thanks for the in depth replies, it's all jolly interesting. Before i'd just assumed that you'd moved purely because the old forum software was getting a bit old!
Just to add a bit, i prefer this forum to the google groups 'forum', its a lot easier to use and it never feels as swamped down as the groups, basically, good job on the forum!
i wouldnt worry too much about it this time, as long as you don't go around advertising the fact that you 'borrowed' them 
like gai said, very nice! Any chance of seeing some more pics/the model?
i hadn't thought of speed as being part of the benchmark, but i suppose it should be.
Would you consider yourself proficient at sketchup? And if not, when will you? is there a certain benchmark you'd be able to achieve when your 'good'? or a certain modelyou'll be able to make?
me, when i can model a person to the extent that you can see the folds in their skin and the whites in their eyes!
rem
im not sure about firefox, but in opera (internet browser) you can make your own searches by just right clicking in the search box in question.
http://www.rollyo.com/firefoxsearch.html
Looks like it might do a similar thing.
it is definetly possible to do drawings in SU that incroporae structural detail, like the layers of dry wall you mention, but it does take some preactice.
As for the 2x4s, i'd recommend making a generic one and turning it into a group (select the faces you want to group>right click>group) You can then copy it around your model and then scale it to fit (scale tool.)
Layers do work, although in my experience i've found them harder to use than in programs that are more layer orientated, such as ps. It just takes some getting used to really.
I think what you really need to do is start a bit smaller and work your way up, it is pretty hard to learn the finer details of sketchup on a big model, as your too busy concentrating on the model as a whole. Try and have fun as well!
oh and welcome to the forum, and good luck with your model.
this is pretty of topic, but hopefully there is a quick answer.
How come you moved to a new forum?
not sure why the above link is broken, but here it is: http://groups.google.com/group/Ruby-API/browse_thread/thread/982c56fae94d3537/fececa1a9d219f24?lnk=gst#fececa1a9d219f24
thanks for the link, i'll have to give it a go at some point, coens looks a lot better than mine!
any ideas anyone?
heres my rather weak attempt made by using skin.rb to create a TIN of sorts which i then moved into a banana like shape.
glad they might be of use to someone.
On the subject of the file size, i didnt really think about it to be honest. as i dont usually work with large models it isnt usually an issue. i'll bear it in mind next time i do something like this though, as it's obviously important if you are doing soemthing big with lots of components etc.
Oh and nice one dave, i was tryign to think of a way to make the the length more easily adjustable but couldnt think of anything off of the top of my head.
Someone might find these useful, i just knocked 'em up because i was bored really.
They're modular, so you just copy the midsection across as many times as you need to.
personally i much prefer a tablet, to me it feels more elegeant and less bulky than a tablet laptop. I've always found that tablet laptops are to cumbersome to really be of any use, but then i've never really made a concerted effort to get used to them.
Hope that helps to an extent.
Being the innocent young thing that i am, i've not a clue what your talking about 
anyway, heres a quick model i knocked up...
EDIT:
woops, i forgot to resize the image before uploading it so it didnt upload on the initial post.
although not as lyrically talentd as darth, i'd like to propose this as the next modelling challenge.
the challenge: model your favourite thing in the world! can be anything you like (within the bounds of normal decency), extra points awarded for imagination, all round impressivness and cool renders.
Closing date: 1st of february.
jsut to say it again, very cool indeed, you gonna render it when its all done?
surely its not so bad that you can't divide by 2? 