I recently got a mighty mouse to use for sketchup instead of the default magic mouse (without pan etc) and it works fine for panning but then I noticed a problem when i opened a file with scenes in it. When you middle click (which I use for orbitting) and scroll skp starts scrolling through the scenes and i lose my place and focus. This isn't a problem with a normal mouse as the scroll is not usually so sensitive but with the mighty mouse it is near impossible to middle button click and not scroll sometimes.

Does anyone have a work around for this? perhaps somehow blocking the middle click and scroll command for going to a new scene?

thanks for the quick reply thomthom, I had played around with the exposure and it fixed it a bit but it is still looking quite bad. Did you have any other suggestions or settings I could try?

is it possible su8 could be worse from a usability / consistency level?

I find suddenly my toolbar positions are much more unstable, always changing and the new 'restore toolbar positions' is great EXCEPT when you have added a new toolbar or changed anything in the display at all and then when you try and restore default settings the thing thinks for about a minute and does nothing.

I am also crashing much more than I ever did with SU7. to the point where now opening a file (which takes a very long time) sometimes crashes su8. I am not saying my experience is the general for SU users but it does seem a bit strange that updating the software causes more problems than before. I am thinking of switching back to SU7 as I cant see any real advantage in staying with a software when it is currently so volatile and plus the updates for SU8 from an architecture perspective (minus what can already be achieved easily with rubies) where almost non-existent.

Hello All,

Just having trouble with external / internal settings for a render I am trying to do. The image is coming out too dark, it is a problem that the shots are kind of internal and external. I was wondering if someone might have some pre-loaded visopts (or skp files ready to go with the .visopt settings) that I could tweak a bit for internal and external shots (with or without sun is fine) for 1.48 specifically.

My render and the scene are attached, as you can see it comes out really dark (scene 5 is roughly the render scene). It is kind of ok because I can fix it up in photoshop and get results like the one attached but it would be great to have a better first run - any ideas?

render.rar

I am sure there is a better place for this but why did they bother?

I have been using it for the past four days and I notice no difference whatsoever, those solids tools are a joke - oscoolean did that just fine, if it worked for solids and non-solids that'd be damn good - like an express intersect with model that gets rid of the stuff for you.

Layout + google earth improvements are just plain annoying, I'd prefer they didn't do anything than make it so plain they don't care about architects needs. And all the usual problems are still there, it just baffles me there are people working on this software, at least 7 improved speeds.

excellent ruby tig, truly amazing.

I just had two questions:

*The extrude edges by faces does not appear to work with lines - can you make this work?

A work around for this is to create a line and then break it apart and use the 'weld' ruby to put it back together. BUT is there a simpler way? It'd be great if this just worked for straight lines - or do you know of a similar ruby plugin that does this function?

*second: are there tutorials for these tools? I am struggling to use them and it looks like there are bits and pieces of info on them but they are not in one central location - would it be possible to unify the tutorials for these into a few critical images for each tool like you unified the toolbar?

Would be great, and as I said earlier, great tools as they are (just wish I could use them better with more tutorials!)

thanks stinkie, i don't suppose there is an equivalent for skp rather than rhino?

thanks that was a good introduction but i was more after some tutorials or other things that go through the process in step-by-step depth.

I have used vray a little but I don't know anything about its animation potential. I have version 1_05 and does anyone know of some specific tutorials I could look at for vray animation assistance? Also, as far as I understand you cant do sections in the animations but can you do layers/on off?

Recently installed sk07 on new comp and put my ruby plugins in the right folder and got this message, any ideas?

'Error Loading File progressbar.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File SimplifyContours.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File SoapSkinBubbleTools.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File utilities.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File weld.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File dynamiccomponents.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File extensions.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File langhandler.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File make_pano_pm.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File sandboxtools.rb
cannot convert nil into StringError Loading File sketchup.rb
cannot convert nil into String'

I wrote this in another place but I think it probably belongs here because it has to do with sketchup settings

Hello, I have made a sketchup animation and I have uploaded it on to youtube - you can see it at http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=TGvRuEXLJ_w. The only problem is the thing jumps as it moves between scenes. The youtube bar stops then jumps and doesn't follow the transition smoothly. i watched the original animation on itunes and there isn't any jumping, even quicktime handles it fine.

