@arcad-uk said:

Click on the little house icon or the down arrow to the left of the search window or the arrow to the right of the magnifying glass. All three give you local navigation options depending on what you are looking for.

Hi ArCAD, I followed your instructions and still cannot get back to the original component setup, I have attached a screen shot of my component browser.

guys, I need a little help.

When I open the component browser I don't get the folders with the components in them, I get a google search bar with the magnifying glass but not the folders view,
What am I missing?
thanks in advance

Hi Guys

Is there a way or a plugin that would allow me to change the colour of the UI and toolbars, I would prefer a gray or darker colour as opposed to the stark white?

Thanks in advance

@bryan k said:

Looking good. Arrays were one of the things that was hard for me to grasp at first.

Some other tips:

Use layers and components as often as possible. This keeps the file size down and helps with quick changes later if needed.

Scale is very important in 3d. Make sure things are "right-sized" in relation to other things and reality. Use the numeric scale feature as often as possible.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, I am getting right into Sketchup and understanding the Layers and Components more and more.
now that I look at the pic again the scales are really up the wall )

Practicing with Sketchup, especially copying and arrays, don't know how to do rocks yet

@gaieus said:

You can still copy an array of the bottom (bigger) face of the prism and then intersect the shape with the copied faces. In the attached file, edit the group, select all inside and intersect with model. This way only the faces will get intersected but no inner faces created. If you need those inner faces, too, explode the group, select all, intersect with model or selected and then start removing access geometry of the multiple octagons copied.

Thanks Gai it worked a treat and was what I was after. Will post the model when it is done

Hi Guys,
I have hit a bit of a hurdle, I am getting back into Sketchup, I want to be able to subdivide some faces.

I drew an Octagon, Push/Pull it, then scaled the top face in to create a tapered object. But then I wanted to subdivide all the faces into equal amounts or as many as I wanted, I tried everything I could think off but no joy (especially as the entity is tapered.
I realize in hindsight I could have left the Octagon straight, then copied and arrayed the bottom ring to get the faces I needed, then tapered the object.

In Hexagon, I would select all the edges then pick the "connect" tool, this would put a subdivide line in the middle all the way around, I could then repeat the process and create all the faces I need.

Is there a tool / plugin or a technique I can use in Sketchup to achieve the same result?

@paul russam said:

If its a Logitech then you can remap the wheel button to be 'middle button' in the Setpoint software from Logitech, by default they have it set to some other function, I always remap as soon as I get a new mouse.

The other thing to watch for, and this may be your problem, is that the wheel has lean left/right actions which I think by default are set to scroll left/right. Its very easy whilst orbiting to lean on the side of the wheel and invoke the scroll action thus canceling the orbit(middle button).

To get around this I also set the lean left/right functions to middle button.

I've attached a screen grab from my setpoint dialog showing the mouse wheeel click(3) set to Middle Button and the lean left(9)/right(10) also set to Middle Button.

Hope this helps

Brilliant, I followed your setup and it works great, now it doesn't matter how I press the wheel I get the orbit action

@utiler said:

I almost threw the bloody thing at the wall today Phil!!! Maybe a new mouse is the answer....

I know the feeling, I have lost i a couple of times myself when the orbit function just stops in the middle of the action.

I have tinkered with Hexagon, Carrara, Blender and they all have the option to remap the mouse, most of these packages have
ALT+RMB as Zoom
ALT+MMB as Orbit
ALT+LMB as Pan but I have changed the mapping to ALT+MMB as Zoom as the scroll wheel will Zoom and there are icons that give you the option to Zoom all or Zoom to a specific area.
I have ALT+RMB as Pan and APT+RMB as Orbit.
When you fire up Blender you can go into the preferences and choose the "Maya" theme which gives you the above mouse options.

I am surprised that with the age of Sketchup and all of the upgrades that being able to remap the mouse is not available, you rae pretty much stuck with what they give you.
Looks like I also will be getting a new mouse myself this week, my grey hair is getting longer

@utiler said:

Do you guys from time to time have trouble with the scroll wheel 'Orbit' function playing up? I'm not sure if its a graphics thing or not; its certainly not flat batteries....
I have a Logitech M310 wireless mouse and just in the last day or so I've notice that scroll wheel hold down function does't activate 'Orbit'. I actually just had it working when I was rclose up in a drawing but then it stopped again...

Any ideas?

Cheers,

I had the same issue, and there doesn't seem to be a way out, I would have liked to remap the orbit to another mouse keyboard combination, but looks like you can't, it was suggested to me to get another mouse or learn to love it. I have found the most successful way for me to use the scroll wheel for orbiting is to push the wheel a little to the side as I push down on and that is the best I can do at the moment.

@dave r said:

I'm thinking you need a different mouse if its so hard to hold the CMB down that you keep dropping the Orbit tool. I have a nice little Logitech mouse I use with my Mac (do not load the driver if you get one) and a cheapo Microsoft wired mouse on the PC. Both have a very light touch and are very easy to use. Left index finger hovers over Shift so it's a no brainer to switch from Orbit to Pan to zoom. The Microsoft wireless mouse in the classroom where I teach SketchUp, on the other hand requires a very heavy hand to press and hold the CMB. I dislike that mouse a great deal and find it hard to use.

Mice don't have to be that expensive. I would suggest you check out some new ones.

