Hi Vargas -- Welcome to the forums. I just looked up Payerbach on Google Earth. Unfortunately the resolution for your area is extremely poor. It is as bad as I've seen anywhere on Google Earth.

If you want to model a local building accurately and you need plans then approaching the building owner is likely the best and most appropriate way. If they have plans and you ask nicely and seem trustworthy they might lend them to you. In general floor plans are not publicly available. On the internet you might be able to track down plans & elevations of only the most famous of buildings -- and very few are available. The ones online only tend to those buildings that have academic interest. (When I watch the tv show '24' I always get a kick out of seeing how Cloe can call up to her computer the floor plans of any building! I really doubt any government database has that information. They never came to measure my house!).

Regards, Ross

Is that your office Coen?

Here's why I like Oscar:
Oscar talks about growing old.
Oscar has fun scaring kids.
Oscar helps out at the gas station.

Jackson - In real life Mike Wilmot is a buddy of Brent Butt so he had Mike as a guest star on one episode. Mike played 'Cousin Carl' whom Brent is really jealous of. Cousin Carl has returned from England a success and that bothers Brent who's never left the home town. Everyone (but Brent) loves Carl but Brent gets to expose him as a big jerk and get some satisfaction. It was a good storyline featuring a community talent show (notable for the complete lack of talent).

Here's a clip from Rick Mercer's The Mercer Report. I love the "you're not the boss of me" part! If you are wondering about Rick's accent, he comes from Newfoundland.

The show is the number one situation comedy on Canadian TV.

Here's the first scene of the first episode of season one. The guy who drives up is the producer/writer of the show. He and the star, Brent Butt, (the guy pumping gas) were both well-known stand-up comics in Canada before creating the show which is derived from Brent's experiences growing up in a small town in rural Saskatchewan. The blond woman who works at the gas station is married to Brent in real life. The couple who play Brent's parents (Oscar & Emma) were only known as serious dramatic actors before the show.

Hi Tom I'm very familiar with it. It is my son's favorite show and each year for Christmas his aunt gives him a DVD collection of the previous year's episodes. We watch them over and over! I've watched most episodes several times. Each time you pick up other clever aspects of the writing. Overall the writing & acting is consistently top-notch. Always clever and good for a laugh.

My favorite character is Oscar the cranky narrow-minded but somehow like-able dad who calls everyone "Jackass!". Overall the show is Very Canadian. It shows life in Canada very much as it is for many of us.

Regards, Ross

Here's a work-in-progress pic of a kitchen project I've been modelling. When I had the range modelled I thought I'd try rendering it in the technique that might become known as the 'Chippwalters Method'. I exported lines-only at fairly high resolution. I then used Podium to render the model using an Ambient Occlusion setting (a custom setting rather than one that came with Podium). The resulting render was then overlayed/merged with jpg export from SketchUp. I did that overlaying in Xara Xtreme Pro vector illustration software.

Regards, Ross

Cool project!

Here's a couple of ideas to consider...
I see the hot tub is nestled into a little grotto. Nice! How about circulating some of the hot tub water up overhead for another much smaller waterfall effect. It could be turned off when the hot tub is in use but could add a nice effect when just lounging around the pool.
The other idea is it would be cool to have a room below the pool deck with a big window looking into the pool -- in under the big waterfall.

It would also be cool to incorporate a few 'fog' generators with associated lighting effects. The top of the slide 'mountains' could look like volcanoes!

Keep having fun!

Regards, Ross

Thanks Mensa & the Boo.

By the way I really don't like that design of a balcony railing. It is a model of an existing house with its existing railing. The house even had that detail for the interior stair railing. If I lived there it would be the first thing changed!

Regards, Ross

I developed a new style for FormFonts.com that I particularly proud of. It's called Fineline Graphite Sketch. I made the attached graphic using the style for the linework plus an eliptical gradient (watermark) sky. The images was exported from SU at the 800 pixel wide size I've attached here. I opened the exported jpg in Microsoft Photo Editor and slightly sharpened it and added some 'sandstone' texture.

What I like about the style is the precise quality of the linework which reminds me of very good traditional hand draftsmanship - as if carefully drawn with a sharp but soft graphite pencil.

I hope you like it.

Regards, Ross

Just for fun (I lead a quiet life) I decided to overlay the Podium render on the SketchUp image export. The attached image is the result. I used Xara Xtreme vector illustration software to do the compositing. The resulting image was then opened in Microsoft photo editor and slightly sharpened + given a light sandstone texture. I think the result looks fairly presentable for the small amount of effort involved - looks like a tight watercolour eh?

