@david. said:

For the doom and gloomers regarding the collapse of the USA, this shows GDP, in $, of the G8 from 1970-2007. As of 2007, the USA, with over $12.4 trillion, is 3 times the next largest, Japan. That's despite 9/11, the war on terror, Katrina, Democrat congress, etc. Didn't bother with labeling the rest 'cause they're down in the noise somewhere...
[attachment=0:3aqlu36t]<!-- ia0 -->CountryData-G8.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:3aqlu36t]

That's quite telling David. But why are we so poor then? Sure we have lots of things but we are owned by the Chinese. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I am more worried about the collapse of the US economy on "Main Street" as they like to say. The middle class, the lower class, or what have you. The breakdown of the Constitution and civil society. The decimation of our military by pointless and destructive wars and the overextension of a chaotic Empire. I continue to see the US on a downward slide in those terms.

@unknownuser said:

Perhaps the words of John Lenin can help. LET IT BE. Know it? Check it out. Relates perfectly to your desperate search.
GoD

The song "Let it Be" was written by Paul McCartney, no? And it's "Lennon" not "Lenin", unless you are trying to equate the singer to the communist leader.

I don't know how that song can be considered a call to stop the search for deeper meaning.

I have come to the conclusion that we apply meaning to what we do and experience. That is the way of humans. "Is this all there is?" is not about denying the reality of our experience but about who we are. Many of us live a soft life distracted by entertainments and business, but life overall is hard and brutal. Suffering is all around us. Can we make our time here meaningful? Do we just want to survive, exist for a while, and rot? My dog wags his tail. Hasn't a worry. That's good for him. Not enough for me. I have to worry about meaning for some reason.

That's why people seek. Most find solace in helping others.

The depth of a floor depends on the materials used to make it and the method of construction.

Often floor depths in models will include the thickness of the floor finish (e.g. tile) the subfloor (e.g. plywood, concrete), the secondary structural members (e.g. wood joists, steel trusses) and a ceiling finish (e.g. drywall).

For a wood frame second story residential floor try 1'- 1 1/2". (Or just use a foot for the model until you know what it is). But this will vary in different houses, and the depth can be quite a bit different for other types of buildings, for a variety of reasons. There are some good books like Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching. Don't worry about it, get a good book.

bellwells expressed a view about "Islamists", NOT Muslims, and his views are probably shared by many Muslims. From what I see I don't care for "Islamists" either (nor theocratic fundamentalist Christians). These are "isms" out to get the rest of us. Islamists are the Taleban and Al Qaeda, Wahabis and the like. People who murder innocents for their "cause", oppress women, deny education to girls, and lock boys up in rooms to recite mumbo-jumbo all day. Sorry, don't like it.

I think bellwells trust of fundamentalist Christians is misplaced though. They are behind the policies abusing people around the world, giving strength to the Islamists and tearing down the USA. Bush et al work on their behalf and have succeeded in bringing the USA military and economic strength so low, we could soon be looking at the end of the American Phenomenon (in manifestation, if not spirit).

Plot, I have always felt on the side of the native Americans and lamented the waste of native cultures and nations worldwide, the horrible genocide. These slave-owner "founding fathers" were far from perfect. Still you won't find anything like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights before that time. This set the stage for all people, including conquered indigenous nations to fight for their rights, opened the way for Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, the real saints of our times. I don't know how it came this way. Certainly it was not the "founding fathers'" intent for blacks and women to vote. I guess I believe in the principles that were given a "beginning" in the founding of the United States and the French Revolution; these principles were picked up by people and improved upon. Say what you like, the rest of the World has looked to this as THE hope and THE way ever since, despite oppression from Nazis, Communists, Wahabists, and even the United States Government itself.

Secular and rational rule of law, and equality. SOME form of representation (at least until the Supreme Court took away our vote). Personal freedom, inalienable rights,... Science, even. All these things have been thwarted all along in this very country-- but this is the core that persists and tries to come to the surface. People will continue to be imperfect, even evil. And even the people who have seized power in the United States will work to tear it down.

Sorry for the long post. It isn't all black and white.

Yes, I don't listen to most of the media in the US. Right wing fascists. I get my news from the BBC.

Here's a comment from across the pond, courtesy of BBC.

It's the bankers I feel sorry for, losing all that money. How humiliating it must be for them. My heart goes out, too, to the politicians who have been saddled with this crisis; George Bush, in particular, who's made so many personal sacrifices for the American people. If things get worse, he may be forced to sell one of his oil wells. And poor John McCain will probably have to sell one of his houses just to keep his head above water. It's not so bad for the poor: after all, they're used to it.

