is real. There are quite a few videos.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g1SADcP5g1o

Hi Princess

Your work sounds great! Welcome to the forum.

Hi Bungo, hope this helps;

@unknownuser said:

SU keeps making assumptions that it must think are helpful, but that make it impossible for me to get useful work done.

Whatever you are drawing is irrelevant, SU doesn't know what you are drawing so it can't make assumptions.

@unknownuser said:

--Shapes somehow get glued to shapes that they aren't touching and have no (logical) connection to. Then when I move one, the other gets dynamically distorted.

Sounds like something is touching. If surfaces are touching in SU, Su allows them both to be manipulated together. If you want to isolate some surfaces or some geometry you need to make it into a group or a component. To make a group select the geometry and then select make group off the edit dropdown menu ( or right click make group). To make a component select the geometry and then select make component off the edit dropdown menu (or right click make component). The difference between a component and a group: a group is unique, whereas if you make a component and then copy it you can alter one copy and the original or other duplicates will all be altered too.

If you want to alter what is in a group or a component:

To alter a group select the edit group from the edit drop down menu (or right click edit group)

To alter a component select edit component from the edit drop down menu (or right click edit component). Or double click on the group to open it.

To "close" the group or component when you have finished editing it select Close Group/Component off the edit dropdown menu. Or double click off it to close it.

@unknownuser said:

--When I try to position a shape, SU lets me put it everywhere except where I want it. I've read the help on Snap, and on Move, and have tried holding down all the key combinations that have occurred to me, but haven't figured out how to turn this off.

It is simple with practice but this ruby might make it easier for you. http://wiki.renderplus.com/index.php?title=Space_Design

Progecad smart prints with a tiny bit of text on the border that says "Private Use Only". Totally inobtrusive. I mentioned Progecad smart here with students and hobbyists in mind. Incidentally (before I get a nasty letter from ProgeCAD) I do not use ProgeCad commercially, when needed, I have access to AutoCad via a company I do work for.

@unknownuser said:

• Do you use these plans to show to customers? If so, how do they react?

This is a very small aspect of the work that I do. I don't supply or build kitchens myself. Alongside my other work I provide a kitchen design-only service to building contractors and kitchen fitters. I meet their clients and draw up the kitchens to suit their requirements. The 3d views are an essential selling tool, I do a very basic render of the kitchens in Kt, my rendering skills aren't great but the clients are usually just impressed to see a representation of a new kitchen in their house. (The kitchen I uploaded here though has a terrible wood texture - a mistake, but the client didn't complain). The ability to plan them in 2d is IMO essential because it is easier to show the client immediately what fits and what doesn't - also there is the wow factor when you flip to a 3d view .

The quicker it is to design and visualise the kitchens the better. Commercial kitchen companies usually offer 3d planning for free, so there isn't alot of money to be made by offering this service independantly. But my clients prefer an independant design service as they aren't limited to one kitchen or appliance supplier and there is no hard sell because I don't work for a kitchen company.
The equivalent commercial kitchen design software apps such as Planit Fusion, Autokitchen, Articad, Kitchendraw are all expensive so the ability to do this in Su is great.

@unknownuser said:

• Do you use them to represent a particular make of kitchen, or are they for units you make yourself?

These aren't bespoke kitchens. In this case I drew the units to match the sizes of Howdens Kitchens - see link http://www.howdens.com/ Drawing the entire range is laborious, so I just drew up the unit sizes and then I alter the door styles to suit. I have thought about making each unit with different layers for each different door style, but this would be a lot of work.

@unknownuser said:

• How long does it take to create the plan then propagate it with 3D?

All the units have a 2d and 3d layer and a text description, once I have drawn the wall outlines, it's pretty quick.

@unknownuser said:

• If you have to order/make the kitchen, how do you do that, how long does it take?

I use Layout to put notes on the plan.I use the Component Report script to output a list to a spreadsheet (I use openoffice calc). I don't seem to get good results with this script though, I have to delete alot of erroneous text that comes in with it. I email this data (after editing) to the supplier. If there was a way to streamline this it would be good.

@unknownuser said:

Thoughts:
Yes you are right about Squareclock. If the demo is the full extent of the programme (which I am sure it is not) then it needs some serious work to make it usable for anything other than 'box' shaped rooms.
Their concept is that the 'catalogs' will be real Manufacturers products, so the wall sizes in the demo must be an exact match for the combined lengths of the cabinets they are using -lucky for them

I've come across alot of attempts to do this with web2 apps on the net, I haven't seen a really good one yet. Two examples below, both a bit ropey.
http://www.navigram.com/
http://www.developer3d.com/

Wow Jim, looks like a good plug-in, I might buy it, but I think my method - once you've drawn the units, takes less than fifty minutes like they claim. And it's free

I'll upload the completed set of units as a "Kitchen template" skp soon.

Thanks watkins for the kind comments.

Also, there is a free open source kitchen design app in development. Nice guy who develops it, but he hasn't got far enough yet to use this commercially. I think he'd welcome our support. also as it's open source, the code might be useful to somebody.

KitCAD - free kitchen design software full version downloads from Kitchen Pages

(www.kitchenpages.com)

The demo is really impressive but the concept seems slightly flawed if Squareclock want this to be adopted on a commercial scale. The automated feature seems to perfectly divide the available wall space into cabinet doors, but it doesn't appear to be putting in fillets. If this is the case it is only useful if you are manufacturing bespoke made to measure kitchens. If you are using commercial standard sized cabinets it has limited use. I'm not knocking it though and if a ruby could be written to do something like this I'd be very interested.

I draw kitchens by creating standard sized components that have a 2d plan layer and a 3d unit layer. This allows me to draw the kitchen very quickly in 2d. When I have perfected this I'll post the components.

kitchen template.skp

Watkins your effort and help is great, thanks so much.

Thanks Paul and Anssi. When I've drawn it up properly I'll post the result.

Peter,

It's just a way to transfer stuff from raster to vector. It's always going to involve some clean-up. If the original drawing isn't even to scale though it's probably useless.
I'm drawing up parts of a large steel sculpture, all originally drawn accurately to scale. Vectorising the drawings is relatively effortless and accurate enough for the contractor.