@fletch said:

You will need to add different textures, "dirt" is a nice option in the Vue material pallette... Twilight will have this in the future.

For now, you will need to add the dirt in the textures in SU... I will see what I can do, and post

I looked at the model, and there's a tiny problem in the corner in the smoothing of it...easy fix. It's noticeable with the plastic materials.

Also, click each material and apply a good material template instead of the "quick" templates... so choose "Plastic" or choose the metals.

Also, the glass "flash bulb" needs some realistic modeling to render with real materials...

Vue is great with 'faking' the materials. The material editor, and eco systems are my favorite thing about vue.

Thanks for the tips - I really should read your manual properly - I'll give them a go this weekend

• Martin

@solo said:

Cool model, I gave it a quick go using Vue, no post work (lighting is volumetric with dust)

That is too cool Solo - I need to learn to do that - I love how you made him lean and pick up the flower and all the grime too - so much more human than my efforts. I'm still struggling to get something half decent out of Twilight (my lack of knowledge not the tool I think); just to proove the point here's the image that cooked all day while I was at work (any suggestions on making it look less clean?):

Thanks for all comments - I finished modeling the 3 different drones - here's the last one, Louie. I'm starting to understand light emitting surfaces in Twilight a little so while I am at work, my workstation at home is rendering a complicated image (4 core machine still taking 9 minutes a thread). Until then, here's the Louie: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6e0b0bbba0c25358b573489cede05c27

The link doesn't work for me either - is this tutorial still around?

Here's another attempt with Twilight - without light emitting surfaces it went through the threads much quicker.

I left it running all night but it never got rid of the 'fairy dust' in the shadows around the light source - I don't know anything about renderring - I guess I'll have to go back to the manual and try again.

You have to be a big old Sci-Fi geek to know this guy; Huey from Silent Running. It took quite a few hours to model him - I had some basic body dimensions from the web but I had to just guesstimate and eye-ball a lot from stills taken from the DVD. My Twilight render is still running but hopefully it will look half-decent in the morning. I've put the model here in the warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b0375fca1aac1a3328a9ffe1f7694d3b
Any tips or comments gratefully received.
Regards - Martin

1 - Yes - I get a little from a tiny niche site - enough to pay my very modest hosting fees but not much more. Some people make a lot from AdSense but most, like me, make very little.
2 - Google acts as a broker displaying ads on your site based upon key words where ever possible every time a page is displayed.
3 - it depends on your site and how much the advertiser paid. You can get paid per click and by CPM (advertisers bid per 1000 ads - cost per mile).
4 - Google send you a check or deposit your money in your account.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdSense

@antonino giglio said:

Dear friends,

I've downloaded some of these components: http://www.google.com/sketchup/download/bonuspacks6.html

I then run the installer (I'm a OSX user) and then opened SketchUp but cannot find the component I had just installed.

The only components I can see are those online.

Where are the downloaded components disappeared?

Thank you very much!!!!

In windows you click the icon immediately to the right of the google search in the components window, "Open or Create a Local collection" to navigate to the folder where the components are installed. You can then browser your components - I assume Apple is somewhat similar. Good luck.

Cheeryble - you have to be inside/editing a component to be able to use the push/pull tool otherwise you will see the 'denied' icon. You can only edit one component or group at once.

Also, why not keep a version of SU7 around and import using that - you could open the model in SU8 afterwards?

@unknownuser said:

For those of you who depend on the importers we plan to remove, we'll be providing an optional download that enables them again. But remember! This installer will only be available for a limited time, and it will not be supported at all in our next major release.

This statement in the post seems to indicate that it's not going totally away if that's hope to any of you.

@aerilius said:

Both answers: "No, not yet"

1. The RSS feeds for searches (for example search a user, sort for date) are quite new. Google sabotaged my own development. Just after I put much efforts in developing a Firefox extension for this, they made the RSS feeds. So I also thought of making a feature to see all new ratings, but I won't risk it anymore.

RSS feeds for comments and ratings have been proposed in the Sketchup group, so we don't know if the will do it or when or if tomorrow.

2. Has also been proposed. Currently the only possibility to get more info about a user is to use the contact feature on the model page. Some modelers have a collection of their models where they have a good description text about themselves.

Aerilius - Thanks for taking the time to replay - it seems that Google is missing an opportunity to foster community among users of the warehouse - bummer.

Is everything 'under' your roof grouped together? You might think you're applying a material to a roof surface or group when you're really painting another group. Perhaps you could 'hide' everything apart from the roof via layers or the layout window and then try painting the roof?

Oops - I forgot - If the rails are more complicated in design you could make them dynamic components so that they scale correctly and stretch in the right place.

Is this what you're trying to do?

Steps:

• Create 1 railing (4"x4"x2')
• Make it a component
• Copy it x16
• Select the 1st and last rail components and scale them longer than the others
• Draw the top piece (4"x2") on the top of any of the rail components
• Push/pull it to touch the 1st and last rail
• Make it a component
• Copy it to the bottom of the rails

Regards - Martin

UC1.skp

Another vote for camstudio - we use it at work to create quick tutorials all the time.

@windknot said:

A couple of questions, please see attached image. (I am sorry for the huge file size, re-sized down, you really lose what I am talking about)

I think you're going to have to create a new path for the pieces going on the top of the previous slats - the curve of that path will have to either incorporate the flat edge of the top of the slat or carefully touch the highest point of the slat with clear line of site to the next slat - or you could just cut a notch in the new curved pieces

@windknot said:

@mhtaylor said:

@windknot said:

@mhtaylor said:

[attachment=1:3qwazk5h]<!-- ia1 -->pergola.jpg<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:3qwazk5h]
The tutorial and plugins seem to work ok - here is your model with the slats 4" apart (enter 6" in spacing plugin to take account of the slat width too.

Wow, looks great. My only complain is that one 2x2 is flush on one side and the other is a couple inches off of being flush. It there anyway to get around this without making a new path taking in account where I want them to start?

If you let me know how many slats you want placed between one end and the other I can give you specific instructions and update your model for you.
Regards - Martin

Martin, I want the slats to be 3"x3" and I want them 16" on center but want them to end the same distance from the end on both sides. Thanks for all of the help!

I hope the attached is what you are looking for.

Pergola with slats in place

@windknot said:

@mhtaylor said:

[attachment=0:2pmhv1mb]<!-- ia0 -->pergola.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2pmhv1mb]
The tutorial and plugins seem to work ok - here is your model with the slats 4" apart (enter 6" in spacing plugin to take account of the slat width too.

Wow, looks great. My only complain is that one 2x2 is flush on one side and the other is a couple inches off of being flush. It there anyway to get around this without making a new path taking in account where I want them to start?

If you let me know how many slats you want placed between one end and the other I can give you specific instructions and update your model for you.
Regards - Martin