well, EEbyRails restricts you to 4 curves (two profile curves, and two path curves) whereas with a loft tool you are allowed to use as many curves as you like (order in which curves are selected will determine the order they are used).
maybe you could create a loft tool based on your EEbyRails tool...
I know there is a basic loft tool out there somewhere (I think Chris Fullmer). but last thing I know its still in early beta.
you got quite a stable tool which produces beautifully smooth forms. so maybe you could derive a mighty loft tool from it...

well, that did the trick for me. thanks, Glenn.
however, there are still some issues sometimes. like that a transformation isn't applied to certain parts of the geometry.

and I have got two questions/suggestions for improvements for a future version:

• when you undo an action, the deformation, that has been applied to the geometry will be undone. the changed position of the control vertexes however is not set back. thus, when you undo an unwanted deformation and then move some control vertexes again, the old (undone) transformation is simply added to the new transformation)
  so my question is: is there a way to undo the repositioning of control vertexes alongside the undo-process of the geometry?

• when you deform a group, then delete the lattice and then create a new ffd lattice, the array of control vertexes is shaped around the old position of the group. in order to correct this you have to explode and regroup the geometry.
  I guess there is now easy way to overcome this problem. but if there was a possibility the plugin could reevaluate a groups position/scale, before creating the lattice, that would be cool.

@kxi system said:

Twilight is inside sketchup renderer. I won't mind being the first one to step my foot out to do so.

well, then it should most definitely work. for if it runs inside SketchUp, Twilight surely can use SketchUp scenes...

since switching to SketchUp 7 I can only use the default 3x3 lattice. any user defined deformation matrix doesn't work (the lattice is created, but moving the points doesn't have any effect)...

@jim57 said:

Or, even more obvious, make a checkbox in the Scenes dialog box that addresses this.

in the Scenes window you will find an option called "Active Section Planes) which lets you save the desired active section for a scene

great idea, Remus. makes the FollowMe tool a lot more powerful, while sticking to the native SketchUp workflow

personally I would love a full screen SketchUp. would feel a bit like gaming then...

and here is the brilliant idea, that takes the concept a step further: you not only work in full screen. you get sounds as well! so when you create a group, or explode it, you hear a sound (like an explosion for the latter). would be fun to work - and just imagine a whole office of people modelling...

cool. both things my colleagues weren't able to tell me. thanks, guys!
is there a keyboard shortcut to open up the activity monitor? and does it start even if all other programs are frozen? that would be perfect

Dave,
I have been using an Acer Aspire 8920G for the past two years. and I have to say its still surprisingly fast. (Intel Core 2 Duo with 2,5Ghz, 4 GB ram, 2x 320Gb hard disk, Nvidia Geforce 9650 GS (the weakest link actually)).
what made me buy this machine, mainly for SketchUp use, is it's High Definition screen, and the numeric keyboard. that comes in very handy when typing in measures in SU.
and of course the integrated Blu Ray drive doesn't hurt either
it is rather expensive though and I am not sure, if it can compete with the other options prize wise. but it definitely is a well built and fast laptop.
although you have to bear in mind that its not a light one, weighing 4,5 kg! so if you want to carry it around a lot... you might want to chose something else

about the OS question. well, thats really one's personal choice. but I use both MacOsX (I think 10.5) and Windows 7. and for the operating system itself as well as the experience of SketchUp, for me Windows 7 makes the race. not by far. its just a matter of small things that add up, really, like that with Mac OS I can't delete a file by hitting the delete button (I either have to use context click or drag it into the bin) or I haven't got a proper task manager, where I can see how much memory or CPU a program is using... that sort of stuff.
I think Windows Vista would have failed this comparisson. but Windows 7 just got there for me
(although I have to say that I am slightly biased for I've been using Win since 3.11).

well spottet, Pilou

wow, thats a tricky one. you need 'raw' (ungrouped) geometry directly within the 'cutting' component, because this is needed for the component to actually know, where to cut.
but as you point out, this will scale normally, whereas the frame parts will keep their width...

haven't got any ideas of how to do it. but would be very interested, if there is a solution...

wow, now I've really got a headache

wow, people being depressed after watching the movie. well, then Cameron must have done something right to get such extreme responses.

