well, hush my mouth.
thanks, modelhead.

And here is another stab in the dark:
If the missing lines are on the white buildings in the middle of your pdf image, it could be a case of non coplanar faces, where there is a tiny Z distance between the building face and the surrounding face.

But yes it is possible to have faces without defined edges in SU. I have posted about this in the past. It seems to happen especially when created some non orthogonal contortions, such as pushpull off axis, or move off axis or rotate off axis. You highlight them and try to delete them, and sometimes other, dependent but fully constructed faces go away.

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but my observation is:
There appears to be three levels of communication in this program. (1) Whatever the program was written in, such as C++, (2) the API, where the human interface occurs[commands,plugins and such] and (3)OpenGL, the graphics display language. Somehow there can be a communication breakdown. How's that for a healthy dose of TMI?

Hi, Dave:
That looks like a very nice painting. I assume you have done research on it and you know its value, now consider insuring it.
mitcorb

Edmon:
There are several ways to do this.
If you are interested in doing this with basic Sketchup, you can extrude one face a specific distance, mouse over the next face and double click. The next face will be immediately extruded to that distance, and so on for each subsequent face.
If you wish to go beyond this, you can try Fredo6's Plugin Joint Push Pull. Further, Didier Bur, I believe, has a tool similar in function. These are freely available. Just do a search in this forum for Joint Push Pull. Monsieur Bur's plugin is available in Ruby Library Depot. You can Google search the Depot. There may be some other plugins, I just can't recall. Hope this helps.
mitcorb

Thomthom:
I do not know how to do the cookies thing in cyberspace. I am sure they would taste a little bit flat, and I'm not sure if you would want one of those giant cookies or just "byte" size.
It is ok with me if you want to keep the name as is.

Now to business. I tried to do a Select Loop on a roughly cylindrical model with a lot of triangular faces. The target loop was a fairly direct series of segments. I first set Edges only, then select loop. This portion of the model is contained inside a group.
What I got was the edge and the two adjacent triangular faces highlighted. I was obviously expecting a loop around the circumference to be highlighted. What did I do wrong?
mitcorb

Well, then, you guys must have been napping. And I reinstate what I said about naming that plugin.
Best Regards,
mitcorb

Pilou:
I could not get the Java applets to proceed. And, I have the latest Java updates.
mitcorb

hmmm. perhaps my last post here was a bit effusive and over the top. excuse me.

BTM:
Wow! Congratulations. Excellent video.
A humble thank you.
mitcorb

edit: this appears to be able to close those tiny triangles-- is that correct?

Thomthom:
I would make a suggestion here.
I think the title of this ruby should be Thomthom Selection Toys, in your own honor and ownership.
You have advanced Sketchup to a new level here!
Thank you.

BTM:
I have not tried the ruby yet, but I have some questions.
Is there an upper and lower limit to the selection radius?
From the description, this could be used as a seam stitcher, maybe? In other words, you construct a line or curve, or loop along which you can snap nearby vertices to it?

Same with my system here in U.S.
I noticed after getting the error message it appeared that it tried to default to 50%. I allowed that. Then I undid back to the 1000x and used the .01x and .1x and got the group back to its original size. This was a simple cube, if that matters.

Could you use Fredo6's Hoverselect? I see you have some other criteria, but this plugin attempts to select only visible geometry.

I think when you begin a file-- the first input will snap to the axis and to the origin 0,0,0. All of the input tools are set to apply input to the XY plane when the camera is above the XY plane (the camera--meaning your view of the scene). What I do is draw a line from a known point being on the red axis, or I draw a line from the origin, which is sometimes still snappable after you lose the ability to snap on red or green and I use the line as a snappable entity. This is just my perception/ observation over time.
mitcorb

Thomthom and Chris:
The way you guys are throwing ideas back and forth-- are we witnessing the first global collaboration on Sketchup plugins or have I missed a bunch of stuff? I say more power to you, and the more collaborators the better for the community. You guys are awesome.
mitcorb

Fredo:
This would be the variable falloff "brush" available in some other modelers.
Sure would be nice to have this capability.

Thomthom:
you asked what default distance from corner? In my city, the ordinances require a minimum setback from corner of 40 feet, or approx 12 meters. I believe there is some confusion here whether this should be measured from the intersection of the centerlines or from the intersection of the edges of the streets.
In practical terms, this minimum distance would not be safe if the streets have higher speed limits for vehicles. The setback distance should be established as a function of time as well as distance. But I digress.
Sincerely,
mitcorb

Thanks, thomthom:
I will check this out.

Ok Thank you modelhead.

Here are several questions that may seem naive, but I have been using this feature sparingly for some time and cannot determine the advantages and disadvantages:

Does the process of smoothing/ softening edges help reduce the file data?
I am aware that the process aids in rendering, but does it improve navigation?
Is it always better to smooth soften as you go in the model?
Once you have smoothed the model, is it possible to or is it ever necessary to revert the model to non smoothed?
And, what if, when using the eraser tool with the control button, you select already invisible edges? Do these get resmoothed to a greater degree than before?