As he moved closer Kevin realised Ross was not really short and stocky as was his first impression. Ross was in fact a tall, powerfully built man. Kevin couldn't help but notice how incredibly handsome Ross was. He had never seen such a beautiful person. The Captain introduced Kevin and Ross. Upon talking Kevin realized Ross was not only handsome but very intelligent and charismatic. Ross was also very humble and likable. Seeing the way the other crew interacted with the Captain and the First Mate, Kevin understood that Ross was the real, if unofficial, leader of the ship. The Captain in contrast was clearly a few bricks shy of a full load. A slovenly man, the Captain's name was...

Immediately headed for the docks. He found a cargo ship about to leave for India. Kevin knew it was in the Assum region of India he would be able to personally select the finest tea leaves for the Pope. His timing was perfect - as if predestined. He spoke with the Captain who was happy to take Kevin to India provided Kevin would make tea for the crew. The Captain, in a moment that might foreshadow developments to come, knew a well-tea'd crew was less likely to mutiny. Kevin only sensed the Captain's pleasure to take him along for the voyage. The whistle blew. It was time to depart. Kevin followed the Captain to the bridge. There he met the First Mate. He was a short stocky man named...

Regarding "get over it", I thought that's exactly what Coen was saying. He has gotten over his earlier concerns and now sees some positive things about 'lurkers'. We all know 'lurking' is a reality. Most of us aren't bothered by it because, as they say, its no skin off our noses. But if for a moment you think from the perspective of a non-commercial website owner like Coen, then you'll see the reasons why 'lurkers' can have a negative connotation. No doubt about it -- lurkers are using Coens bandwidth and he's the one paying for it. If 50% of the visitors to this site are lurkers then almost 50% of Coen's costs are attributable to people who don't participate. Its no wonder many website owners don't appreciate lurkers. That Coen is able to see positives says a lot about him.

Regards, Ross

In September's CatchUp Coen wrote about 'Lurkers'. I thought we could have this thread to discuss the topic more.

I agree with the things Coen wrote. To them I'd suggest one thing about forum life that contributes to lurking is a resistance to intrude upon what is clearly an established group of friends. A lurker can feel they are an 'outsider'. In threads they see a group of people (the active participants) who appear very familiar & buddy-buddy with one another. That familiarity expresses itself in friendly quips, obvious knowledge of one another's backgrounds/lives, "insider" comments, and non-critical support of each other's postings.

To the person who feels themselves a bit of an outsider to this social network, there is a reluctance to join in. Why? It appears the strongest factor is a fear of rejection. Posting those first posts can take someone out of a comfort zone -- it can feel like it puts them 'out there' - vulnerable. They can fear being ignored, ridiculed, or not welcomed. Posting your work in the Gallery for the first time I imagine is very difficult for many people. Doing so not only exposes you on a social level but can also seem like you are putting your creative/professional life up for scrutiny. I have been involved in graphics-oriented forums as a moderator since the early days of the Internet. What I've learned is most people who post their work seek affirmation. They want others to appreciate it. Our egos can be very fragile things and that fragility is usually very guarded. Posting work and then having it ignored or glossed over can be a big blow to one's ego. It makes sense that many just don't accept the risk. What the 'lurkers' might not realize is that risk is there for all of us -- even the regulars. Almost all of us have made postings that did not get any or got very little response and it does feel bad like a stubbed toe. What the regulars realize is that maybe the timing was wrong or others were preoccupied with other topics. We try not to let the sore toe fester and make us lame. You put the 'pain' behind you and move on. Perhaps our next posting will spark a good discussion...

By the way weekends are the worst time to post anything. Most of the regular participants seem to stay away on weekends so many weekend postings are noticably slower to get responses.

For any 'lurkers' reading this please understand you really are welcome to join in. While it may seem like the regulars are a tight-knit group we are really a diverse group of people very open to the participation of others. We are real people - not just Internet personalities. Note that many of us post here with our real names and info about where we live etc. We do that because we know we are welcome to just be ourselves -- warts & all. You are welcome too. Using your own name certainly isn't required so do what makes you comfortable. We can all learn from one another. We can learn SketchUp related stuff but also learn things as diverse as this group is.

