@gilles said:

With BezierSpline, before

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13563

Your left S looks great! Pardon my ignorance but... was this produced with a function of SU or in another application?

@dave r said:

It seems to me that maybe this is a task for which there's a better application. Inkscape comes to mind.

Thanks to everyone.
The reason I was using SketchUp is because of its ability to easily change my drawings into code for my CNC. I have used Inkscape very little and don't know if it will produce DXF files. I will check to see. One way or the other I'll get it done and report back.

To change a circle from a collection of straight lines, to one that appears to be a true circle, I do the following:

draw circle
delete inside of circle
select circle
window
entity info
increase number of segments
see circle smooth out

I thought I would be able to do the same thing with the letter "S". I thought I would click the 3D text icon, type the S, and proceed from there. But, it doesn't work as it did with the circle. Can someone give me a step by step on how to do this? I need to cut out some letters on my CNC for a wedding and can't figure out how to get the letters smoothed out in SketchUp. Thanks

@dave r said:

Pictures of what you are getting would really be helpful.

using SU8Pro.
using TOP view
When I copy and paste, the new image is a distance behind the base drawing so that I have to pull it towards me. It's as if SU wants to form a new layer back there. Any ideas as to what I need to do to correct this. Thanks

PS: If I don't use TOP view, 3D text is lying on its side.

@mitcorb said:

It looks as if you drew that line on the xy plane, because that is where Sketchup draws by default. But the rest of the stuff is floating at z=? units above the xy plane. If you want it to be on the xy plane, I suggest that you select the kitchen drawing and make it a group or component to isolate it from other stuff and then move it down. To ensure that it lands on the xy, draw a large rectangle, for instance, on xy and move the grouped kitchen down until it rests on the rectangle. You can delete the rectangle if you wish.
If you mean to stand the kitchen up parallel to the xz plane, then you will need to rotate the grouped kitchen on its local axis. You can do this with the Move tool with groups by orbiting near one end of the drawing selecting the group, and pressing the M key or using the Move Icon and then finding the little cross points on the edge. Move becomes Rotate when you hover over these cross points.
I am going on and on, but you should be able to click Help on the top line of the Sketchup interface and find more details and images for any of the operations.
Please let me know if I am explaining appropriately.

Okay. Thanks. I think the apparent take-home message here is that I NEVER KNEW until now that I could inadvertently draw an image that would be floating, not anchored to the default axes. I think that's what you're telling me. At least, that's what I'm going to try: moving it to an axis intersection. Thanks much for your time.

Yes. That took care of it. Ask me if I feel stuuuuuupid!

@unknownuser said:

@mitcorb said:

Hi, ProDrawer:
By your reply, I take it that you work in orthographic views only? The Orbit tool is one of the best things about the Sketchup workspace. It allows you to be very specific where you terminate a line. And the automatic inferencing(snaps) will ensure precision.
Be aware that you can enable, adjust, and disable length snapping and angle snapping for rotation and array copying. The length snapping is like having an invisible grid.

EDIT: If I misunderstood, or assumed too much, please ignore this comment.

Here we go (uploaded image). In the top half of the uploaded pic I have drawn a line across the kitchen wall. Let's pretend that I intend to leave the line and erase everything under it. The image would now show only the top third of the fridge, the microwave, so forth. But, by using the orbit tool, I can see that the line is not really on the kitchen image. It's actually below it. Therefore the existing image was on one plane and the new line is on another plane. When I drew the line I was in "top" view if that helps.

@mitcorb said:

Hi, ProDrawer:
By your reply, I take it that you work in orthographic views only? The Orbit tool is one of the best things about the Sketchup workspace. It allows you to be very specific where you terminate a line. And the automatic inferencing(snaps) will ensure precision.
Be aware that you can enable, adjust, and disable length snapping and angle snapping for rotation and array copying. The length snapping is like having an invisible grid.

