Yeah , i realised that but felt that there were some good hidden gems in there for textures, lighting, polygonal techniques etc. Especially from a beginners POV, who's trying to find out more with regards understanding rendering and its application

Mike, After Google Releasing SU7.1 it's as if Xmas came early for some! "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein

I run 64 Vista - I mainly got it to have PS run faster and I haven't been disappointed. I did have to replace a couple of older pieces of hardware though - a webcam and an audio interface - because drivers weren't available. I did keep my old XP machine around for that purpose too. It runs Sketchup and the Twilight render very effectively.

It's like that for awhile. Since launch, with only a few heads added.

Angkor wat?

That's just crap. The words are intelligible they sound in such a way that you can probably come up with dousins of versions of the lyrics,

Sorted, thanks Remus

$260,000. I know I can do better. I 've caused that much damage just on my own house!

Congratulations Rich. This is where you find out that all those things that you took for granted…like going out to the pictures or a restaurant without having to make detailed prior arrangements, go out the window. This is where you find out that staring at the little bundle of humanity that you made, for hours on end, is more entertaining than watching TV. Enjoy every minute of it…especially the first year or so when he actually stays where you put him.

this is great Coen, lots of interesting stuff. Thanks a lot I can get lost in sites like these... How do you find sites like these? Thanks David

Hi, Thanks for the info, it worked alright but now that i know laptop is not much use for modelling larger models i'm gaining leverage for the boss (herself) to get me a new one!! Anyone got suggestions on which laptop is good for modelling on? That's within €700 or so

For these 2 lines yes, but not for all [image: file.php?id=29722]

Structurally, I think you could probably go with wider spacing, even if sheathing and roofing material will be added, but if a snow load is a possibility I might go with 2X8 timbers to span that 8 feet or so. Now, if that is simply for shade and will not have any sort of sheathing etc, then the more important aspect is how it looks, and how many hours of shade it provides given the dimensions of the lumber and the spacing. It's orientation to the path of the sun is a further determinant for that as well. I built this Pergola on the back of my house using 2X8 on 12 inch centers. [image: Pergola.jpg] But that was only due to design purposes and not a structural need. With the spaces between the "rafters", I think you might be able to eliminate the strips on top the run perpendicular to the rafters as they serve the same structural purpose as the spaces. Or you could eliminate the spacers instead if they are not needed for design purposes or for contributing to the shade.

Thanks for the replies and from your responses it seems the app is as useful as a waterproof teabag

When I first came across plugins for SU I looked over the lists of plugins and their description. If the description of what they did appeared to fit my workflow I'd try them out. It's really subjective which plugins will fit you as it depends on your own usage of Sketchup.

What's the problem with it been a SU 7 file? Do users prefer to save as SU 6 format? I'll provide more pics at some stage, but thanks for looking

Ditto for keeping XP. I run SU on Ubuntu and it just has too many glitches plus the plugin issues Coen mentions. Just not worth it, I'd stick with Blender for Linux.