Since I only got one comment about the product, I thought I would post my own review. Remember, I am not a SU power house so my views may be tainted. I like Spread3D and think it is a good product. The price is certainly affordable. The "Pro" version is only $5/month. There is a free version but your presentations are only viewable for 24hours. Strengths Easy to learn - The UI for Spread3D makes it very easy to learn. There are a number of tutorials that seem to cover all of the capabilities pretty thoroughly. Play/Autoplay - Spread3D allows you to play/autoplay your presentation so that it is good for a kiosk type of environment or if you want to display your presentation in an unattended mode. There are settings for the slide duration and transition speeds. * Hierarchy - Spread3D gives you full access to the hierarchy in your model that can be manipulated at the slide level. Thus you can control the visibility or some limited animation of a group or component in he model at the slide level. Certainly strengthens the concept of using groups and components in your model in SU.* Links to external documents and videos - While I did have not yet used this feature, Spread3D allows you to connect to other documents and videos outside your model. You can also create links to external web sites. * Comments - Again, I have not used this feature (but I did look at it) that provides the capability to allow others to add comments about your model or presentation.* Rotate/Zoom/Pan/Measurements - You can add buttons to a slide that will allow the user to rotate, zoom, pan and even use a ruler on the slide. This again, is controllable at the slide level.* Auto Rotate- You can create a slide that will automatically rotate when the slide is viewed. Weaknesses Only One Model per Presentation - For me one of the biggest weaknesses it that you can only have one SU fie/model in a presentation. Therefore, if you want to have multiple models included in a presentation you must combine them into a single SU file and scene (you cannot export multiple SU scenes into a single presentation. If you combine models into a single file, you can overcome this limitation somewhat by using the hierarchy to control what is visible on the slide but this could get messy in a hurry* Fonts & Text display - Currently there is a limited set of fonts that can be used in a Spread3D presentation. There are also some limitations on how the text is controlled on the slide (how it appears, color and etc.). However, I have been told that this is being addressed in a future release (no timing on the update). One interesting thing I did discover though is the ability to create a scrolling list/text box.* Performance in IE - One of my presentations would never load in IE. All of my presentation did run smoothly in Chrome (I have only tested with IE 11 and Chrome). Since most of our clients use IE, this could be a problem in making our presentations available via our web site. For a show/convention we can make sure the machines being used have Chrome installed.* No Touch Screen Support - While this is not a show stopper, it is preferred for a show/convention so that the presentations can be used in a kiosk type of environment without having to have a mouse connected. Bottom Line Bottom line is that this is a good product that is VERY reasonably priced. It has a lot of good basic features and I have no problem recommending it. Just be aware of the one SU file limitation and you should be able to learn/use it in a very short time. The documentation is very adequate to get you going quickly.

This will not be a monologue! I took a look at cl3ver from time to time and it has the features I would require for an interactive presentation. The thing is I almost never need to make an interactive presentation. If I would I'd try this for sure. Thanks for your review, João

If you go to Window/Preferences/Shortcuts you have the possibility to assign any shortcuts to the actions/tools you need. Many are already assigned-if you go to Camera/Zoom Extents you will see that the Shortcut is already assigned by default. I would advice you now, to go trough every menu(File/Edit/View/Camera...) and I bet you will find things you never knew. Also, use every action/tool from there so that you know what they do.. Of course some are unavailable because you need to have something selected or else.. Take care !

You can also use the Section Cut Tool to view inside your buildings. The Section Cut Plane can then be placed on a different layer and hidden, but the Cut will still be active.

@dan rathbun said: @ntxdave said: I have tried various things like modifying the path name to my .dae files, ... If it helps, my environment is Win 8.1 with IE 11.096.............. You may need to prefix with file:// or file://localhost/ Thanks for the reply......... Here are the statements that reference the file name and location (this is the way the sample code that I downloaded was coded and the .dae file was located in a subdirectory of where I put the downloaded code) // Specifier le chemin du fichier collada | specify path for collada file var scene = CubicVR.loadCollada("Sketchup/solaire.dae","Sketchup"); var objectBounds = scene.getSceneObject("Sketchup").getAABB(); I tried several variations of your suggestion including the file:// and the full path name on the hard drive to the file. Still nothing but a blank page. It should be noted that I am not running server software but this is the only page that has failed to display. The page does come up but it is blank. BTW: There is also a css style coded as canvas{ background: #fff url('voie-lactee.jpg') center no-repeat !important; } which does not display either. If I change canvas to body, the image background is displayed. Again, any feedback that anyone can give me is greatly appreciated.

