if you want the text to be a part of the model (as geometry) then you have to use 3D text - however, you can set the factor of extrusion to 0 to make it flat.

you should consider to use a small image with the text though (created in photoshop or similar) to keep the model simple (3D text means a lot of polygons).

for positioning the text properly it is very helpful to whatch the tutorials at the Google SketchUp website...

I don't think it will affect the performance of SU itself much. in this case it will be your graphic card that has difficulties to cope with the model, because it has to display (and therefore calculate) every single object, no matter if component or not.

but nevertheless it is allways good to have components, where repetitions occur.

oh, this is one of the most wonderful things in SketchUp. you will love it!

a group is a unique thing, meaning that if you have a group and copy it several times, all these copies are indepenent geometry.

if you create a component however and copy it, the copies will behave like clones - if you change one component, all the copies will be changed at the same time.

so every time you have the same element repeatedly in a design (like in your model) it is advisable to create a component, rahter than a group.

thus if yo want to change them, you only have to do it once.

and the best thing is, your file will be much smaller, because SketchUp saves the geometry information only once...

this could be part of a huge animation plugin for SketchUp - with dynamic blending of colour/texture during playback...

ps: I can't view your pictures (get only to the imageshack.us site when clicking them)

I would suggest you play arround with the openGL setting in the preference window.

there is one check mark that says something about a "reversed selection bug" or something (can't remember too well).

try to play arround with different setting there and tell us, if anything changed.

GreenToaster, I think you should start a new thread now called "My Cars have a completely new Look!"
(this thread has enough pages after all )

this is quite nice for a start. look really good. did you organize the model with components?

a chamber pot in the corner!

beautyful render, remus. especially nice stains of rust/dirt at the window.

only thing that is a bit strange, is the direction of the ceiling texture

nice holiday images

are these solos palm trees?

excellent render! really nice, the water is convincing

now it is more yoga than dancing

I experienced, that the ram is especially necessary, when doing renderings with high resolution.

I processed a scene recently, which contained more than one billion polygons. the ram used by indigo was mere 70 MB, because my resolution was only 800 x 600.

when I tried to render the same scene with a proper resolution, my computer ran out of memory...

that would be awesome, kwistenbiebel.

alongside with some simple enhancements, like the ability to select several materials simultanously and simply pressing delete to get rid of them...

or dragging one material onto another to replace the latter...

try to look at it at an angle. perhaps that will change something

oh, Bubba, I love you for this (non-spoiling) review!

you increased my already huge anticipation!

and thats where I am sitting, in the big cinema in Leicester Square, London

I have never been in such a huge cinema! uh, only one week of waiting!

I believe (and I hope I am right, because it is my greatest dream), that the future of architects and designers will be to use a pen on a computer screen.

in my opinion the fusion of handdrawing and computer aided design is the only sensible solution.
the simple reason for that - try to write your name with a mouse... you will barely succeed in producing clean hand writing. you are simply much more precise with a pen than with a mouse.

of course technology has to improve before that truely works. but it is not too far in the future anymore (I hope )

even today there exist prototypes of so called e-paper that are as thin as a fraction of a millimeter and are equal to newspapers in terms of contrast (because they really behave like ink on paper, reflecting light instead of emmiting it).
at the moment these displays are restricted in size to some inches. but the near future they will be available in A3 size with a resolution high enough to give a true, pixelfree image, even when looking at it upclose.

I imagine using your hands (similar to the iPhone) to navigate across your canvas. you can choose to stick the drawing stage to your screen to imitate the behavour of real paper. but if you run out of space you can simply unlock it and move it arround.
the touchscreen will destinguish between hand- and pen-input. that enables you for example to rest your and on the screen when drawing with the pen. drumming with 4 fingers of one hand on the screen in a short succession calles up a context menue. otherwise the screen stays completely free of any buttons (except of a colour pallete perhaps).

the tip of the pen will be a high-tech device on it's own, not only measuring the precise pressure and angle of the pen, but also changing it's smoothness (through a material that changes it's attributes when recieving an electric current). thus the pen can simulate different types of pens (like pencil, marker, brush) and give the impression of drawing on rough canvas (instead of completely clean plastic).

you start your design with an interface, that is close to Photoshop. you sketch like with a real pencil. but you have the advantages of a computer - you can change your pen without laying your drawing device out of your hand, you can change colours by tipping it on a button on the screen. most important you have a "undo" function. you can draw in layers easily, fill faces with colour, draw only in a selection - everything a piece of software can provide.
in addition to that you may have aids to slightly correct your lines to a coordinate system when active or to help you drawing a precise circle, ellipse, rectangle...

when you finished your first sketch, you can use the SketchUp tools, push/pull in the first place, to advance into 3D - within the same application. this new SketchUp will refer to faces rather than to edges (because you draw lots of small lines, when sketching). you can define the grade of simplification (like ignoring small lines, closing gaps) and angle-/shape-correction (putting lines to a right angle, where obviously intended, translating sketched curves to arcs, circles, bezier-curves), even choose different correction values for different parts of the same drawing.

if you need a break, you will just leave your sketching tablet lying on the table. the drawing will still be visible, because an e-paper display doesn't need engergy to display information (only for changing it).

you can easily transfer sketches/models from your tablet to the large table-display, simply by performing a dragging movement starting on the tablet display (lying on the table) and ending on the table-display. because it is one continuous motion (same speed, finger tip size and curve) the two systems will automatically synchronize the data.

then I poste one drawing by simply dragging it into one of the SCF gallery threads. one of you guys sketches some suggestions on a new layer and posts it back in the thread (only the layer with coordinate information, which I then drag onto my drawing...)

sorry guys, got carried away way too far
could go on for hours.

essence of what I wanted to say: the natural and intuitiv use of a pen will be combined with the precision and multifunctionality of a computer - in sketching, as well as in construction drawing.

nice callender. and beautyful SU images.

a bit too much dof in the last one for my taste

the new (unstable) indigo, 1.15 i think, supports displacement...

@kwistenbiebel said:

...and that's exactly what happens when you forget to mown the lawn.

indeed not a very british lawn

but what an excellent displacement demo!
(like remus I am keen to know the render time...)

@tdev said:

also if you want to adopt this for all ruby plugins, we should use a common logo and icon, so the user recognizes it

another competition!!!