@gullfo said: if the imported objects are "solids" then you could use "outer shell". This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

What is it you're doing when SketchUp crashes? FWIW, when I model for 3D printing I set Units to Meters and model as if millimeters are meters. This allows me to model fine details and to create smoother curves. The slicer I use imports .stl files as millimeters but I export the .stl with model units (meters). For examples see my thread on 3D printed screw threads in the 3D Printing forum category. Keep in mind that adding a mesh from a an image like the brick texture I used adds tons of geometry. This can slow SketchUp quite dramatically depending on your computer's CPU and GPU. You might get frequent messages of "Not Responding" which normally isn't a crash. Just that SketchUp is busy and won't respond to further inputs from you until it is done. It might be that you'll need to break your model up into smaller sections and assemble the printed modules when they are complete.

You can try extensions such as TIG's Solid Solver and ThomThom's Solid Inspector2 and CleanUp3 however if your model is as much of mess as you imply, they will likely not be able to fix everything. Probably there will be things that will require human decision making to repair. It doesn't help you now but if you know that a 3D printed model will be required it would be best to model that in mind from the beginning making sure that all bottom groups and components are reported as solids. Solid groups and components tend to be cleaner and are easier to work on so there's additional benefits to making solids from the beginning. You don't have to collect all of the groups and components into a single solid for printing, either. As long as all of the objects are solids, it should print fine.

...whatever tool you decide for - since you study architecture, focus on the essential things like materiality or lighting and don't let yourself be seduced by "nonsense" like trees blowing in the wind, like zombies walking people or stupid rippling waves in even stupider swimming pools and don´t waste your time with the photorealistic visualization of toilet bowls unless, of all things, someone would pay a lot of money for it

I dont think so just lines but its really quick and has worked for me without problems even on grouped nested geometries. Just go to top view and set camera to parallell and slice four slices. I have sometimes drawn some guide lines that I snap to when slicing. You can try the demo for free.

A trick I use is to be sure to place each ID material to one of the proxy triangles. This way it is seen as used and will not purge and it also stays along with the component. Beware that purge plugins will also purge materials that are used as part of a 2-sided material. Chaos recommends using the purge material feature inside the material editor.

Sketchup won't seem to let me change the aspect ratio for some reason. I can either change the Width or Height but not both or I can use the screen resolution which didn't work either.

Glad that helped Rob. Keep in mind that a component's or group's axes are aligned with the global axes upon creation of the component or group. If this axis orientation doesn't align with the geometry of the component, as would be the case with, say a rafter drawn in place or a window drawn on an angled wall, Change Axes can be used to modify the axis orientation as well as change the location of the component's or group's origin and thus the insertion point. Of course this is useful if you want tools to align to the axes when editing. If you are using interested in generating some sort of report indicating the dimensions of the components or groups in your model, alignment of the axes with the geometry is critical. Those reports typically report the dimensions of the bounding boxes. If the component will be used in the future, setting the orientation and location of the axes can greatly improve your workflow, too.

@unknownuser said: You can also try these? Link goes to Sherwin William Color Palettes in 3DWH http://goo.gl/qS0qG Great resource. Thanks!

Every length unit in VfSU refer to inches. Displacement multiplier for instance 1.0 = 1 inch. Override focal distance - inches.

@rspierenburg said: I looked at your script Tig, not sure it will do what I need. Yours selects and replaces texture to another texture. I need the faces selected so I can globally change a property on all the faces with a certain texture on it. SU Podium's reflectivity to be exact. Its a property on the face, not the texture. OK here's one that does what you want 'Select All Faces by Material'... Usage: Select faces / entities. [IF NO selection ALL active entities are used] 2. Activate the script from the Plugins Menu. 3. Choose Material. << DEFAULT >> = ALL Faces that have NO Materials and then an Alphabetical list of other Materials in the Model. 4. Choose the desired Material. To access Materials that are off the visible list type the first letter - e.g. 'W' and use up/down arrow-keys to move to the one you want e.g. 'W'hite... 5. All Faces are selected. Note: to also include groups and instances etc put # in front of 'and e.typename=="Face"' on line #59... Faces with Materials within groups/instances ARE selected BUT 'default-material' ones painted en mass aren't... Feedback please... SelectAllFacesByMaterial.rb

That's funny. My son did that to me once.