Hi guys. Sorry it took so long to get back here. Maybe I'm missing something, but I never get any "notification" emails that tell me someone has replied to my thread.

Ok, just tried a section of a "component", while in edit mode. Works perfect. DOH!! Now I remember. I accidentally did this a while back, and couldn't figure out why I couldn't see the section while the whole model was in view. Now I understand..Thanks guys.

Hi. I;m working on a file that has lots of components/groups, that are spread out on the ground plane. I want to section ONE of these components, and create a section FACE, of that particular component only. Any one know if it's possible or if/how you manipulate the size of the section PLANE? The problem I'm trying to avoid, is making a Section Face of the entire model, as it creats a face in every component/group. Thanks

@unknownuser said:

Use the modifier keys.

Shift will toggle selection (select / deselect)
Ctrl will always add to the selection
Shift+Ctrl will always detract from the selection.

@unknownuser said:

massimo wrote:
Ctrl+T isn't good enough?

If I had known that...I wouldn't be asking now would I?

At least you didn't call me a dolt.

Thanks guys.

Hi guys. Does anyone know if there is an existing method within Sketchup for DEselecting an entity. Here is my problem. If I am zoomed in on a model, where it completely fills the screen, and I select an incorrect entity, the only way(that I've found) I can "deselect" it, is to zoom out until there is empty space(what do you call that?) that I can left click in, which then "deselects" the entity. I don't need a fancy plugin, as this simple action is all I need. Like some kind of Cont/Alt action? I did a search on deselect, and found there are many plugins, most of which go in the Ruby console..which I don't know a thing about. I get kind of hesitant about loading new plugins too. A few that I've loaded ended up with a Sketchup boot screen saying something like.."Unable to load X...." or something to that effect. I still have one popping up, and I asked to no avil here a while back. I even made sure the plugin was in the right folder but it still pops up. Anyway, any help with a simple entity deselect tool or button or action would be appreciated.
Thanks

Hi guys. I had a problem with a single file, whereby, after I had applied a color or texture to a surface within a group, and then tried to change it in the Entity Info box, as soon as I click on the box showing the existing color or texture, Sketchup would crash...every single time. This was happening ONLY in this one file. After this happened about ten times, I started looking for the reason, so I opened the Model Info configuration box. The only thing I found that might have something to do with it was the "Anti-Aliasing" on/off selection, which had a "check mark" beside it. I clicked on it, which turned the check mark "off".

Then I reopened the file, and proceeded to change the color of that particular surface again. It worked, and it didn't crash.

So my question is...what does this "anti-aliasing" thing do, and what does it have to do with the Entity Info material/color/texture select and or change process? Especially per file, as this problem didn't occur in any other file.

The reason I ask, is now I have the anti aliasing turned off(I guess), and it would seem that this is a global parameter. I just don't understand what it does, and if I need it ON. And if so, why?

Thanks
fitZ

I'm not sure, but it seems to me the first time I tried using the plugin, I didn't realize the "radius" input was defaulted to ZERO, and if memory serves me, my lines disappeared too. Might check it out.

@unknownuser said:

Do you mean something like this?
....OMG!

OMG, that nails it!!

@unknownuser said:

Find ImageAnimator...
HOLY MOLY!! Tig.. are you trying to give me a heart attack? OMG. What can I say. This is the most incredible plugin I've ever seen. Just downloaded it. ...now I've got no excuse to NOT work on that "project" I mentioned. This is unbelievable. My wife is gonna hate you. All I can say is ...you are a genius!!

@unknownuser said:

LightUp allows you to use animated textures
Cool. I tried to use Lightup a while back. Another learning curve. But I'll try anything that will help with this project. Btw, I downloaded the free Maxwell Sketchup "renderer" too. Another learning curve...heck..I got so many "learning curves" on the list now...not to mention the Plugins..I spend half my day, half hour per learning curve..and I'm still so far behind the learning eightball ..egads..I think I'll never get a complete handle on ANY of them.(sighs)

But as far as this Imageanimator thing is concerned..I'm excited. That's all I can say...other than THANK YOU GUYS!! Sketchucation to the rescue again!!

Well...time to go to work.
fitZ

Well, I thought I'd post a "quick" jpg of a surface like shown in the video. In the sku file, a video would play demonstrating the same principles as shown in the video above....or something to that effect. Imagine, opening a sku file on any surface made of this stuff, and THEN, the Sketchup would display a video on various models...or something to that effect. Hence my question. If someone could write a plugin to do this I'd be in sketchup seventh heaven.. Ok...back to reality.

btw, the model was a quick edit on an existing file.