@MuseumMaker: your link to that forum is hillarious! and if you look at a statement like this:

@unknownuser said:

First time I too woke up and got that strange depressed feeling. That forced me to go to the cinema the next day. Again I got that feeling, even got it after the 3rd time. Now i think I'm an addict

it becomes obvious, that Cameron is a genius. he actually created a legal drug, that can be satisfied for the prize of only one cinema ticket!

I have to admit though, that I have seen it three times already myself... once on IMAX 3D, once on normal cinema 3D and once on a crappy old 2D cinema screen with bad sound. and I have to say, I enjoyed every single time. actually, I've already booked tickets for the next time in Londond's IMAX theatre (booked it more than a moth in advance in order to get the best seats...).
but never fear! I am not addicted (at least not to Avatar in particular. I've seen each Lord of the Rings film between 4 and 5 times in the cinema too).

but I promise you: once technology advances far enough, that we can render such worlds in real-time and can actually enter computer games via haptic suits and 3D glasses, then I will most definitely become addicted to it. I am already looking forward to having a blue tail

firstly I would like to be able to define Global Variables within dynamic components, that allow you to pass on information from child-components to parent components or from brother- to sister-component...
there could be three methods, how these could be implemented:

• they work within all subcomponents, all the way up to the DC highest in the hierarchy.
• they work within the whole SketchUp model (dangerous, because DCs of different artist may share the same global variables)
• they only go only up the hierarchy to the highest component they have been defined in (so if you only define it in a sub component, it doesn't reach the master component)

secondly it would be fantastic to be able to 'embed' ruby code in a dynamic component.
you would be able to define and use not only variables, but whole classes, methods and whatever ruby lets you do.
so basically you would write your scripts inside a Dynamic Component! thus you could add tremendous power to objects, that exceed todays DC-capabilities by miles. and the great thing: to use this power all the user would have to do is to place the component in the model. no copying of ruby scripts into the plugins folder. and whats more: these scripts would be loaded dynamically, only when the component is used...

what do you think of that (absolutely brilliant) idea?

my first suggestion would be to put the group of the sink inside a component, together with a face, outlining the area, where it is supposed to cut the counter top. make this component a 'cut-faces' component.

to center it, change the axes of this component to be in the centre of the sink and then define the x and y position to be
'Counter-Width' / 2 respectively 'Counter-depth' / 2

if the counter top has to faces, you'll need to add another cutting-component for the lower face, only containing the (hidden) cutting geometry...

I have the following situation:
a set of sliding doors, that - when onClicked - slide to the side.
in one of those door panels there is an integrated pivoting door, that you can open to enter the space, when the facade is closed...

I would like to be able to animate this door, when onClicking and at the same time being able to animate all the sliding doors when onClicking any of the other panels.

I grouped all the doors to animate them all together with one onClick. unfortunately that means, that when I click the red door, it triggers the sliding animation as well, ignoring the pivoting door animation.
that behavior is logical, for the sliding animation is 'higher up' in the grouping hierarchy.

I then applied the sliding animation to another trigger-surface (the collums in that case) and tried to pass the information on to the sliding doors. but it seems that variable information is only passed on from parent to child, but not from brother to sister or from child to parent.

at the moment I can't think of a way to solve this problem. I would be delighted to hear your theories...

PS: ideally, when the red door is open and you click the sliding doors, the red door would close first and only then the sliding animation would start. just to make things more complicated...

door_in_sliding_door.skp

sounds like a ruby request to me. could probably easily be done by one of the masters...

just out of interest: what function did you assign to
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Q???

@thomthom said:

one last request? Make it remember the values used last?

thank you very much TIG. results seem to be a lot more predictable now (on Mac). great work!
I am looking forward to all the prompts at the end being gathered in one window...