The fact that we come from so many different countries & cultures is one of the great things about these forums. So is our range of our ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and the diversity of our life experiences. With regards to the interest in SketchUp that brings us together, we have a wide range of SketchUp skills. We all can learn from one another. The participant who has been using SketchUp for two days and wants to model a macaroni noodle really can help a SketchUp power user learn new things. The power users haven't forgotten being 'noobies' either so there is no contempt for people just getting starting with SketchUp.

Please do participate and help keep this community strong by sharing your opinions and inspiring us all with your work.

Regards, Ross

Kevin smiled. "Think about it" he scoffed as he headed for the door. With out looking back he said "I'm out'a here!". As the door shut behind him Kevin smiled again. He now realized his true purpose in life was to serve tea. It was a calling. His calling.

Just then his cell phone rang. The ring tone identified it was the Pope calling. It had been a while since Kevin last spoke with the Pontiff. As he answered he thought to himself "I wonder what he wants this time?". The Pope said "Kevin my son, I'm need you to..."

Thanks Guite! Yours is a most excellent component. Did you jump on the real one before you sent it back?

Regards, Ross

Although Kevin was young and naive in true romance, as a tea boy he had much experience in playful flirting with the female staff to whom he delivered tea. Although he didn't want the part "that badly", he knew he could use his tea boy charm and soon tame the wild cougar. So in his best radio voice he flirtatiously advised Mrs. Horndog...

Here's some advice from a little white dog...

Next time, in promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable, philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement, and asinine affectations.

Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, prurient jocosity, and pestiferous profanity, obscurant or apparent!!

In other words, talk plainly, briefly, naturally, sensibly, truthfully, purely. Keep from slang; don't put on airs; say what you mean; mean what you say. And, don't use big words!

Granted but you have share it with your brother Larry and your other brother Darrel.

I wish a had my own fire hydrant.

Upon arriving at the casting call location he was full of optimism. That glee soon faded when he was led into a small dimly lit room where, stuffed into a large chair, was the casting agent with two lit cigarettes in hand while another dangled from her botoxed lips. With a wave of her plump fingers and a raised eyebrow she motioned to Kevin to take a seat on her CASTING COUCH!

Granted Eric is all better but soon he'll find something else to complain about.

I wish, I wish, I wish... I wish I wasn't a fish.

I like muchly. Three paws up!

Regards, Ross

I'm glad you did post here Phil. Both your images are very inspiring. My nine-year-old thought the stadium is really cool. I agree. In your house image it appears to have exagerated perspective distortion. Was that just a graphic choice to add drama or do the walls flair?

Regards, Ross

Thanks Michael! It will be very useful. A well-loved antique.

Regards, Ross

Maybe its a suicide-resistant model. It would be hard to drown yourself in such a shallow sink.

Looks good Shaun.

In SketchUp v6 we have two fundamentally different ways to have edges rendered. By default, vector (mathmatically defined by SketchUp's program code) edges are applied. Up until version six those vector edges were the only choice. With version six came a new technology that SU's developers call 'Sketchy Edges'. With them the edges may or may not actually be sketchy and that adds to the confusion. What 'Sketchy Edges' is all about is having edges defined not by vectors but by bitmapped sets of images. The program will in effect use a image of line (and that image can be "sketchy" or not) and use it to display an edge. The system is smart enough to be able to use sets of images showing lines of different lengths and apply them to the image appropriately enough that short edges get displayed with short images and with enough variation that the end effect can really look like it was, say, hand drawn.

SketchUp v6 uses the concept of "Styles" as a way to apply edge and other display-related effects. It is important to understand that the Styles are just a way to allow us to bundle together, reuse, and share particular sets of settings. An individual Style definition may or may not use the image-based 'Sketchy Edge' system. Some are defined with the default vector edges.

