Ahhhh, Anssi, you got it, I knew that there was something I forgot about the one I saw, the tube and screw were turning together.

There's one of these at a place called Oxford Island Nature Centre on the shore of Lough Neigh (that's the big hole in the middle of Northern Island).
If I remember correctly its about 600mm dia, and has a simple hand crank on the end instead of the wheel you have, this way a child could turn it as fast as they can!.
I think its made from stainless steel.
The size is almost identical to your sketch.
It sits in a very shallow paddling pool with a sump similar to yours under the base.
I'm unsure as to the sealing between the screw and the inner wall of the tube but I think there isn't any.
If I remember right there is a 15-30mm round bar welded to the blade edge of the screw to prevent injury.

I've looked online, but other than general area photos there are non of the play area, sorry

Just a thought:
Would a grain elevator from a combine harvester do the trick, the only other time I've seen them being used is at sewerage treatment plants to move the 'stuff' from sediment tank to sediment tank.

Links I found:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wittemuseum.org/images/Campus/Archimedes%2520Screw2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wittemuseum.org/about_the_witte/index.html&h=93&w=125&sz=79&tbnid=TZLG36FwN1QJ;&tbnh=93&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3DArchimedes%2Bscrew&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=3

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wwt.org.uk/images/gallery/wash_10_main.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wwt.org.uk/centre/123/washington.html&h=432&w=576&sz=90&hl=en&start=1&sig2=lxCLIEyztLboabJFTI9z4Q&um=1&tbnid=bvxKsevGgGtO4M;&tbnh=101&tbnw=134&ei=O5DaR8SkM5qYwwGqlMzRCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3DArchimedes%2Bscrew%2Bplay%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla;en-GB;official%26sa%3DG
Click on the No. 10 in the map

http://onecityatatime.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/dsc07090_downrez.jpg

Many years ago I worked on GDS, it had a wonderful feature(s) called RuleX, RuleY and RuleA.

You could type RuleX 0 300 5400 150 2000 300 and get a horizontal line(X) at the point that you clicked, 300mm up from that, 5400mm up again, 150 up again etc.
RuleY was the same but produced vertical lines and RuleA required 2 clicks and produced lines aligned with those 2 points.

You could type negative numbers to produce lines going in the opposite direction.

You could get distances to repeat, for example RuleX 0 100 200 100r5 300 would produce lines at 0,100,200,100,100,100,100,100,300.

Could a ruby make use of the ruler in SU to do such a script(s) RuleX, RuleY, RuleZ & RuleA ?.
Could it be one command, as in click on a line and then a direction, or 2 clicks to establish a base line and then a third to establish a direction?

Just a thought.

It took 3 printouts, 2 architects, 2 technicians and me to work it out but we got it!!, man that's subtle.

From now on all our buildings are going to be this shape, the top one we submit to planners the bottom one we build

Sketchupdate March2008:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg8w2dp_6djbrz3cz

When Solo first wrote:

@solo said:

nurbs!!

I read it as if someone was yelling it as a warning against invading aliens in a 50's sifi movie
.
.
.
I know, I'm odd

@solo said:

nurbs!!

Run for the hills the nurbs are coming!!!

Stu,
This is why I said:

@unknownuser said:

Their releasing it slowly to ensure that any problems with drivers/software are found and fixed before its released to the general public.

By the time its available via Widows Update all the listed programs will have been updated by their vendors, or at least should be

Feature 1:
Increased maths (or math if your American )
I use the '/' 'x' functions regularly, for example I can COPY a construction line from one point to another and them type '/3' and I'll get the distance divided by 3 but I cant do it when placing an original construction line for example, I'd like to hover over a edge, pull in a direction and type 1278.5/5 and get 5 lines.

Feature 1.1:
In GDS (going back a bit here) I could draw a set of (construction) lines by typing:
XLINE 0 100 250 r 6 100 300 and get a line where I clicked (0), a line 100mm away, a line 250mm away repeated 6 times, a line 100mm away and a line 300mm away from that.

Feature 2:
Coloured Scene Tabs, I use tabs not only to store camera positions but layer visibility, shadow settings etc.
For example I currently have a file with both the existing building and the proposed remodelling in it, its 3 stories tall and I have 4 primary views I want for each floor so I have 4 scenes that store layer visibility, Ground, Ground+First, Ground+First+Second etc. till I get to the roof, I then have 4 scenes that store only the camera positions.
This way I can go to view 1, Ground floor or view 4 3rd floor with just 2 clicks.
In another model I have the shadows setup at 8am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm.

If I could colour my Scene tabs it would make my life a lot easier.

Edit:
Opps, just reread remus's post and picked up the 'Original tool' bit, I think coloured tabs is original but more math(s) is only an enhancement....... I'm going to leave it though because I want it

If you look at one of the torrent sites and do a search for "Vista SP1" you'll find it.
Make sure you get the 32bit/64bit version to match your version of Vista.
All the usual caveats apply if your going to get ANYTHING from such sites so be careful.

