Actually, Trimble recommends that you don't just copy the plugins folder from one installation to another; you should install them properly. In any case, some extensions (like certain renderers) will install themselves into their own program folders...just putting a loader rb into Plugins. You won't have that program folder on a new system; plus you may have more than one Plugins folder. The default for 64bit versions is in Users/AppData..... but there's often another one in Application Data. It depends on what you've installed. I would recommend making a list of all your current plugins and extensions then installing them one by one using the Sketchucation Plugin Store (rapidly evolving into the Extension Store) plugin. This will create a Bundle that you can then rapidly copy to any other SU installation. As for the toolbar arrangement, I've made a screenshot of my preferred layout. I just import this as an image into SU, Zoom to fit, then arrange all the toolbars to match it. Also don't forget any custom templates, material libraries, styles etc. They'll need to be ported-over too. I'm currently running SU on 3 different systems. I just use it on 1 system at a time. It's likely that the latest release of SU will be out shortly. It's also possible that it may need a clean install...ie uninstalling the old version first, so having a bundled version of up-to-date plugins that can be installed with a single click will probably prove more economic in the long term. Like everybody else, I used to just copy-over my old plugins folder, but you can end up with a whole bunch of outdated plugins that way....except for Fredo's, which have a checking gizmo. You can also end-up with several plugs all doing effectively the same thing. I've just installed on a new laptop; and I took the opportunity to make a fresh start. The point about the SCF Plugin Store installer is that it will automatically install the latest versions directly from here, rather than copying some old version that's been knocking around on your hard drive for years.

Looks like you're doing it OK? Offset will only work if the curve is coplanar and will work in the plane only. You don't need to weld it. That's what will join separate elements into a curve the weld plugins, of which I think there are a couple. Curvizard by Fredo has a weld function. OR if that first image is just an example of what you want to do... Again, you can use the SU offset tool if the whole curve or entities all lie in the same plane. If that's what you want: Draw a rectangle to do your work on. Then once you are done drawing the path edges the surface will already be there. Push pull would define the fence. If the edges of the path are actually not coplanar and undulating in 3d then you'd have to have a plugin like Sandbox or Curviloft to put a surface on it. Extrusion Tools would also help to pull the edges up into a fence.

From 2004 to 2006 my job was just what you are asking for: making 3d city models. Our workflow back then was (in 3dsMax): start with some sort of planning / script so you know what needs to be in 3d, what can be a billboard/panel and what can be skipped. Edit: there's a big difference in a walkthrough model and a birdseye view model. get the contours of the houses (2d dxf city data) -> maybe OpenStreetmap? take photographs yourself of all the buildings you need to model roughly model the shape of a building by doing: 4a. model a shape using the 2d city data (contours, streets etc). The 2d city data helps here because now you have the contour and exact width of the individual buildings 4b. Add a texture to the facade. Scale(z) the facade with the texture so its proportions are just like in the photographs 4c. add all the 3d details that define the building (overhangs, chimneys etc) 4d. use some sort of hierarchy in the model Name your models and textures so you can easily find something. 4e. edit the textures in Gimp/Photoshop to remove perspective in the windows, people, bicycles etc. Back then we used a constant TexturePerMeter for the textures so all the textures had the same sharpness / blur. Because of the limitations of hardware we used 32 pixels per meter. With the modern graphic cards you can go much higher for the curbs and roads we used a lofting technique with tileable textures you really need trees, streetlights, streesigns, cars, decals etc etc to make it come alive This is a very very very brief explanation. Feel free to ask more specific questions. Edit: if you brief allows you to keep all the buildings white instead of textured, you will save a TON of work. Edit: added a picture of some of our projects in 2004-2006 edit: think about a consistent level of detail. Max [image: f0OZ_city3d.jpg]