I haven't been able to work it out yet. It's a small problem, so I haven't chased it too hard, but I tried your suggestions and didn't have any luck.

There's no extra sketchup.rb in Plugins.

I searched for "console" and found it in the comments of Examples.rb, utilitietools.rb and
examplescripts.rb.

The ruby sketchup.rb has the word console as part of
@unknownuser said:

if( not file_loaded? "sketchup.rb" )

Add a choice to the Window menu to display the Ruby console

add_separator_to_menu("Window")
UI.menu("Window").add_item($suStrings.GetString("Ruby Console")) do
Sketchup.send_action("showRubyPanel:")
end

and

@unknownuser said:

require 'langhandler.rb'
$suStrings = LanguageHandler.new("gettingstarted.strings")
console

This file defines a number of useful utilities that are used by other

Ruby scripts.

Do you think it could be one of those?

Rope is a real challenge. I worked on some a while ago, but I couldn't get anything I was satisfied with. My skills are better now, I hope to go back to see if I can improve my work.

Another fun challenge is knots.

I second the vote for ccleaner. I've got so little to hide, I hide it very well. It's main function is to keep your PC from getting clogged up with extra files.

I think, based on the third picture above that what you are seeing is called "z-fighting". I don't know why it's called that, but when there are two surfaces right up against one another you sometimes see one and sometimes see the other, or sometimes a random pattern.

Perhaps the tops of your walls are black and the bottoms of the inside of your walls are white. If you eliminate the tops of the walls, it will look right. Another possibility is to paint the bottoms of the inside of your walls black.

I think that's what I'm seeing. Let us know if that works.

I'm NOT speaking from a lot of experience here, but I think there are two separate but related skills.

One is car design. That's a challenge whether you are using a pencil, a computer, modeling clay or sheet metal. Another challenge is getting SketchUp to produce what is in your mind's eye.

If I were trying to learn to be a car designer, I would spend some of my time sketching interesting off the wall ideas and part of my time trying to duplicate high quality designs for real cars which already exist. Working from plastic models using a caliper might be a way to go. I learned a lot by trying to duplicate my wrist-watch in excruciating detail.

I think that combining those skills help you make it possible to express what is in your mind.

My thoughts - any others are valid.

I see some really good stuff. I think the thing about cars is the mix of hard and soft edges. The bottom one above in black and white shows that for me.

The context menu when an arc or circle is chosen shows "Convert to Polygon". It seems to have an effect just like "Explode Curve". Is there something else it does or am I missing something?

A Google search comes up with "The Convert to Polygon menu item is used to convert the entity into a polygon arc, which will remain editable yet generate standard facets when extruded."

I just don't want to miss out on some really cool functionality which I may be missing.

Under my Windows pull down menu, the last item is "Ruby Console". Just above that is "Ruby Console".

Does everyone have this embarrassment of riches? I don't think they've both aways been there, but I don't know when the 2nd one appeared. It's not a problem, but it's odd.

I'm using key shortcuts for probably 90% of my tool selection etc., but there are some things which I use only every once in a while.

For example, if I want to make a regular polygon, I can either go to Draw/Polygon or I can keep the toolbar block for polygon open which also includes four other buttons which I don't need because I have shortcuts set for them and one which I've never used. I could set up more shortcuts, but my memory (brain) is limited as to what I can remember.

It would be nice if I could have just that one button available.

The same applies to toolbars for rubies. Some have long toolbars, but I only use one or two buttons on them regularly.

@greentoaster said:

. . . which is appropriate because this vehicle doesn't go fast anyway . . .

I've had a couple micro buses. The low powered one only made it to 60 MPH if the wind was behind it. When the wind was gusty and from the side, only optimism kept me on the road.

Great progress with the models. Modeling from an actual object is a great technique to improve your skills.

@greentoaster said:

. . . I was planning on using a turbo diesel to generator to four dc brushless motors - one at each wheel . . .

I was wondering how you were going to get power to those wheels. I understand that some of the really really big dump trucks work that way. Also, there's potential for electric cars to have the motors in the hubs.

Wild and creative stuff.

In the first set of four, the third one really looks good to me. The others don't grab me.

I assume it's just different angles on the same model?

Granted. The new Use a Drill pill is working like a charm. (Did you hear about the guy who used a pneumatic framing nailer to put three nails in his skull?)

I wish I could get that image out of my mind.

Granted, your flu has flown, but your get up and go also got up and went with it.

I wish I knew what paging in Olimpia meant. (Sounds an a lot like office tea boy to the gods.)

When I was working on my hood above, I was amazed by how dull it looked because I knew I had put lots of clever angles into it. Adding the line for the space between the hood and the fender started to show the shape better. I also changed the color of the edge of the fender and of the A pillar to a reddish brown instead of bright red. I could have gone on and put some grooves in the hood to show more. Things like that bring out the geometry in SU, similarly to the way rendering would.

One step closer to virtual reality in the home.

Bad news for you about that three wheeler.

It's got four wheels.

Re. scaling the model. If you make the wheels into a component first, then you can scale the rest of the model and leave the wheels round, or you could display all the geometry again and just select the part in front of and behind the wheel and scale and/or move that.

Here's what I came up with from your tutorial.

That was fun. After playing a little, I was working out the details of the top of the wind shield and trying to figure out what the door edges should be like. Then I remembered that I don't really have much interest in cars.

The only different procedure I used was to use "follow me" to make the curve up into the hood. That way it already had faces. I found that to be quicker than angle move/copying and adding the faces. I also added some variety in colors so that even when things are smoothed out, I could see some details.

Thanks,

Thanks for all the information. In all my sketching up, I've just let the axes fall where they may and everything seemed to work. Now I see how complex this can all be made.

Based on what I know now, I might have been able to fix what I messed up before, but it's too late.

What is the advantage of being able to have axes point in all different ways?

Another question: If I can make the blue axis line point to the horizon, what determines where the sky is?

Thanks for the help. I've been spending my time recreating the model from scratch. When I get a chance I'll experiment with your suggestions. If I don't understand, I'll be back.