If you know where to look its there
Their releasing it slowly to ensure that any problems with drivers/software are found and fixed before its released to the general public.

I've got it installed on 3 machines at home (1 desktop and 2 laptops) and its fine, the only visible change is the addition of 'Service Pack 1' to the Windows edition description.

It seems smoother but that could be just wishful thinking.

As for SketchUp, I don't have a Pro version at home, only the free one but its working fine.
I DID have a problem with SU not starting correctly with an empty document but it was fine if you double-clicked on an existing SKP file, that's now gone. I'm not sure if SP1 or an updated SU fixed that.

I don't have it installed at work, 2 work stations were ordered in the time between Vista being promised and it actually being delivered, so they came with XP installed and Vista was shipped later. Both machines (Dell's) haven't missed a beat so I'm loathed to upset them by installing Vista.
The biggest hurdle is AutoCAD, we have 2002/2004 versions which don't (reliably) work on Vista, only 2008 (and 2007 with patches) work properly. There's not a snowballs chance in hell we're going to upgrade so its good old reliable XP for some time to come.

To be honest, unless a computer comes with Vista I can see no reason what's so ever for upgrading an XP machine to Vista unless certain applications require it.

its funny that you mentioned Vectorworks as I was going to vote MiniCAD as one of the worst I'd ever used, I found that it was all about making something look right as oposed to being right.
Other in my list:
Real player
Windows ME
AutoCAD all flavors (but what choice do we have)
MS Access because it could be so much better, imagine the Access engine with the Excel front end.

There are others but my pizza is ready!

Welcome, here are a couple of random thoughts:

If there is a chance of the visuals being 'judged' then I'd avoid any visual reality, what I mean by this is that whilst all your dimensions are as correct as you can make them non of the colours should be, and especially the lighting. This is what photos of the actual scene are for.

If lets say a room has a blue patterned carpet then just show it as flat blue, the last thing you want is for a clever (huh) lawyer to dismiss the model/images as being factually incorrect because of such things.

This is a MODEL of a scene not the scene itself and you need to clarify the purpose of the model, if it is to portray a sequence of events then its the events, their sequence and location that is important not the accuracy of the wood grain of the table onto which someone cracked their skull.

As for fancy lighting, I'd avoid it completely as you can only produce a representation of light and this is YOUR representation, again it could be picked apart easily. If you need to indicate say, sunlight through a window then have a dirty great arrow pointing at a window with the word "SUNLIGHT" on it and leave the interpretation to the lawyers.

Remember you are producing a tool for someone else to use to archive THIER goal, in in this case I believe less is more.

Edit:
Looks like Jon had the same thoughts and got in just before me

With regard to what Jon said about presenting the model is a good idea, additionally make sure you supply not only the model but all your source material (drawings/photos/notes etc) and a copy of the current version of Google Sketchup Free on at least 2 disks to whoever requests it with instructions that THEY are responsible for archiving/storing the disks/data in whatever procedures they prescribe.

Granted:
Please find enclosed "A restful nights sleep" (c)
Warning may cause drowsiness, not to be used whilst driving or using heavy machinery.
SU pharmaceuticals are not responsible for any side effects such as not waking up, missing work, spontaneous combustion, narcoleptic episodes, violent mood swings, rabid turrets syndrome or drowning in your own soup.
"A restful nights sleep"(c) should never be used without the aid of SU pharmaceuticals patented "Straight jacket and restraint system"(c).

I wish the voices in my head would stop partying until 3 in the morning and turn the music down, I've repeatedly banged on my head with a hammer but they still wont shut up.

Granted, now your wife has it and you truly begin to suffer.

I wish I knew as much about my subject as people think I do

Granted but your wife leaves you with a list of 'little' chores to do each day "as your home" that take 8 hours to complete.

I wish people would stop assuming that because I 'can' fix their computer that I 'will' and that I will enjoy the challenge of doing it!

Move it from bugs (as its not one) and amend the title with '(Fixed)'

Mike,
If you've any questions about using the iPhone let me know as I've had mine for a while know and have managed to find answers for all the questions you;ll probably have.

You don't need the full Premiere, just Premiere Elements its only £60 or you can buy it with Photoshop elements for about £100

Here's the Adobe website link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/

Just make sure its the new versions as a lot of stores have the older versions on the shelves, v6 for Photoshop Elements & v4 for Premiere Elements.

Also have a look at this post, it's a tutorial for using Premiere Elements with SU:
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=654

Ahh, your there are you, well I'm/We're on the corner of Malone Road and Malone Ave, only 50' away!

Look out your back window and I'll be the bloke standing by the black Range Rover having a cigi