Thanks guys.
I found that if I push forward and click I get the orbit, but on my mouse I have 2 buttons on the side for navigating back or forward, I managed to map one of them as the middle button and it works great orbiting now, but am on the lookout for a new mouse.

Hi Guys

I have searched the forums but no joy, but I do apologize if it is there somewhere
Have a small question:

I am getting back into Sketchup, I have a project coming up where Sketchup is perfect for the job.

I absolutely hate using the middle mouse button for Orbit, I find that when I press and hold to orbit, most times it drops off and I have to keep re clicking, as Orbit is more used (I M H O) is there a way to re map it (I think that is what its called) I have used Hexagon and tinkered about with a couple of other 3D packages and they seem to pretty much be standard in navigation
ie; Alt Left Click to Orbit
Alt Right Click to Pan
Alt Middle click to zoom
Now, you have the scroll wheel to zoom so the last option is not really necessary but you can map the least favorite combination.
So my question is:
Is there a way to re map the Orbit function other than using the MMB? I know you can use the letter O but the best workflow is to be able to use the mouse possibly with a key combination, that drops off when you "unclick"

thanks in advance

As long as the Yankees lose I am happy

@chris fullmer said:

Hey, I'm probably in over my head here. I know very little about flash. I sort of played with it about 4 years ago, but never really made anything with it, and certainly never got to a point where I feel like I understand it.

I would like to make a virtual tour using SketchUp and flash. Something where you start on a rendered image, and there are buttons or hotspots on the image. You can click on those and move to a new location in the model. The movement from location to location should probably be animated. I think that some of the onscreen buttons would pop up informational text about the model also. I would also like to have a small model legend overlay in the bottom corner too, to help show the navigation through the model.

I just don't understand where to start. Does anyone have a good video tutorial that would help explain how to make something like this in flash?

This is only experimental, and is not something I have to get done. So there is a good chance I'll try it out and end up deciding its just too much to learn right now. But if anyone has any tutorials or hints, I'd be grateful! Thanks,

Chris

Have a look here http://www.cartoonsmart.com he is a good instructor and has some great flash tutorials..

@tig said:

Rescale the model by drawing a line 10 [meters] long, then use the Tapemeasure tool to pick its two ends and type in 10mm.
Answer yes when prompted and the whole model will scale to the correct size.
NOW you'll have the right-click option to scale the component[s] definition[s].
Finally 'Model Info > Units' and re-set them to mm no units displayed accuracy 1mm snap 1mm ?

Sensational... thank you TIG, It worked a treat and you really have saved me a bucket load of work, I basically was about 2 mouse clicks from deleting it all and starting all over again.. All is as it should be.

thanks again...

@gaieus said:

So it seems to be a scaling issue. What is the size of that building? Is it a group/component? If so, right click and see if "Reset scale" is available. That would indicate that the object has been scaled extremely.

You can also try to right click on a face (not a group but face inside) and see what happens if you "Reset position" under the texture item in the context menu.

Else attach the file, please so that we can have a look.

I just measure the garage length and it is supposed to be 5.500metres long, I have it at 5700metres

The garage is a drawn component, When I click on it there is no option to "Reset Scale"
When I click on a wall under Texture the "reset position" is grayed out.
When I click on one of the components I made earlier (don't know how to put them on different layers yet)and right click on it the option to "Reset Scale" is grayed out..

Looks like I have made a great big B%&*s up of this model

@gaieus said:

Hi Philip,

I can think of two things here;

1. you are in shaded face style instead of shaded with texture (See View menu > Face style)

1. or there is some scaling issue in your model (and you are drawing it extremely large). What happens when you zoom in to the wall very closely?
   If it is neither, check the model with hardware acceleration off (Window > Preferences > OpenGL settings - then restart SU)

Hey gaieus,
thanks for the quick reply.
I checked the style and set it to Shaded with Texture, I then re applied the brick texture to one of the walls = no difference
I then checked the OpenGL setting (although not sure what I would be looking for) closed SU and restarted it = no difference
I then zoomed in and just before I went through the wall, the texture seemed to be there but was microscopic in size.
What did I do wrong ? and how do I fix it? I am hoping to do a pre presentation on Monday

I think I have found the problem
I have a feeling that somehow I set the template wrong and the garage was massive, I drew some components this afternoon that I thought were to scale that I was going to add to the garage. I just used the Tape Measure to measure a set of drawers, and instead of being
460 millimeters deep it is 457 metres, which meant that the garage was humongous.

Looks like I will have to delete them all and start again and try and reset the template to what it should be; Don't you hate that

Hey guys, can you help me please.

I have just installed SU 8 on my laptop running Vista, I am doing a project for work, I have drawn the Garage, but when I add a brick texture the wall comes out plain Brown, the texture is not showing up.

What am I missing?
Thanks in advance

@plot-paris said:

one thing you can definitely do is switch off the "proviles" in the style window. the model will look nicer and you save some processing power...

Thanks Plot, dd that and it does look better,, (so much to learn )

Brodie
I played around with the settings, and it seems to be much better, very little lag at all, not sure what I did but it does eem better.
I have attached a pic to show that it isn't anything spectacular.

Chango70
I only have three trees in the model, and I got those from the components, there is a little texturing and an import of a small jpg a couple of times.