Gaieus,
Changing the axes will not work for printing to scale -- you must rotate the model around the default axes.

This is true - SU will print to scale only in the default viewports. You will have to rotate your model to get the faces properly oriented. You can duplicate the whole model and put in on a separate layer (to control visibility), then make scenes with the various viewports.

This thread seems to be light on desserts, so here is the best pie I have ever had:

Old-Time Chocolate Meringue Pie (from "Sweety Pies" book)

Ingredients:
One nine-inch pie crust

Filling:
3 large egg yolks
1/2 stick unsalted butter melted
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch process is best if you can get it)
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Meringue:
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar

Pre-bake pie 9" crust (425 F - 8 to 10 min.), cool

Make the filling:
Beat eggs yolks, set aside
Heat the butter in medium-size saucepan low heat until it melts.
Add cocoa, condensed milk and water, stirring constantly with spoon or wire whisk until smooth.
Stir in the egg yolks and vanilla and cook until thickened and smooth (medium heat, 'till it just begins to boil).
Remove from heat, beat out any lumps that may have formed, pour into pie crust.

Make the meringue:
Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla in medium bowl and beat with electric mixer 'till soft peaks form.
Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and continue beating 'till stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved.

Mound in center of pie, then spread around the edge of the crust, sealing meringue to the crust. Bake (350 F) until meringue is golden, 8 to 10 minutes.

Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Best intense deep chocolate pie, ever. Would also be fine with whipped cream instead of meringue.

Not a comment on your renders (which are great), but the nosings (or rather the rake) on the stair treads look to be extreme and would constitute a walking hazard in real life -- the toes of shoes would catch on them going up.

Is this it?
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3268

Your are experiencing clipping - several possible causes, see the SU help on this matter.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

9000 pixels to jpg highest quality - no problems. Also same 9000 to png.

@mr s said:

Hi pmiller,

Well, this is very strange.
I have just tried rendering with anti-aliasing switched off and it made no difference.
Still getting the 'file failed to save' error.

Any further ideas?

Mr S

Hmmm - wish I could help. Just tried it again with a model with 600K faces, 125K edges, 10,000 components at 9000 pixels, shadows, textures. No problems.

6.4.112
XPSP2
Dual Core 3.4 Ghz
2 Gb RAM
Quadro FX 1500

Are you exporting jpg highest quality or some other raster format? Are you using one of the newer styles with sketchy edges?

I have never had any problems with exporting very large images (in excess of 8000 pixels) on any computers (over 8 different kinds) with SU except for a machine with only 256 Mb Ram (which just took longer -- paging memory), provided AA is turned off in SU.

If you export twice as large as you need with anti-alias off, then reduce by half in pshop with bicubic resampling you will get the results you need, and the AA will be much better (not to mention almost instantaneous).

Just did a test with 8000 pixel image -- export took about 8 seconds in SU (6.4.112). File size was 8.9 Mb, reduced to 3.6 Mb after resampling. I always export JPG with highest quality setting in the SU export dialogue options.

Can you give some more info on your computer?

Try this site:
http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?Dsp=2

Best selection I know and their products and services are completely reliable.

Modelhead -- despite your opinions

"PSA itself is not the final word on prostate canser and neither is a positive test."

But a biospy certainly is the final word.

"For me prostrate cancer has really become a new religion of fear...."

It happens to be the number two cancer killer in men.

Richard,
Did you get my PM (private message)? 9.4 is not the end of the world and you can take heart that nothing happens fast with Prostate Cancer. If you have to have cancer, it's probably the best kind to have....

You have time to consider the various treatment options and get second opinions. Note that Urologists tend to favor surgery, so get a referral also to a Radition Oncologist and a pure Oncologist for full understading of options.

