mgfranz
With more search on windows 7 file association problems I have foulnd issues going back as far as 2009 and some posting shown up to twenty pages long with many associated with recommendation for a regidt which I no not think you should do/try for your case.
Assuming you still have SU 8 on your machine I would recommend you find the SU 8 exe file and create a short cut to your desk top, then right click, slect propertices and add a path to the target file. You can get from your SU 2013 exe what the syntax should be. You can then rename that short cut to SU 8 and you will now have the option to open 2013 or 8. I have not tried this but comes from this link http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/answers?tId=024cf5f6-9777-4615-a9ae-b8d914e2f277
SORRY SHORT CUT TAB NOT DETAILS

mgfranz;
SU2013 an SU 8 have different file structures and are installed in different locations. Do a right click on the short cut icon and check the file properties you will see there is no short cut shown and there is a target link path that you may be able to change, I have left it alone for now. If you go to the Su2013 and Su8 location you can create short cuts for the two versions to your desk top, rename each so you can tell difference allowing you to use 2013 or 8
IMHO you should regress your registry settings to the way they were.

On my machine the shadow selection is different if I select it form the view menu vs the window shadow selection. When I have the ruby script examples extension de-selected in widow preferences/ extension it will not show if I select from the view menu but will from the window menu. Maybe worth a try??
The dark / light setting show in the windows menu drop down

The way the w-xp memory manager works for 32 bit machine the 4GB RAM is equally allocated between SU and the kernel so only 2GB is allocated for SU. If your machine is large block address aware then you can enable the 4GB switch ( via the boot init and the allocation will be changed to 3 GB SU and 1GB kernel but then some slow down occurs. For a 64 bit machine SU can use the total 4 GB if you have additional RAM.

mike:
SU and Goolge Earth uses the WGS 84 datum ,but not all locales do world wide. So at any time make sure you under stand what datum you need to be working with.

newnoob;
What you are showing is typical of folks assuming they are doing things correctly and in fact that is not the case. If you are really interested in understanding the issue then you should post your OP model .

There are several suggestion to help you;
First and foremost learn and use the SU inference engine;

Secondly draw a ground plane and draw your shape on that to make sure it is planar;

Thirdly do the same for the rect and make sure to use inference in both cases. If you do not clicking of the mouse can cause very small inadvertent movement which can cause problems;
Forth set units precision( this is display ) to max, use the text tool and check the vertex x,y,z. This is not 100% but since SU uses 32 bit float ( 24 bit significant precision( 23 explicitly stored), sign bit 1, exponent this may show an issue whereas lesser display precision will not.
Note, when you click on the rect face and the face shows in your shape you know your model is wrong.

bickerchris;
What is the ultimate application of your model? Does it need to meet road intersection / interchage design? If it does then there are a number of other criteria that may impact what you are trying to do??

I have made some good progress to clean up most of the auto folds in the orginal post. One major issue is keeping an on face inference for the windows especially when trying to array across a large surface. Also the material browser is reporting four faces in some cases=> not good. If I get any thing close to useable will send this pm, XMAS shop time now.
Make sure you understand and use the su inference engine so things are keep planar etc. it maybe the program for the skin gives su some inference poblems. Make sure you lock the on face inference

Sbrof
There are many modeling problems in what you posted. IMHO you should turn off fix problems. That caused the " auto folds" and it may be a real pain to fix.
You appear to have a basic misunderstanding of SU. It does not use layers for geometry isolation like some programs, they are only used for visibility control. Components and groups are used for that purpose.
The color by axis does not mean if I have a color it is on that axis but only coplanar. I can have an infinite number that are coplanar and some times you will get the color inference but they are not really connected . just appears that way.
hopefully it can be repaired with out major over haul.
All primitive geometry stays on layer 0 and only components and groups are assigned to other layers

I deleted all materials in the orginal OP model and it will export then. Maybe that is too trival a case?? Did get the obj and mtl folders

when you convert a large group to single components you then have a number of components with different names( usually numbered) and if you know all of those are the same use the component browser replace capability to then replace selected.
Nothing new been around for years.

the 3 d ware house shows the model as sU8, is that correct?
I used tigs objectexporter, installed in my su8 but got bug splat 3 different times when I tried to export. I have not used this much at all. will try with make and see what happens

post your model it is much easier to trouble shoot that way vs let use guess?