EDIT: If I misunderstood, or assumed too much, please ignore this comment.
You greatly overestimate my expertise. I love SketchUp. But I'm a limited kind of guy. In the years I've been using it, I've probably never progressed beyond what most people learn tinkering around for a week of short sessions. It's a means to an end of building my projects. Sometimes I draw 3D versions so that I can spin a cabinet around and show my wife what it would look like as a real object. Other times I only draw in 2D so that I can make a simple part on my CNC machine. I'm sure there must be a preference that's causing my problem. I just don't know what it is. I'm building new cabinets for our kitchen. On some drawings a long line drawn across a bank of cabinets will "adhere" to the image requiring individual deletions from one intersection to the next. On other images that I've drawn, my horizontal line is actually hovering above the existing object. You can't tell that unless you use the orbit tool to tilt the image. Then it becomes obvious that erasing any part of the line erases it all. What I need to know is how to change the preference on that kind of image so that I'm not drawing above the existing image. I guess it's hard to explain. I wanted to upload the drawing but it's too large.

@mitcorb said:

maybe upload an example model where this occurs.

I figured it out. Somehow... the lines that erase completely are on a different plane. I determined this by changing the view so that I could see the newly drawn line hovering above the existing image rather than lying on it. Now I gotta figure out what's causing that. (Tried to attach the file. Too large.)

Just upgraded from v6Pro to v8Pro (minutes ago). When drawing on my existing files, I am having eraser issues. In some cases erasing a sectionof a straight line erases the entire line rather than back to the nearest intersection. On other drawings, it erases only to the intersection. Why does it behave differently on different drawings? Thanks for any help.

@dan rathbun said:

@unknownuser said:

Sometimes it works pretty good, other times it goes crazy with all kinds of weird artifact.

This SketchUp v6 Pro you are talking about ?

Yes. It was my v6Pro that performed poorly on my new PC with Win7. And going to freebie8 doesn't allow me to export dxf files for my CNC.

See the release notes for v8M1
http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=release_notes.cs

.. are these the artifacts you referred to ??Yes, very possibly. The use of the word "strings" makes me think SU is talking about my problem.

You should be able to uninstall v8 Free.
Then download a trial of v8M4 Pro, and try it out to see if those OLD problems have gone away.
That's a new wrinkle in software testing (for me). I've always taken PRO to mean the paid version of any SW and not accessible without buying. Based on all the fixes they mention in the link you provided I feel real good about purchasing the v8Pro which is only $95 (upgrade) rather than starting all over again to the tune of about $500. Thanks very much for all the help. I'm probably just gonna pull the trigger on the upgrade.
(You can also try changing the OpenGL settings in the Preferences dialog, to help in some situations.)

Yes. We tried every combination of that. I suspect the upgrade will make me happy again.

@dan rathbun said:

Bill, I suggest you call SketchUp Customer Service, and talk to a real person.

Explain your problems.. and see if they can get you upgraded in an affordable way.

I would've thought that to be impossible in today's world. But I'm sure you wouldn't have recommended I do it if that was the case. So maybe I will. It was so stressful during the days (or weeks) that we tried last time that I'm at the point of wanting to just throw money at it instead. And I know that will only lead to more stress if I fail (again).

@krisidious said:

but artifacts indicates you need video power. check out a new video card.

The computer maker actually let me test drive a more expensive card. It didn't help. I was (and am) using an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti. We tried the next one up. Would you care to recommend a card?

@dave r said:

I'm still using XP but I put in a solid state drive and I see an improvement in all applications on my computer.
That's encouraging!

Your graphics card may well need to be upgraded.
Been there, done that. No help.

You shouldn't have to pay the $500 all over again to go to V8 Pro. You should be able to upgrade for less than $100.
Hmm. That might just be do-able. Thanks

Loved SketchUp almost immediately and decided to spring for the pro version at $500 (at that time). I neverspend that kind of money on software. It meant that much to me. Used it and loved it for years until... I got Windows 7 (from XP). Then it went in the toilet. Sometimes it works pretty good, other times it goes crazy with all kinds of weird artifact. The regular SketchUp board and the computer maker worked with me for quite a while before I got tired of trying and was forced to swiktch to ver8 (freebie) or pay all over again for the pro. I simply cannot afford that so I limp along with ver8 freebie. That's well and good UNTIL I get ready to export for CNC use. Free 8 will not allow that. I was wondering if purchasing a solid state drive might help my computer to perform as before with my SketchUp Pro6. I know it's an off-the-wall question that may not be answerable without just giving it a try. Any help would be appreciated.