Regards, Ross

Hey CraigD & Team Google are you out there? Do you hear the Gata? I agree it would be useful if the gradient sky feature could just be expanded a little bit to include the option of specifying the horizon colour.

Regards, Ross

Well it might be interesting to see what could be achieved if there was a transparency feature. Hard to guess if it really would allow any creative possibilities.

Regards, Ross

I attach a quick (74 seconds) Podium v1.4 test. Note the custom gradient sky was not retained. Likewise there's no evidence of the alpha-transparent png watermark overlays. I am however wondering if the alpha-transparent png background watermark did have an effect. It looks to me like there is a bit of a white glow around the top of the building which could be due to that watermark. If it is, its nowhere near as pronounced an effect as it was in the sketchup model. I will have to experiment with Podium more.

Regarding templates, you could indeed set up different templates with a variety of sky effects. For me I think I'd just set something up each time I want an effect. Pixero's script is very easy to use.

Regards, Ross

In this thread Pixero posted his jsBackgroundColour.rb ruby script that allows SketchUp's gradient sky to replace the white default horizon colour with any rgb colour you specify via his utility.

My attached image shows a test image I made using the script plus some watermarks. The image is straight from SketchUp with no retouching or resizing. Here's how it was made: In the background there is an alpha-transparent circular gradient mask that allows the white background colour to shine through. There is also a alpha-transparent overlay mask (applied twice for stronger effect) that adds an 'atmospheric' effect. Pixero's ruby was used to set the sky gradient to have the blue horizon and violet upper colour.

The model used (with edges off & slight editing) is the Burj Al Arab hotel posted by zno over at Google's 3dWarehouse.

I think this test shows Pixero's script offers us creative possibilities. Unfortunately the settings given via the script do not get saved when you save a style. They do however save with the file so the next time you open it they custom gradient will be there. Also note that resizing your SketchUp window produces some scary display glitches as the gradient refreshes.

Regards, Ross

I hope Oli Tobey realizes that SketchUp is about having fun. I'm pretty sure he does as his model suggests he did have fun modelling the space. Modelling a space not from drawings or dimensions is a cool exercise that many of us who've been using SketchUp for years should probably try.

Oli don't let what others say discourage you from having fun with SketchUp. Put a positive spin on what Gforce wrote. I think what Gforce was sort of saying is there's no reason why a kid like you can't be as good at SketchUp as anybody else in the world. In that he'd be right. If you stick with it and develop your skills, by challenging yourself, you really could be one of the best. It isn't about your age -- the same goes for anyone. At this point you certainly are doing things with SketchUp that not many kids your age can do. You can be proud of that but know that if you stick with it, you can be doing things with it that almost nobody else, regardless of age, can do. Old farts like me use SketchUp every day but there's no reason why a kid like you can't be better. Look at the Gallery here and be inspired. Try the tutorials & tips and learn new things. Ask questions when you have them. But most of all have fun! I've met the guys who invented SketchUp. I know there's nothing more in the whole world they'd like than to know you and kids like you are having fun with SketchUp.

Regards, Ross

Jon & Tobeyo!
Birthday greetings to you both.

Here's a couple birthday songs for you guys. Jon I hope you find some satisfaction having another year on the ol' ticker.

Tobeyo - For a birthday song for you I thought of one of my thirteen-year old son's favorite artists: Weird Al. I hope you like it.

Regards, Ross

While many restaurant and theatre patrons would probably agree that people shouldn't be having cellular conversations in those establishments I suspect many of the same people actually leave their own phones turned on. Imagine an exhausted young couple out for a well-deserved dinner while a baby-sitter is home with the twins. The parents would want their phone on in case of an emergency. Like them, many people emotionally see their cell phones as lifelines and avoid turning them off. I suspect such people are actually a large percentage of cell-phone users. What I'm getting at is restaurants that use products or systems that make cell phones not work might well find themselves without customers!

For every jerk you see in a restaurant yapping loudly on a cell phone there might be twenty other phones turned on in a pocket or purse. Jerks are jerks: Even with a cell phone that is turned off they'll still be jerks!

Mike -- when I read the title "Pet Hate" I thought I was going to read something about pets. 8O

Its actually quite easy to make electrical devices that will produce electrical interference. The problem is they are indiscriminate. They can not only mess up cell phones but also tv's radios -- but worst of all they could interfere with the operation of pacemakers. If they produce magnetic fields they can damage computer storage media and things like video tape. If strong enough (just scaled up) they could potentially interfere with airplane/control tower communications. It's no wonder that devices that produce electrical interference are highly regulated.

Regards, Ross

Happy Birthday Ron! You seem like a high-energy guy so here's a birthday song for you: Blue Man Group cover The Who

Regards, Ross