And thanks for the reply mitcorb
fitZ

Oh btw, IF, there were a plugin, I would model a FUTURE computer monitor and control surface to do this

OMG!! I can see it now...working and displaying sketchup on ANY surface made of this stuff. ....well, I can dream can't I.

Hello. Well, this will probably make someone , but I was wondering if there is a Sketchup Plug in, that will allow a Surface, to display a Video file? Kind of like an imported .jpg, that has been cropped to a surface outline. The reason I ask, is I am working on a project that I would just LOVE to display a video on a surface of a Sketchup component. I know this is probably ridiculous, but thought I'd ask just the same.
Thanks.

OMG! Absolutely beautiful work. I came across this thread during a search on the "Send to Layout" tool. This is the first day to use it, and I don't know nothing about it, although I've been using Sketchup3d for 4 years. Looks like I have another learning curve ahead. (sighs) Again, nice work.
fitZ

@unknownuser said:

You should be able to copy any 2dText Component Instance and then Select it and right-click context-menu > 'Make-Unique'... Thereafter it should '2dText Edit' as a separate thing...

OMG! I could have sworn I tried that. Ok cool, I'll check that out immediately!

@unknownuser said:

It can also be useful to have several Instances, because you can Edit one to affect all; it depends on what you want.
I LIKE IT!

@unknownuser said:

The 'Entity Info' window will show the number of Instances of a Selected Component - useful in case you are unsure about its 'uniqueness'...
Dang I wish there was a "facepalm" smiley. (note to self: file under.. "more reasons to spend some time looking at default Sketchup tools)

Ok Tig, you made my day. No more questions for at least a week.

oh, btw

@unknownuser said:

but some Google genius
er...isn't that an oxymoron?

Ok, now I get it. And thanks for sharing your knowledge Tig.

fitZ

oh, btw, here's the reason I was looking for a solution. There were so many filets in this group all the cpoints were distracting. And this is only one of many sets of cables.

What's odd..is the cpoints disappear sometimes. Can't figure that one out either.
And btw, I would never done this had it not been for your filet tool, and the "Line into Tube" plugin. They work great together. Thanks again for the info. Every little bit helps.

ooops. I completely forgot. Your 2d text works sublime. The only thing I was wondering is editing a copy of a 2d text. They act like components. If I change one..it changes the original. Can you "make unique" them somehow? That would be phenomenal. Then I could drag a copy along an axis..and edit it. Sure would save a bunch of time. Anyway, thanks a million for this one too!!

@unknownuser said:

I have the "Delete Guides" shortcut command set to "D" on my keyboard...takes a split sec to delete all of 'em when you're done

good grief. I guess I should spend more time exploring the default tools in Sketchup. Never saw that. AND setting up some shortcuts too.

Thanks a mill!

@unknownuser said:

There are even specialist script-tools to erase cpoints

Hmmmm, "cpoints". So that's what you call them huh. Cool. I searched for "tic" marks. Should have known they'd be called something related to Cartesian space ...or something to that effect. Ok, thanks for the info guys. I know all these solutions are probably in the thread, and I hate asking you to spend more of your time to explain something that you've already explained somewhere. So, I mucho appreciate it!

@unknownuser said:

Well, there might be Give me a day or two to find one.

Ok, I admit it took longer than a day or two, but that's due to searching for an answer over the last week, and putting up with the problem until I could find a solution.

So, I beg your indulgence. When I fillet a set of lines, a "tic" mark appears at the center of the chosen radius. I can erase each one, but it's time consuming. Is there a way of either hide them, or erase all at the same time...or a tic "parameter" of some kind I'm not aware of yet? Again, I haven't had time to read the entire thread, but I did a search for a solution but didn't find any.

@unknownuser said:

TIG
Fantastic job on this set of tools.

Ditto. Thanks a mill for these tools. Just gotta learn to use them correctly.

TIG
Fantastic job on this set of tools. [/quote]

Hello mac1 and thank you. Will do.

HOLY MOLY..this stuff never ceases to amaze me.

ummmmmmmmmm...I just rebooted Sketchup and got this prompt...

@unknownuser said:

Error Loading File tt_selection_toys.rb
no such file to load -- TT_Lib/core.rb

What do I do now?

Oh, btw, if anyone is interested. No, the studio isn't finished yet. I's supposed to look like this.

Again, I couldn't have planned the design without Sketchup. I've been working on this project for a long time but it would have been impossible without Sketchup

And here is what it allowed me to build.

