I think with all these add ons for SketchUp it is very important to keep the interface as simple (and close to the native SU interface) as possible.

some sort of slider bars would be a nice idea.

I would prefer, if you are able to adjust the interpolation of camera movement and the transition of traveling speed independently (to do fast accelerations in some points). another slider to choose a specific time for each scene would come in handy too (perhaps a check box like "keep traveling speed" could change the scene time automatically, to match the traveling speed with the previous scene, if you wish a continuous flight).

one could even consider to have an additional slider bar for the transition of camera focus (so that the camera either does one fluent movement or keeps its focus on one point and then quickly pans to the next point of focus).

in order to have advanced control of the camera focus it would be very nice to be able to add a scene in-between two others, which is placed halfway on the interpolated camera path (and with halfway interpolated orientation). thus you could simply change your focus point and update the scene, without changing the camera movement at all...

@fbartels said:

The model is 86 Mb and VERY slow to work with.

I can imagine your computer had a hard time to cope with that model; seriously - 86 Mb - you are truly pushing SdS to it's limits, Fred

@durant hapke said:

Durant "an egg would do the job" Hapke

it looks indeed like egg white poured into hot water...

and here another very quick one - 13 680 golden eggs(even with a cube as proxy very slow in SketchUp). quite fast to export though...
(thanks to OnSurface, JPP, ComponentSpray tools - model was set up in a second )

I hope to find the time to do something more fancy soon...

@daniel said:

oh yeah, and no. 6 SketchUp

SketchUp 7!

and it works... wonderful!

thanks a lot, Matt666

dear Kenny, thanks for trying out my model. I would very much like to see, what you can get out of it (for your pc seems to be quite capable )

@remus said:

not sure what would cause it though, if jakob can render it on his machine

well, I was only able to render the whole model after simplifying the windows...

here is that version (without the twisted building though - that is more than 4 Mb filesize)
city_simplified.skp

I always thought of "fog" as a rather useles thing in SketchUp.

your last image definitely disabuses me of this opinion!

here is what is displayed in the ruby console, when I apply the tool to a selection of components (if I don't select anything, it still transfers only the component, that has been right clicked):

Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `c2g_boucle' for #<Object;0x485a290 @model=#<Sketchup;;Model;0x56f7678>, @nb=1>>
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;42;in `boucle'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;29;in `each'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;29;in `boucle'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;20;in `c2g'
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;69
C;/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/C2G.rb;69;in `call'

1,5 minutes? very impressive!

I should really get into V-Ray again...

@unknownuser said:

Alternatively I think Watkins mentioned using a university campus as they will have the conference facilities we need and accomodation stood empty all summer (probably a cheap bar too!).

well, that is a very interesting suggestion. and universities could even support the BaseCamp (by renting the accommodations for a good price).

perhaps we should even set up a competition for universities;
to get the honour of housing the Base Camp Europe 2008! (we should start designing a nice poster (bosting off with all the skills that come together in this forum)... )

did you render all this in indigo? how long did it take?

the new feature of renaming new groups after the original component's name is quite nice.

however, I can't transform a selection of components to groups anymore. now I have to right cklick the instances one by one, telling them to become a group, which costs a lot of time.

is there a way to change it back to how it was (ability to transform several components to groups in one operation)?

cheers,

Jakob

a very interesting idea, remus.

but what happens, if the deformation is a bit more complicated?

imagine you want to alter the shape of the first object (on the left hand side of the image). the red plane is a group within the group of the green bowl.

if FFD behaves like in your sample, it would look like the second form - the bowl is deformed and the red plane has to decide, where to stick to the connecting geometry.

or should the group within the deformation object be deformated where it is necessary in order to keep contact to the connecting geometry at every common edge?
but would that make any difference to simply enabeling FFD to alter nested groups no matter how deep the tree structure goes?
it probably would, because the group's content would only be changed, when absolutely necessary.

I am confused now...

I am not completely sure, what you want to do.

if you just want to move the camera sideways so that the text seems to travel from right to left... well, simply move the camera to the side (press shift + scroll wheel to pan). you can't make entirely sure not to change the height of the camera position - the easiest way is to draw an object at the right top corner of the view field and make sure that it is at the top left corner after you moved the camera.

if that wasn't what you wanted to achieve, could you try to explain your concern a bit more precisely?

cheers,

Jakob

I simplified the windows component a bit (reduced it from 16 to 5 faces) and tried a render again. now it worked perfectly fine with only 200 Mb Ram used by Indigo.

I even was able to place another building into the scene (which by itself is 20 times bigger in file size than the whole city).
granted, this twisted shape may look a bit alien in the otherwise orthogonal city. understand it as a symbol for SketchUp's unique and inovative workflow amidst loads of other applications with their narrow minded interfaces

(in the model are 1910 buildings plus the twisted one)

this city is very basic: 5 different building heights (all based on the same storey component), assembled in 10 different block types.
just imagine, what wonderful and huge cities you can render if you put in a bit more time and effort to create variations...

@mateo soletic said:

Free massages Spa, theatre, cinemas

ok. I am in!

I am not so sure about gaining weight - half of us will lose 3 kg due to sea-sickness

food inclusive is definitely a point...

@mateo soletic said:

The best informative price I got from a close contact
from a competitive company was 550 Euro inside cabin

@mateo soletic said:

Another additional expense is the tax of 115
euro per person which is not included in the price.

so it is 665 Euro...

@unknownuser said:

And just to add to that list Mateo, some of us would have to fly to the respective country and make our way to the port ..so add cost of flight and transportation.

lets asume 100 Euro for travel there and back again.
then we are at 765 Euro (and haven't took any excursions or alkohol in account)

I am afraid for some (poor students like me for example) this will be quite a lot of money

for comparisson: you will get a hotel room (double room) in London - expensive city - for about 300 Euro a week

I would like the idea of a whole ship full of SketchUp nerds very much though

@igor said:

foggy days

one of the most beautyful things in the world - time for dreaming (black rider emerging from the fog on a small hill, then vanishing into the dark forrest...)

what I really like:
when Germany, after starting with a disappointing performance in the first games of Euro 2008, wins the quarter final (sorry portuguese ) by finally finding back to it's ordered and controlled style, combined with a constantly dangerous opponent who puts up a fierce fight to the last minute...

I would love to see a pure SketchUp render for comparisson, monsterzero.

and let me tell you, how much I am impressed by your work. such great modelling!!! and I really like the style and flair of your images

nice tool. I am definittely in danger of flattening every model I can lay my hands on (my colleagues won't like that ).

I am looking forward to the "auto-cleanup" version.

cheers,

Jakob