Now, that's a massive model

@rich o brien said:

I have them as shortcut keys. If I want to TRIM I just copy the cutter to memory buffer before the boolean. CTRL+V will bring it back.

That's the key point.. I'm a "toolbar man" can't remember that many button, I have really bad memory.
But I have custom toolbars set up, so I can keep a compact group of just 3 buttons: add, group-add and split (from BoolTools2).
I always feel that split is the most versatile "subtractive" boolean.
Your point about trim is valid, but what if you need intersect?
Split may serve as subtract, intersect and trim and takes a single button on my toolbars.

But.. probably the real reason why I prefer Split is that, for the kind of models I mainly do for work, I barely use booleans. They tend to create unsuitable topology..
I use booleans mostly when I do hobby projects to build something out of wood.
I don't want to waste wood, so with Split I can more easily keep track of the leftovers and scraps to do this kind of stuff.

@Rich The text in your example is pure genius

I know this was already solved, but I would say that in this kind of situation (when you already have the 2 objects) I usually prefer to use Split.. so you don't have to draw the cutters just for the sake of doing the boolean and you end up with less total clicks.
Nobody loves Split.. I do.

@mike amos said:

It looks as though rendering is going through a once a decade shift, so many ?AI? render sites/programs etc are coming on stream so the next basic toolset might just include a bluddy dictionary........

How many old stle render resources will still be here within the next two years? Twilight is gone now and others like Maxwell have glacial development lead times while the current ethos appears to be constant change.

This is one of the main reason why I'm more and more specializing in very specific stuff, detailed/animated objects, custom shapes and textures, optimized models for VR/AR/realtime/web, teaching 3d for VR developers and all this kind of technical-oriented stuff.
Where i live the "classic" render market is already bloated with people working fast, but at really bad quality and underwaged, possibly cracking software and avoiding taxes in most cases.
So i think AI will make not a big difference for me (at least in the next few years), right now is a problem of those sloppy "collegues".
I'm done with that market, their analog stupidity has already screwed that well before AI was even a thing.
The only option I found to survive is doing those "hard" stuff that they can't or want not learn to do.. I hardly recall the last time I did a "classic" architectural still render

@dave r said:

Share the file so we can see what you've got going on.

Not necessary to upload the file, the screenshot clearly reveals that problem was between chair and keyboard.
Flowify requires you to select BOTH the component and the flowify rig at the same time before you run the command.
The guy has only the rig selected and not the stair component, so that the plugin doesn't work and of course ask for additional "input" (the beloved component).

@rich o brien said:

But how does SU read UDIMs? Separate maps? I know I read about this before with some other model you did but can't remember the workflow.

I did a quick recap in the thread about the Ferrari F2004, which was actually a pretty complex model.
Here's an extended overview of the full process I use to prepare the model for the cuts, the packing of the tiles and the final reload (including some tricks for unfolding flat strip throwing in a bit of Thrupaint and also to create an ID map straight in Sketchup). I'not sure which is the worst, if my english or my michrophone, but I hope it's itellegible enough.

@rich o brien said:

These are hurdles you begin encounter at higher frequencies when you push the boundaries of what SketchUp was primarily meant to do.

I push those freakin boundaries every day all day long and rarely face problems.
The secred is: good topology & good practices

@cmeed said:

my personal buttons I've created, have stopped working

I posted a workaround a few pages before

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=73776&start=270#p687744

@brittbliss said:

1. Must be a solid

Not really. It doesn't need to be solid, it simply has to be clean.
You just want to avoid, small triangles, folded triangles, intersecting geometry, ngons.

If you want to get serious into unwrap, regardless the app you use, I'd reccomended to practice with modeling and topology, to better understand what's goin'on in your model.
It's a bit harder to grasp if you can't model that kind of stuff yourself.

@studiospectre said:

Unfortunately my menu bar is still completely gone
I think I'll finally upgrade from 21 to 23

Naa.. It works fine in 2021 (tbh it works way better than it does on 2023 due to the 23 UI limitation).
You probably messed up the install.

Make sure to download and install this:

LibFredo6 | SketchUcation

3D SketchUp Community for Design and Engineering Professionals.

(sketchucation.com)

THEN download and install this:

LordOfTheToolbars | SketchUcation

3D SketchUp Community for Design and Engineering Professionals.

(sketchucation.com)

Reboot Sketchup and you toolbars will show up again.

Thank you so much, Fredo!

@awadrummer said:

Am I missing something? I out of nowhere started receiving the error message "This version of LordOfTheToolbars (2.5a) has expired Please upgrade to the latest version", I haven't upgraded Sketchup. I tried uninstalling and re-installing the plugin. I've tried updating the Sketchucation extension. I can't get this message to go away or get my custom toolbars back. Was there an update that wasn't posted to the site? Is there any way I can diagnose and resolve this issue?

I have the exact same problem.
I basically cant't use Sketchup without LOTT, I rebuilt my whole Sketchup interface with custom toolbar and palettes.
I hope Fredo can fix this quickly.

Cool!

Wonderful!

@rich o brien said:

2019 to 2023 you will see some notable differences.

The only remarkable ones being, from my POV, the (way) faster/more robust outliner in 2020 and the improved skp format in 2021.

@mike amos said:

Is it worth doing?

2023 is buggy as hell.
You just get a fancy flip tool almost copied from free Curic Mirror plugin, a couple of selection filter in context menu (wich is ridcolously bad compared to the free wonderful Thomthom Selection Toys from more than 10 years ago), a completely screwed interface and eventually you will have corrupted files when saving.
Let's hope they fix those things in the near future.
New interface framework and multithread saving are both (potentially) very good improvements.. and future proof, but as it is, I feel 2023 is unstable to say the least.
I stick with 2021 for now.

@rich o brien said:

Next week either the 24th or the 26th. I erased the email with the date but I'm close with those dates.

24th

Cascadeur looks really nice, didn't know it's free.
I've always used Adobe Mixamo or ActorCore Accurig for similar tasks.

For that kind of objects I would reccomend to use Vertex Tools/ Sub-d and also Artisan.
You can find plenty of tutorials on the plugins websites and also on youtube.
Depending of the kind of models you are after, you may want to also have a look into Curviloft and Extrusion tools.