PJMolloy, Dublin

how does one create the evenly warped surface in the example?

I'm figuring out it is not that difficult. But is there a shortcut?

I have attached a picture of a WIP. I wonder if there is a ruby or a quick way to combine volumes. By that I mean I have many rectangular prisms and I want to change them into one entity that will have only the outside surfaces so I can make it a wall and put openings in it.

Here's what I have done to myself. I decided to start building these walls with slabs (like building blocks on top of the retaining wall you see in the forground, that goes all around most sides of the space. This is so I could add portions stepping up the wall AND I added a furring slab on the interior of the walls, all so I could realistically reflect the thickness. But now I have all these inside surfaces to remove. Most of the slabs butt evenly face to face with the adjacent slabs. Most of these slabs are coplanar in the sense that I will have corners meet and the top all even if I can do this.

Sorry for the long explanation. This went pretty well until I realized the complexity I have created. The HIGHLIGHTED group is the one with these wall pieces. Thanks for any suggestions.

Peter

@unknownuser said:

I also think the current bailout solution is not the answer. It rewards bad behavior.

Yes but getting on a moralistic high horse is not going to keep our heads above the rising waters. "laisez faire" usually means, "leave us alone while we subsidize the rich with your taxes". That's how we got here. I would remain distrustful of these devils, but letting the whole system fail, materialistic and exploitive as it is, is not going to help the rest of us. As for the risk-taking homeowner down the street, I would rather bail him out than have a gang start selling drugs from the burnt out shell of his former home.

Of course, riots and revolution may come of it. Yay! Let's forgo our condos and man the barricades. Too late. The class war was lost, in part because the rich on the right figured out a way to fool almost half the population (out there in the fly over lands) into thinking they could benefit from being openly screwed.

Some good music could come of this also, as we ride the rails looking for handouts. "Will model for food."

I don't mean to throw water on anything. It's just that patent drawings have a particular methodology. I've just been told by a patent lawyer that a drafter of a certain expertise is needed. Maybe other drawing styles are actually accepted. Here is an example of a conventional patent drawing. It's not a very high quality image but gives the idea.

You need someone experienced in illustrating for patents. Maybe you should discuss this with your patent lawyer.

You might get great help here otherwise with conceptualizing, but only some will be able to do a proper patent drawing.

I tried reverse faces, but that just gives me whatever texture was on the reverse side. I've tried to keep the faces the right way.

I projected texture from a photo, "matched" in SU. Podium render does not show the same textures, but tiled versions of the photo and some solid colors (from where I know not). I found a post by SOLO which describes exploding the group and grouping again, then repositioning the texture. but this doesn't do anything. since the photo match texture is fine in SU, it just doesn't render. Also, can't one have the photograph background itself in Podium renders? I projected it on a huge face in the background and it rendered whole but poorly positioned as well.

Is this a no-starter? Should I not use this technique in rendering?

Fantastic!
One must learn so much in the process of making such detailed models, just as any drawing or writing reveals the subject to the artist.

Beautiful. Definitely my style. and great texture.

Do you think perhaps the middle panel attaches to top bar closer to the front? That deep edge looks uncomfortable (being someone who is taller). Hard to tell from the sample.

Peter

Well, while I do not like Adobe Acrobat that much, I love pdf files. They have made my work so much easier (especially using Mac save/mail as Pdf). This doesn't work in Mac Preview where I usually view pdf. However this can be great for the majority of clients who will usually have Acrobat Reader and to whom loading and learning a new program is a huge deal. (Some are just too busy, that's why they have the money to be our clients.)

I don't particularly like that it cuts sections in the foreground. One of the courtyard views in the sample has inexplicable shapes because of this and the pool gets strange, probably the same reason.

That's great! How do you do that?

Fine design too.

Peter

Thanks Bob. That looks easier to understand than what I found so far.

Thanks James!

I think I got it. I don't know why the various times I tried it, I never noticed anything. I was working with an ACAD import where the colors are for the lines. Well it changes the faces not the lines in SU.This particular time I hadn't drawn faces yet. However I can get the lines to color as well by using "By material" in the color setting under Styles /edit / Edge. I was hoping to better differentiate lines in the import. Works great.

Peter

Catwoman,

I've been having that problem with this site. I know how depressing it is to lose your post, and you wonder if you want to do it over. I began to copy a post before submitting if I had written a long one. Then I finally set Firefox to save cookies from SU forums. Are you being logged on automatically? I think that helped me stop getting bounced off.

Peter