Right. So that's why I ask what's the difference between the mentioned rotatable north arrow and the solar north tool? Daniel says they took it (rotatable north arrow) from the Pro version.

@aerilius said: But: SketchUp does not recognize the opacity in transparent texture images (because it's separate from the opacity slider), so you could apply a material with a completely transparent png image to all entities of which you want to see only shadow, like in this example. I have the exact same problem with pipogianni, I am trying to get some tree shadows from png tree images (with transparent backrounds) in my model, without rendering the png tree plane itself. I only want the shadows, so I can add the trees later with photoshop. The example that you posted here seems to manage exactly that, but i can't figure out how. ! Can anyone please explain what am I looking at in this model? How are the two lateral shadows created without the smiley faces being displayed?