I was not so lucky with my PS -- Stage IV metastatic but I'm still around after 2 years.... My older brother however woke up after learning about me (plus the fact that PS tends to run in families), got checked right away: PSA 7 plus, Gleason 7 score on biopsy (the same as mine with astronomical PSA level). He got a series of 45 local radiation treatments (no side effects at all), plus hormone therapy for a couple months. All seems to be fine now.

Moral for all men -- visit your doctor once a year, get a simple PSA test, get a prostate exam (no big deal either), and live long enough to die from something else.

Suggested reading: "Prostate and Cancer" by Sheldon Marks, M.D. ISBN 0-7382-0839-6 and "A Primer on Prostate Cancer" by Stephen B. Strum, MD, ISBN 0-9658777-7-9. Both on Amazon.

Check my message to you -- if you like I will give you my email and phone number and I can give you more details.

Paul

My brother had a PSA level of seven (after I urged him to get tested) -- biopsy revealed Gleason score of 7 (not good) -- so don't underestimate (and see my PM to you). By the way a prostate biopsy is no big deal. Only sensation is like being snapped by a rubber band.

Yup, and sent you a PM. Feel free to contact me.

For what it's worth I would go with the T3400 and Windows XP, but would add a RAID 1 array (matching hard drive) for peace of mind. Then look on Dell's site regularly for deals on the 24 inch wide screen LCD (1920 x 1200).

James, on your last model -- scene forty orbits in real time, about 2 seconds for textures to reappear. Never got a wireframe.
Dual Core 3.4 Ghz
nVidia quadro fx 1500, 256 Mb
2 Gb ram
Windows XP

Will try tommorow on a 3.8 Ghz single processor laptop.

As far as I know the old @last advice (mostly from Jim Holman -- may he be enjoying his post acquisition retirement to the hilt) is still true. Get the fastest processor you can buy (say an Intel P4 extreme at 3.8 Ghz -- good luck finding a ready made computer with one), have a decent amount of RAM (2 or maybe 3 Gb) and a decent video card, with video ram dependent on how big your display is. 256 Mb Video ram should be okay for a 1920 x 1200 single monitor. I must add, however, that since I switched to Quadro cards I have never seen an artifact. But the newer Geforce cards may very well be okay.

If you are only running SU (and not other OpenGL 3D programs simutaneously) you might want to look at the Quadro 1500 or 1600 series. And remember to use the model management techniques....

Further to Gaieus's remarks -- using components will let you apply materials quickly when you are ready. On the other hand, in my experience with double tee walls once you start to add windows, vents, doors, etc. you will probably end up with a lot of unique components anyway. I once did what appeared to be a simple warehouse in double tees that ending up having 75 different tee panels (not to mention the lead time to make them all).... The project could have been done faster and cheaper with tilt-up masonry panels made on site, but the client would not listen.

Lewis,
Indeed many rendering apps can multi-thread, but my understanding is that no 3D modeling application does --so the bottleneck for creating comlex geometry is the processor speed. Since SU is always inferencing while you work (a great asset), it's bound to bog down with very high poly count. My point really was that the advent of multi-core processors is no help since they are slower in this case than the older ones that would go up to 3.8 Ghz, and all the laptop manufacturers have gone with dual-core.... What ever happened to Moore's Law?

Paul

Alas, you used to be able to buy laptops with desktop processors. Alienware mj12-7700, voodooPC and another company from Canada that I forget. They were based on a Chinese OEM (I forget now). HP also had one of its own design. I have an Alienware laptop (about 2 yrs old) with 3.8 Ghz single processor and nVidia quadro video card. It is very fast, very heavy, and runs hot.

Since SU is limited by processor speed for complex geometry the faster the processor the better. But nobody* makes laptops with such processors anymore -- they all seem to use dual core in the range of 2 to 2.6 Ghz. Not being multi-threaded SU cannot benefit from multi-processors (nor can any 3D modeling application I know of).

*Only one I could find with search was a VoodooPC with Intel Extreme X6800 Quad Core Censored to protect your privacy 3Ghz. Way, way too much money though....