Nice find Ross. The grahpics look really good. Hey! are you sure you are not getting it for the 'kid' in you I could never do that with two daughters although I tried it a couple of times when they where young but I'm afraid they were not into electric racing cars

Mike

Thanks for sharing Edson. I think this could be a little gem of a utility. BTW I enjoyed the video presentation, very well thought out and put together.

Mike

Thanks Chin, I've downloaded the program and will try it out when I have some time. Have you used / tried it? If so what do you think of the results?

Mike

Any Ideas?

It probably would but I'm talking about a 'quickie' fix and xPad works for this.

Mike

Have a good one Tavi and also have a drink on me

Mike

Hi Fellow Mac Users,

After switching over to the new MAC OS, Leopard, I was sad to learn that Afloat would not work! Afloat was a very useful utility that allowed me to 'float' a transparent picture etc over the SketchUp Window. It was great for 'lining up' a model with a photo of a site / plot.

The developer of Afloat has advised that he will be making his program Leopard compatible early in the New Year but I missed the utility so much that I kept searching for a replacement.

I have now found a Freeware Program / Utility that does this job for me!
It's called Xpad http://getxpad.com/ To create a floating transparent window just go to preferences and adjust the slider. BTW Xpad is also a very useful 'stickies' program / feature so will probably also replace my old Stickies program which has limitations.

Mike

Hey Ross,

Everytime I look at your Avatar I think I'm looking at my mut, Jock. I'd say he's a big as your Westie now and quite a handfull but good fun to have around.

Sorry guys for jumping in with an oddity, Paint. Net looks to be a good program but only Win

Mike

Cheers Ron, just about every profile under
the Sun

Solo, there is an orbit tool and quite a good one. Watch the tutorials
for instruction to use with mouse.

Mike

Well spotted Jenu. I'm flabbergasted!!!! I've looked at the Tutorials http://www.3dvia.com/shapeit/help/tutorials/ and have to say that in quite a few ways ShapeIt is far more elegant than SketchUp .... I didn't think I'd be saying that for a LONG TIME to come! I have yet to try the actual program itself.

It appears to be produced by a UK based company, have to do a bit more investigation to get full facts. There is one thing that starts the alarm bells ringing though! ShapeIt uses a command called 'PUSH N PULL'.

To he best of my recollection 'PUSH/PULL' is patent protected! If this is the case I can see major litigation when Google eyeballs ShapeIt, unless of course they have licensed this technology.

We will have to keep an eye on ShapeIt ..... still a bit flabbergasted

Mike

PS: Did a bit more reseach and it appears that ShapeIt has been produced by DASSAULT SYSTEMES, a French firm.

A great SU utility, thanks Brad. Just one request!
Would it be possible to have a link to a better res /
bigger video? The one on Utube is a little brurry.

Never Happy Mike

Eric,

Your problem must have been one those things that lodged
in my brain over night.

Anyway, this morning it just dawned on me that one way
to create something that might suit you would be to take
an existing tilable texture and edit it, placing the
snecks (small stones) here and there also 'blackening'the
pointing (joints) to give the effect of a dry rubble stone
wall.

Hope this helps.

Mike

That's going to be a tough one Boo.

The little stones are called 'snecks'
in dry walling and they are very common
here in Ireland.

Have you thought about having a go with
PS?

Here are a couple of links that might cast
some light for you.

The second one seems to be very good and
possibly worth the effort.

http://www.highpoly3d.com/writer/tutorials/tileable/seamless.htm

http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials/740

Mike

Thanks Ron. I was was going to poke that
eye of yours but after seeing the light
standards I decided not to

Mike

Thanks for showing Fbartels,

I enjoyed viewing. I'd like to learn more about the materials that you propose using also you might consider using some the the 'Style' for presentation. I think some of them would when lend themselves to showing these this design to great effect.

Mike

Thanks Paul, I'II have a look at these. Looks like an
interesting idea.

Mike

@tomsdesk said:

Mike, I actually looked into it: couldn't get near the machine for twice the price. Plus, the nearest (and only) Mac dealer/support is 60 miles away (and they know it :~( the next closest is almost 200 miles. Oh well.

Tom,

You are right, Macs are more expensive that equivalent PCs BUT, and its a BUT that is worth considering. Most if not all Mac Retailers WILL trade in your old Mac in 18 - 24 months time when you want to upgrade. They have this market created with students. This has been the case with my daughter's recent upgrade. Now try and find a PC Retailers that will take a trade-in on your old PC!

You seem to be worried about backup! Yes, I agree this is very important when it comes to PCs BUT with the case of Macs the location of the retailer is not that important as once you make your purchase the chances are you wont be in contact again until you need to upgrade, believe me

I got an 'out of the blue' call some weeks ago from some guy trying to sell me a Mac Back-Up Pack! I listened to what he had to say and it seemed that he must have been a 'freelancer' trying to get Mac Users to sign an Apple Maintenance Contract. I hope this is not his main source of income, if it is, I imagine he will be facing lean times Needless to say I did not take him up on the deal. On the other hand I ALWAYS signed up for the MC when I was buying PCs and often was very glad I did. Oh! and not to forget the monies forked over to my local PC Maintenace Shop. he was very disappointed to see me moving over to Mac! Just as a batter of interest! How many freelance Mac Maintence Shops do you see around? I've yet to come across one but have no problem locating freelance PC Maintenace Shops!

Tom, look at the figures again! Spread them over 18-24 months and take the trade-in deal into account ALSO the 'No Down Time' / Maintenance Costs THEN reach a decision. Its like most quality products, once the initial purchase has been made (suffered) its all fun after that ..... most definately the case with a Mac.

Mike

Well so far so good. Overall I think its an improvement.
The new Dock features are proving a great time saver.

However I could not get Afloat to work. I contacted the
author and he tell me that a Leopard version should be
available in January. If anyone knows of a similar Mac
program I would appreciate advise.

Mike

Hi Guys,

I came across this car while checking out what's new in the 'three wheeler' scene. It looks that these guys are serious and we will see production shortly. The $30K price tag is a little steep for a small car but I think it will sell with the technology being incorporated.
http://www.aptera.com/

Mike

PS: Thought this would look very well outside my DomeHome (Pet Project ) Now how to go about modeling it