@dave r said: Since you are running the pro version of SketchUp, install it again. You probably still have the downloaded file from when you last downloaded it. Or download it again. It'll renew your Default materials library. If you are getting rid of unused styles in your In Model library, don't delete them manually. Use Purge Unused from the Details menu instead. It's easier and faster and safer since you don't get the purge option in the Details menu unless you are looking at the In Model library. Thanks for the reply Dave. This was a dumb mistake on my part. I have 2013 installed on another laptop so I just went there and copied them and reinstalled on this machine. I realized what I had done as soon as I did it. I was just trying to make sure I did not have styles in my model that I did not want but forgot to click on the "Model" button before deleting. At least I know I have a backup copy now

Sorry for not responding sooner. In this particular case, it turned out that I had to go to the Control Panel and uninstall it as a program. I had sent the message because I could not find the plugin in the Plugins folder and though maybe I was missing something. I always appreciate a response.

Just seen this post and just purchased SimLab PDF. There is a button to combine PDFs with SlimLab, therefore the 3D pdf and the PDF from Layout can be combined. When opened on Android tablet I could open the file but there was not any 3D model. Only 2d PDF was viewable.

You're welcome. It's a moderator thing.

@unknownuser said: Maybe some answers here ? I downloaded the trial and I am looking at the tutorials. Thanks for the response.

Mate I think it could be the case of all of the above! I think that how you present is based more on what you want to present and how. If the presentation is a page type, or more a web interface. Certainly LO has limits, and for client presentations other than fixed images it doesn't allow much by way of what you want to do! Sadly!

I'm still not sure there's an issue. I didn't see it at all when I tested it. Here's an example. I don't see any cropping of the image in the video (in the ZIP file) do you? [image: vFgZ_Swedishstool1.png] [image: UCtB_Swedishstool2.png] [image: n8FU_Swedishstool3.png] I set the viewport to 1280 x 720 and exported these images at screen size. Then I exported the video. Is it possible you're setting the window instead of the viewport to your video size? At least based on my results there's nothing that needs to be fixed by Trimble. Mp4 video from scenes

@unknownuser said: ntxdave, If I understand.....why not look at creating a.pdf "portfolio" It will require you to have Adobe Acrobat Pro (maybe you have already?) If you create your "slides" (pages) in LO and either export to .pdf or print to .pdf you can then convert the file to a .pdf portfolio that you can share wih your clients/etc. Backgrounds/colors/styles of the portfolio can be custom or just use stock templates. Upload a small .pdf file and I can quickly create a portfolio if you like. C I appreciate your reply (especially since it was the only one ) but this is not at all the direction I am looking to go. I did go take a look at Portfolio. I do not want a static file like a PDF. No animation of the objects on the presentation screen and no 3D objects. We already use PDF files for "static" information for our customers. I am looking for a PowerPoint/Keynote type of product that will allow me to insert SU (or other 3D modeling) models/components that can be displayed and manipulated during a presentation. I do not see PDF as a "real" presentation package in any sense. If I am wrong, I would be happy to be corrected/updated. Since I got no other responses, I am going to make an effort to go define how I would like to see enhanced in LayOut, or a new presentation product offering that would more fully exploit SU models. Part of my dilemma though is where to post it. I toying with the idea of putting together some UI suggestions for what I would like to see.

I've also struggled with this in the past but as Dave says using layers is a major help. I design kitchens so the wall are always 'in the way' but you need them for reference. I now set up scenes with different layers turned off for placing mouldings etc. such as a birds eye view with the ceiling layer turned off. I also use Profile Builder(Pro version) a lot as you can lock the the axes/direction as you place runs of moulding- easier than drawing lines and using follow me tool

The way you did it will work, but ONLY if there is just 1 instance of the component. Where there are component copies, and you try to redefine the exploded elements (of one copy) as a component again, using the same name, it will become a unique component, with the desired new t-nail view. The other copies will belong to the "original" comp. and will retain the old t-nail view.

@dave r said: With Mac there's a native option. With the PC there isn't but ThomThom's Export 2D With Alpha will do it if you export PNG files. JPGs don't support transparency. Thanks Dave - does EXACTLY what I want. This should be a standard part of SU (IMHO).

One way when you are working on individual components is to drag the edited component from the In Model window to the Collection window and it will overwrite the old version.

@ntxdave said: Well I "cleaned up" both of the SKP files and still have the same problem. It has to be something in the receiving file because I imported into a new file and it worked fine. The "consolidated" file is too big to post to here. It is 9.5Mb and the limit is 4Mb. Wish I could figure this out. For now I just use multiple files in my LayOut document which is OK but I can see in the future that I am going to be doing this many times. I will try to find a combination that fails and is small enough for me to post here. I appreciate the education everyone has given me. How does everyone learn all of this stuff? Well, I have figured out which file is causing the problem but now I have to try to figure out what is causing it. The "base file" (a top view of all of the equipment in the model). I can consolidate all of the other files without a problem. I purged the unused stuff from all of the files and even clicked on the "fix problems" button and no problems were found (in any of the four files I am trying to merge). Guess for now I will have to live with things the way they are

@ntxdave said: If I am brave enough, I will post some of this stuff when I am done (give you a good chuckle for the day). OK, here is what I wound up with. [image: 42hG_ntxdave_Coupler.PNG]

@ben ritter said: What about making the slab a semi-transparent material? I may try that but in some situations I cannot do that for other reasons.