Now just to be clear, understand that when vector-based edge display systems are used the approach is really resolution independant as far as the program is concerned. It simply draws lines from endpoint to endpoint. In contrast the 'Sketchy Edge' system is very resolution dependant. Within a Style that has the Sketchy Edges, a set of 'line' images is used. If that particular Style incorporates 15 different 'line' images in it, then the program must render the visible edges in model view using just those images. SketchUp's system for doing that is actually quite sophisticated. It will shrink and stretch those images automatically and generally try to apply the most appropriate image from the set for a particular edge. Now of course it can't actually see the images and so all of this is done automatically using algorithms in the program code.

There are limitations to the system. The big one relates to resolutions. It makes achieving WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) output difficult. An important aspect to understand is that what you see on your monitor has been processed by your graphics card while what you export doesn't use the graphics card at all -- exports are generated by the SketchUp software. Many users have a tendency when they export an image to assume higher resolution is better and so they crank up the pixel size of their exports using SU's export options. When the 'Sketchy Edge' system is involved the results stop being wysiwyg. The higher resolution means the algorithms are recalculating what 'line' image to display for what edges differently than was done when the display view was originally generated. Hence an export can look different than what we saw on our monitors.

I actually over-simplified the above explanation. The system also has features like applying 'halo', level of detail, profiles, and edge extensions -- things that all have some aspect of being resolution dependant in how they are applied. It is also noteworthy that even before Sketch Edge technology was added in v6 that there have always been differences between exports and what we see on our monitors whenever the resolutions involved are different.

Now for some advice... (finally)
If you want an image that matches what you see on your monitor the best choice is to do a screen capture. You can use the utilities built into your operating system or stand-alone screen-capture software. Some of you will be saying "but Rossy I need higher resolution!" In that case I'd highly recommend you do your screen capture and then use PhotoZoom Pro2 to effectively improve the resolution of your screenshot. (PhotoZoom is available for macs & pc's and is a very useful graphics tool).
You can also try exporting from SU using the "use view size" option although I've found the results less satisfactory than doing screenshots. In my work designing Styles for distribution by FormFonts I have found that the only predictable output is via screenshots. Some styles will export more faithful to what you saw on your monitor than others - but screenshots always seem to work. Crank up your monitor to its maximum resolution and take your screenshot.

In conclusion I'd note to Larry to realize that his use of the '1 pixel' style is in fact using the Sketchy Edge system. If he was using a vector-based edge like is used in SU's "default styles" then he might not have the same export problems.

Regards, Ross

Thanks Guys.

In looking at the image I see an old tip well worth remembering. It has to do with the grass and the topography. The tip is: Having modeled three-dimensional topography it can be visually helpful using a texture that has a grid pattern incorporated in it. That grid will give strong visual clues about the topography. Without such a grid all your efforts modelling that topography can be fruitless as most textures will make it all look flat. The golf fairway grass may not look realistic (unless you are doing a golf course) but it does greatly help viewers see the terrain you want them to see...

Regards, Ross

It's been a bit too quiet here at the new forums so I thought I'd do my part and post something, anything...

This was pure SketchUp output run through a sharpening filter and one that added the canvas texture. So other than that it's still pretty pure. The sky clouds were a alpha-transparent png right in the model.

Regards, Ross

So if you are on a mac and you download a style and then save it into the same folder that has the styles that came with SketchUp will it not work?

Just a reminder here that you aren't supposed to open the styles themselves -- you don't need to as you are supposed to be loading them from inside sketchUp. So when you download one don't be doing all that crazy clicking stuff! Leave it alone! (Fight the urge to click!) Then just tell sketchup where to find it via the styles' panel. Hopefully it will load and do its magic...

By the way, on a pc you can also "open" them just as easily.

Regards, Ross

I'm sorry but I still don't get that. (Perhaps I'm 'slow').

On a mac can't you use the styles provided/installed by Google? They of course have the same .style extension that is really just a renamed .zip format. If they work why wouldn't it work to just save a style downloaded here to the same folder? The thing about being able to open it and see its contents on a mac sounds irrelevant to me. On my pc I can open & see the contents too --- but you aren't supposed to be 'opening' them.