the materials and lighting are everything now, as you have a good model (I believe) I don't think the materials have a realistic look to them at all currently. perhaps if you were to find a trusted 'buddy' over at the KT forum to help work out the mats, you could have a killer render. definitely look at the aged metal library they have for download.

All lighting fixtures, come either ready to be plugged into an electrical receptacle or they need to be directly connected to an electrical box containing a hot, neutral, and ground wires. You don't have to concern yourself about the code requirements since each lighting fixture sold has to be UL approved first, prior to sale. Pendent lights may have an additional supporting wire or chain arrangement to carry the weight of the fixture. Some low voltage pendent lighting fixtures are indeed designed to support their weight via their low voltage current carrying wires. Its more important to not have the light switch operating the bath lights close to the sink. I usually mount the switch outside the Bathroom Door.

@eusibius2 said: Yeah - I agree, nice setup. Is that a phenolic top? And what kind of base plate is that? Looks familiar... Is that the one from Harbor Freight? I only ask 'cuz I'm building my router table now and I'm goin through all these questions. Mine's just a separate RT and TS though. Thanks! The top is plywood with Formica I bought from Lowe's. The sheet was damaged and I got it for $5. The router plate is plastic. I picked it up at a woodworking show many years ago so sorry, I don't remember who I bought it from. I do need to support the router top side as it's sagging a bit so the plate is in a hole. The saw was originally purchased by my grandfather, who was boat builder in New Orleans many years ago. My dad had the saw and never used it, so he gave it to me. In addition to the fence, I put a 1 1/2 hp motor on the saw and a Forrest WWII thin blade.

By the way, the above image is composed of 4 or 5 vertical images composited with Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

@roger said: Is your laser rangefinder a Bosch unit? I really want one. Yup, A Bosch PLR 30. Not the latest model but does what I need it for and it was also on sale Well, as for the cobbles in that particular street; they run in all directions but at right angles. As (I think) I said above, I have the city plan in dwg and I certainly find it much easier to model from that file (plus the vertical measurements with the Bosch unit) than with PM. However I do realise its potentials (have you seen what Olishea posted - again?) just not for this particular task.

I started a thread about it here

@pbacot said: Cool image. Just find a way to make laptop screens bright enough to use outside. Hooded screens or digital glasses. I have considered digital glasses for my photography work. For now I use a toilet paper tube with a magnifier stuck in it.

Dear Roger, I have designed a lot of equipment needing thermal insulation (mostly cryogenic), and so I just applied a few basic ideas to your planter. Take a look at this: http://squ1.org/wiki/Thermal_Resistance and this: See http://people.bath.ac.uk/absmaw/BEnv1/properties.pdf Painting the outer cylinder with a nice reflecting paint will also reduce the heat load on the planter. Regards, Bob

Thanks for the update Roger. I didn't know there is a non skid surface on the bottom side. If it doesn't affect light transmission, leave and put it toward the grille. I've cut Plexiglas and hard Polycarbonate on my tablesaw. It works alright but you do have to get the right feed speed. The worst part about them is the "sawdust" clings to everything and it is hard to get rid of.

Hi all, these things should be solved soon I hope. But yes, in general, the site account is totally different from the forum account so in order to see certain content, you need an account there as well as being logged in.

It is not too far off on depth. Some of the relief may actually be floating and need to sink deeper and the light is a skimming light to exaggerate the feeling of depth. With a more straight on light the relief becomes much weaker. However for the fixed viewpoint of a still picture I select the extreme since the viewere can't change his/her viewpoint. I did learn something very interesting about flat relief work where you raise a plane parallel to your background plane. The raised plane will have a defining shadow at the bottom but the top of the raised plane will fade into the parallel background plane. So I went back and beveled all raised square edged surfaces and poof! There was the magic of a defining high light to go with the defining shadow. Small thing, but it made a world of difference. I am sure this little trick will be extremely valuable to architects who work with so many flat and parallel planes.

Dear Roger, I think your quickest route would be to find your nearest sheet metal worker. This is something that could be turned out very quickly with the right equipment (guillotine, bender, pillar drill etc). I imagine that 1/8" mild steel would be strong enough. It depends on the weight at the end of the stud. You could also use two pieces of L-section mild steel channel, using the stud + nuts to clamp the parts together at the correct spacing. Personally, I would make one call to a sheet metal work and order up what I need unless, of course, you have the stock materials to hand. Regards, Bob

Watkins, I was actually thinking of going the other direction with similar materials. I was thinking of a thin plywood core with medium density foam blocks glued to it. In the art project, this might be suspended in an arched tower above pedestrians. Of course, a City engineer will be involved in safety issues, but the safest thing would be something that would not kill and be less likely to injure in a worst case situation. I even considered aerogel until I found out it is the most expensive building material possible. I would like to produce a miniature in brass for my desktop. Carbon fiber would be interesting but again expensive. A ferrous metal core and super magnets embedded in the end blocks would be fun a long as you did not get your fingers caught between modules. A lot of possibilities.

These were done for the city planning commission. I am used to doing art for marketing reasons rather than planning commissions. I guess it is marketing but just to a much smaller target. I would like to do more work where I am the designer as well as the renderer.

Hi Roger, I suggest that you simply put your XML-file in the same folder as your textures... This will ensure that KT will find them... Did you re-export your model - or part of it - and then use the "merge" tool..?? It seem as if you've exported this scene with the Export default UVs set to "YES"... If this is the case I suggst that you re-export again with "No" instead...

OK, on the trial version page, the 9th one of the curved deck should be http://woodsshop.com/documents/Rosen3D.pdf the 11th of the Teahouse http://www.woodsshop.com/Japanese/Tea%20House%20Plans/Teahouse_Plans.pdf the Tea House 2 http://woodsshop.com/documents/Chashitsu_Plans.pdf

I see. Well, I've been "playing around" with boat hulls a little bit in SU and yes of course, the "best" way to model them is something similar they are made in reality; keel / ribs / planks (stitching...) Anyway, it finally came together quite nice, congrats!

OK now I have moved into Kerkythea and am awaiting client comments. While I wait, I will download KT 2008 Echo and install it. For some reason I could not make the photo visible when it imported to KT so I had to cheat with PhotoShop. I also have to replace those two funeral directors in the hall with some suits from Armani. How long before this process becomes effortless? I thought nothing could be easier than a long straight hall. NOT! I tore the model apart and rebuilt almost from scratch and the results were worth it. Even convinced my son to pose as the delivery man. I wonder what it will cost me? The photo on the right wall is one that I shot of an old abandoned Buddhist temple in Vietnam. That was 30 to 40 years ago. I have been wondering when it would come in handy. The closest wall were looking to saturated and pink. I could not get the color I wanted so I put a false wall behind the camera and painted it blue. Then I put a light behind the camera reflect a blue light into the scene which gave me the eact lighting I was looking for. Its cheating but it worked. [image: d4a5_afshar_hall_small.jpg]