And even to model the studio acoustic materials.

Well, that should illustrate why Sketchup is so important to me.

And btw, here is the latest woodworking project.
Again, Sketchup to the rescue.
[img:rgsiym2t]http://httpics.com/is.php?i=1754&img=Paul_LR_Design_.jpg[/img:rgsiym2t]

So you can see now...Sketchup is IMPORTANT to me.

WOW guys! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

@unknownuser said:

Ghost Component might help you out.

OMG! I think that tool bar would fill both of my monitors. But I downloaded it anyway. Just a question though. I didn't understand the "activation" thing..or whatever he called it. I extracted the files to the Sketchup PLUGIN directory..but nothing happened. Can someone enlighten me please? Sometimes this stuff gets real confusing.

@unknownuser said:

So I assume that means you have the 64 bit version of Windows 7 I hope

You assume correctly. And I LOVE my system. Normally, it's so fast it makes me Hahahahahaha!'' But as this file grew in size...well, it's starting to act like my old P4 when trying to render. Oh, and speaking of Rendering..I've also downloaded two free rendering programs. FREE Maxwell for Sketchup, which I still haven't figured out the C+ instructions. That kind of stuff scares me.
But I did manage to get the Maxwell toolbar on the screen, and actually got one file to "render". Probably because I haven't even started the learning curve and don't know diddly squat how it works yet. But I wasn't impressed at this first rendering. Maybe I expected too much.
The other is Kerkythea..talk about a learning curve...YIKES!
And that's the problem. Since I've just recently built this computer,(all designed in Sketchup btw!) I've never had this kind of Processing power...so I've finally able to start learning things I've been waiting YEARS to learn. Which means I'm at the beginning of many learning curves. Skechup is only one of many application I'm trying to conquer at the moment.
But Sketchup is a working tool for me. I'm a semi-retired journeyman CAD detailer/draftsman and designer. I also have a small woodworking business, which means Sketchup is my MAIN working tool. It's also my 'fun" thing too. And this file in question..is part of my "fun" thing.
It's a cable layout for my home recording studio. Here's the point I'm at today.

But enough of that.

@unknownuser said:

You can check out what is being used by using the device manager, selecting resource by connection and then memory. That will show what is using what.
Cool. will do.

@unknownuser said:

The down side is the report is in hex so use the windows calculator and you can convert the numbers to decimal.
Hmmm, I'm glad you added that second part.

@unknownuser said:

You are on the correct path=> rendering is the main cause of slowness because the GP must re-calcualte for every change in view.
So every time I move my view, one core is doing all the calc's for moving entities in the model,while also processing the screen data?
So, when I move my view, Sketchup is "rendering" the new view,is that correct? Hmmm..learn something new every day. I never thought of Sketchup "rendering". I just assumed "rendering" was something that other programs did. Not Sketchup. Ok, now I understand. Alright, now for the solution.

@unknownuser said:

:monochrome as much as possible; layers turned off: keep poloygon count down; you can use scenes to help with the orbit to spots in your model. See this
Fantastic. Thanks!

@unknownuser said:

There are some settings in the BIOs that may also help but will have to run that down for you.
BIOS?Don't scare me. My old Gigabyte P4 mobo was scary enough..but THIS computer uses an EVGA 3xSLI CLASSIFIED! Holy crap. Well, I guess now is good as time as any to open Pandoras box. BTW, this computer is also my studio DAW..which is WHY I built this computer in the first place. You see, my system is actually part of a two computer system. In reality, the SECOND computer will ultimately be my graphics computer. I'm still building that one. Here is a pic of THIS computer. So, I'm using Sketchup TEMPORALLY on this computer. So anything I do to this computer must be related to the effects any action may cause...to the DAW. That's why going into the bios scares me. I don't want to screw it up. But I'm open to your ideas. Thanks.
btw, here's my system. I resides in the bottom center right compartment. The empty compartment is for the new graphics computer. The reason for them being in this fixture is the fixture is for noise suppression in my Control room. I designed almost everything here in Sketchup. Here's a few shots.

I couldn't have built this without Sketchup. Even the computer itself.

Hence my cable file. I need it. Because of this file, I've already found more than a dozen mis-connections and misc unanticipated problems.

So now you see where I'm coming from..and the reason for my file.

@unknownuser said:

Consider minimizing the workload for the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit). Try these ideas either one by one or a few at a time or even all at a time:

Cool! Will do.

Guys, again...thank you so much. And please accept my apology if I over posted with the pics and all. I just wanted you to see what I'm dealing with and it's relationship with Sketchup.