These are the settings I used that gave me trouble (from Mac):
Format: .MOV
frame rate: 12
ratio: 1280 X 562

'expert settings'
compression type: MPEG-4 Video

'Motion':
frames per second: 24
key frames every: 24 frames
compressor: medium

It's been a while since the new edition has come out and personally I have had a chance to spend a lot of hours modeling on it now. Here are a few comments i have been thinking about with the new skp 7 in its modelling use:

+ve

*That automatic line break tool is quite good, it seems to help in cleaning up imported 2d CAD files and generally I think it leads to a much more accurate model because you can really hit those edges now
*The new display for what you are scrolling over (edge, intersection, etc) is quite nice, except a lot of the time it doesn't work and I just get a big empty box which is kind of annoying
*havent used DC's and don't know if I will but they are a great idea (look forward to learning more about them in the future)

-ve
*on big models - whole suburbs - the sky acts all crazy and when you zoom in a bit the thing just disappears. When exporting views as 2d graphics often a big square portion of the sky will disappear and i will have to photoshop out cause it looks weird
*In terms of the line tool I would REALLY like it if they made it so the line never automatically stopped when you click a point to form a surface (or break a surface) When drawing over sections this means I have to continually click the line button (and both points) when I should just be able to move on to the next point. So as a rule: never automatically stop the line. What does you guys reckon of this?
*there seems like there are way more graphic glitches. Often I will be modeling and the whole skp model will disappear or parts will or it will go wireframe. This didn't happen on 6 and I am running a very new imac so i don't reckon its the graphics card
*Push pull is something i have a problem with. I really don't like it when the surfaces disappear when you push them back on to a particular plane. I am modelling context buildings as solids with lines for each floor and when i push down a floor on to another the whole plane just disappears which is quite frustrating. Maybe one rule for this would be quite nice - why is the disappearing plane thing done? is there any way to tweak this so it would just delete a plane if there was one already?

All in all then I'd say the skp is pretty much the same as the last version. A few glitches gone, a few new ones there and no markable speed improvement other then the line break (which can also be quite annoying if you need to delete a line that is cut but many others)

thanks, the bumps are quite a bit easier than in podium - a very good level of customisation across the board. I don't know why more people don't use this program, maybe you could make your website alittle easier to navigate

Wow Al I must say I am impressed with the accurender lite. It does give a high quality image right off the bat and is quite easy to use.

I know these questions don't belong here but I will ask anyway:
Will you work on bump maps for irender? Is there also a way to get an ultra fine line (lighter than 1 pixel)? And also is it available (or will it be available) for Mac? I use Macs at work and would buy it for there

I have just tried using the 3d PDF exporter for skp and I was wondering if it is possible to export the layer visibilities with the camera scenes from skp? It shows the locations on the pdf but all layers are turned off and it is crucial in my model to be able to strip things away. Is there any way to do this with materials or something so that the pdf shows various visibilities of layers?

Thanks

I have been playing around with the sandbox tool to make contours but I have found that the 'form contour' option gives me little discrepancies from the actual lines I use to generate them. Currently my office uses Vectorworks terrain modeller to make its contours and I would like to move to skp for it - but if it cant be 100% accurate then I don't think I could convince the people in my firm. I have attached a file that highlights the problem. If someone could have a look at the file I'd really appreciate it.

*Note = I have tried some ruby mod's on it already to no avail such as - weld and simpligy contours.

contour lines.skp

I use sketchup in an architecture firm and really think there is nothing it cant build, but when it comes time to present the models I have made I usually feel let down by the graphic quality. I have played around with styles - created my own, etc, tried podium (and had quite good results) and a few other free render programs but they all seem too inconsistant or too fiddly to get right - podium often gets light burns or is too dark or just renders wierd, only after hours and hours does it seem to work for a particular model.

What about a proper photo-realistic renderer built in to sketchup that works well the first time based on skp sun and is easy to set the lighting levels? To me this would make skp a viable industry tool, now when I present a skp graphic the client, etc just isn't as impressed as I know they could be.