FYI for all comparing the stats for OPs orginal model and one where the quadrant fence on the left and right of the house was changed to components;

[*case 1 op orginal5.84mb]
edges 47568
fCES 19119
COMP INST 62
GUIDES 4
groups 444
comp def 16
layers 4
materials 17
styles 1

[case 2 quadrant fence left and right of house to components 5.9mb]
edges 47568
faces 19117
comp inst 334
guides 4
groups 140
comp def 27
layers 4
materials 17
styles 1

I have not seen 1 piece of info that establishes in a quantitate way differences only some general statements. I usually use the philosophy that better is the detriment of good enough. Although not the best approach I would not make any major changes to the op model until such time it is known there is a problem with it especially now since they will not be able to load it into Google earth and meet their criteria?

there used to be a plugin wherein one could convert say like 100 separate groups (same entity) to 100 separate components and then a batch replacement of that 100 could be done with 1 component.
does anyone know where that is now. That resulted in a few key clicks to replace the same 100 groups with 1 component definition?

check the sign on the long data you have given;
You can use the outliner to highlight various ones. To replace all the same group to a single component definition you first have to change each group to component and then you can do a batch replace all for one unless you want to do one at a time =>it is desired to do that but I'm not sure if it is necessary, it will reduce your rendering load some what. Do most of your modeling in the monochrome mode and use textures etc for final show and tell etc.
The component definition is invariant under, move, scale, rotate so all the post can probably be changed to one component also.
Goole earth is no longer supporting the 3d models into GE effective 10-1. Unless you have model size problems or rendering I am not sure I would make all these type changes now??

Sorry I mislead you, thought you were working on antenna and did not note Pilou had scaled up
The plan view looking down the axis is indeed a circle. Just think of a number of them stacked with different dia ( with that changing per the equation of a parabola).
Maybe this helps. The guid points are just the x,y plots you provided ( it is symmetrical so you only need to plot 1/2). I used the Bezier f spline to draw the curve and per Pilou you will have to scale up then back down.
All my expereience is antenna / rf system design and do not know if F/D is ok for shot gun mike.
Good luck with your project!

IS there is some idea this would be a real world design concept? If so then the edge needs to be redone. Side lobe levels are always an issue, usually -20db is a design goal , and the hoop radiation from the back edge causing issues would be a concerned.
The math definition of a simple front feed is easy to find and I would even guess you could find models on the net. I had buch of photos but think I only kept ones in the range of 600 lamba.
Is the size you are thinking k or ka band or higher

JGB;
some other thoughts.
my old XP pc quit recently. I normally buy case, MB and rest of parts and build my own pc , but this time decided to buy one;
1 When w8 came out with problems vendors were marketing units with a down grade to w7 and then they would also give one a disk to convert to w8 which is what I have. I have not changed to 8 and will not without good reason. I have not checked where that stands now;
2 When i first installed su 2013 and eval time expired I removed it form my PC because all the layout and style builder files are not removed when the pro to free change happens and I did not care for that;
When I first installed 2013 I just copied my su8 plugin files to 2013. There is no saftey issue in doing that. The file tree is some what different however and I made a couple of changes. I eventually re-loaded 2013 just to avoid the hassel of SU8 not being upward comaptible with 2013. WHen I happen to need a make plugin I down load the noral way or just save as SU 8 file ;
3 Before buying new pC I checked the items I have at the MS compatibility site to find what I could re-use. Suggest you do that if not already done.
My modem ,scanner OCR( part) was a no go plus many units now are setup for WFI so had to upgrade that are which is more $ from internet provider- i now have a WFI hot spot in my house and allows the kids to log on when they visit, i also have a cable interface i normally use.

4 BTW in the past I have taken the hard drive out of my older pC, bought uSB enclosure for it and use that as back up - a portable hard drive. You are planning a solid stae drive for your OS so you can also make a image of that and that gives an immediate back up, just install and go.