Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the input. Will search for some specific Fredo6 tutorials.

@skeerc said: I've already created a detailed outline of the island using Google Earth in SKP. The Island is mostly quite rugged terrain overall. I'm fairly new to SubD/Vertex Tools & see the advantage of using the Quad mesh. Do you think SubD/Vertex Tools would work for this approach? I was going to break the Island up into large blocks (sections) to work on at first with maybe a grid format of 5000mm? to get started & then infill areas as required. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Steve Sorry if i answer late (too late i suppose) i missed this post at all. This can actually work. i'm pretty sure because i did a similar project and achieved a good result with the very same process you've described.. you can convert the low poly google earth mesh to quads, then detach some plate in the areas were you need more detail and use a mix of sub-d and vertex tools to add geometry and deform it as required.. you will get an heavy, but still workable model, if you manage it properly..

Indeed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgaSj7YwXXE

Thanks again for the replies, I'll try the plugin suggestions.

I have updated my Mac to current OS 10.11.1 & AmbientOcclusion plugin works well.

It sounds like you got the idea now. I thought I would suggest the plug in "layers Panel" as an added tool to help organize your layers. I tend to be very selective in the add ons I use because I am essentially lazy and do not want to learn how to do to many more things, bot this one has been worth the effort. I often make many scenes with many 3d trees and bushes that I need to control visibility and this is a very handy tool for that. [image: U1LM_layers-panel.JPG] [image: a3nW_layerspanel2.JPG] paul

Excellent!

driven. I just wonder if you can do it, why can't Trimble? Is it just that you are more awesome?

Thanks for the reply. Will add Mac to future posts.

Kerkythea can do clay renders. I expect almost any rendering app can do them. When I read chalk, I think of this sort of thing. [image: 8160873898_89b72a70d0.jpg]

This has been covered repeatedly here on SCF. You shouldn't just copy plugins from SU2013 to the SU2014 installation. Many plugins required updates to meet Ruby 2.0 standards. Probably the best thing you could do is delete the plugins you pasted into the the SU2014 Plugins folder and start from scratch. Using the SCF Plugin Store's tools will make that easier.

I am not sure you will get a resolving answer here as this is something that should be addressed to the Sketchup Team . I would send them a message with my problem, perhaps here : http://help.sketchup.com/en/contact/pro-sales . I hope you can get this fixed soon ! Take care !

Thanks, Shall consider Mountain Lion & run the suggested tests for Autosave. Normally do rename files etc but will be a little more diligent in the future! Much appreciate the level of input.

Thanks for the input - Have solved the issue by eg: Walls - edit>select all & placing them back on their original Layer via Entity Info which has worked! Layer0 had remained On all the time as I always group & create separate Layers via Entity Info as I work, so not sure what happened but the wheels are back on!!!!

The SectionCutFace faces are placed on the Section-Cut's plane [actually they are inset from the cut-plane by a tiny amount, this is so that they are kept within the visible-objects set - otherwise if they were exactly on the cut-plane then they'd have a 50:50 chance of being considered by Sketchup as being behind the cut-plane and not show up]. They might appear to 'z-fight' with the Section-Cut itself... BUT since you are almost certainly going to have the Section-Cuts switched to 'hidden' in any render etc then this is not likely to be an issue. Dave simply showed all of the separated Section-Cuts 'visible' within their groups so you could see how it would restrict their extents... The group containing the SectionCutFace faces is always made in the same entities 'context' as the Section-Cut itself; as you must have selected that to activate the tool in the first place, and you can't select it without being in its 'context'. and the entities 'context' that will contain this group of faces is set to be the 'active_entities'.

Thanks very much for the input, have just completed a Mac update & SU models now opening OK without having to re-open. For the record my MacPro was relatively up to date - was not the normal combined Update only updates were Java, Safari & Remote Desktop (which I don't use). Much appreciate the input from SketchUcation.

I use Vali Architects instant roof. It has a feature to add details to a roof. The slate option looks like cladding. The script requires you to rotate the wall like a roof before it will allow you to add it, but then I just tilt it back.

And in the Shadows dialog, check "Use sun for shading". Now the amount of shading can be controlled by the Light and Dark sliders. Dark=100%>no shading. Anssi