@burkhard said: Would be better in the Extensions & Applications Discussions corner. True; moved there.

Why do I have the feeling that a lot of talented grown-ups are busy recreating their childhood cartoon favorites this weekend? I've decided to 'caricature' some friends as practice/learning in Artisan. I'll post when I'm worthy.

Jamal, I think you're right, I think I saw that texture somewere....maybe in the manual. Looks familiar.

nucular power pants

Oh, I meant when someone starts a new topic - maybe there'e a message that shows up in the post message screen that says to make sure you're posting your version number. I don't know much about forum coding, but it seems like there ought to be a way to do something like that. There are all the smilies and stuff to the right, maybe there can be a note in that space too?

really nice work also, looks like i have to check out VUE.. nice render results.

That first one is CRACKUPS. Here's another one from downunder NZ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yt9olqwIeE If its too long for you. watch the first minute then flick to 3minutes and continue.

Another email... @unknownuser said: Chaos Group furthers plans for enhanced services and support to North American market Chaos Group of Sofia, Bulgaria – the world leader in the development of software solutions for the computer graphics industry – has acquired Baltimore-based software developer and visualization firm, ASGVIS, LLC. The acquisition will consolidate V-Ray for Rhino and V-Ray for SketchUp development within the Chaos Group brand, and confirms establishment of a new Chaos Group company in the United States that will enhance services and support to customers in North America. A working relationship with the two companies began in 2005 when ASGVIS adapted Chaos Group’s flagship rendering plug-in, V-Ray*, to work with the modeling software applications Rhinoceros* and SketchUp*. In addition to developing these two products, ASGVIS resold Chaos Group’s V-Ray for 3ds Max* and V-Ray for Maya*. Joining the two development teams under Chaos Group will ensure consistency among the V-Ray products. "We are extremely excited by this merger," said Peter Mitev, CEO of the Chaos Group. "We have worked with ASGVIS to extend the V-Ray platform into areas of business that our other V-Ray products did not cover, and having them join the Chaos Group only serves to make the V-Ray brand even stronger. The USA has always been a key market for V-Ray, and having a dedicated office to service our customers will allow us to provide an even higher level of service and support." ASGVIS will officially be renamed Chaos Group USA. Peter Mitev will provide overall guidance for the new company, but there are no planned changes to the structure or employees as of this announcement. Chaos Group will continue to operate ASGVIS "as is," and will gradually phase-in changes to the process of ordering and support. Details on these general changes will be communicated by the Chaos Group in the coming months. "Chaos Group is a true pioneer in the CG industry, and this acquisition is a monumental step to unify the V-Ray brand," echoed Corey Rubadue, founder of ASGVIS, and now the Director of Chaos Group USA. "It not only acknowledges the importance of V-Ray in the CAD market, but also firmly places the plug-ins for Rhino and SketchUp in the official V-Ray development pipeline." About Chaos Group Chaos Group is a global leader in creating rendering solutions for the Architectural, VFX and Film, Media and Entertainment, and the Automotive and Product Design industries. Through a worldwide network of more than 150 distributors and resellers the company delivers the market leading V-Ray rendering engine and continues to build upon its success by continuously surprising the 3D community with new, innovative and trendsetting rendering technologies. Chaos Group was founded in 1997 with the establishment of a production studio for 3D design and animation services. The company quickly recognized the related software development opportunity and allocated resources for the provision of rendering solutions for production studios. The first product release began in 1998 with Phoenix, launched at the end of 1999. After beginning the creation of the renowned V-Ray rendering engine in early 2000, and upon its release in March 2002, the company dedicated its efforts to the rendering niche and pursued the development and distribution of its rendering solutions for the 3D visualization industry. About ASGVIS ASGVIS, once the "Visual Imaging Studio" of venerable architecture firm Ayers Saint Gross Architects + Planners, became world-renowned for its adaptation of V-Ray, the cutting-edge rendering technology developed by Chaos Group. The studio not only offered rendering and animation services, but also customized software packages used in production to streamline the rendering process. The programs included Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Revit, and eventually expanded to such 3D design programs as Robert McNeel and Associates’ Rhinoceros and Google’s SketchUp. Further information: Darina Georgieva PR Manager, Chaos Group Bulgaria pr@chaosgroup.com Kim Trompeter Marketing Manager, Chaos Group USA

here's mine... [image: Cs15_helicopter.jpg]

I saw this on the weekend too, Pete. Quite an incredible phenomenon, eh?

Looks great Solo

@unknownuser said: please don't let me down and say the the onion is a hoax newspaper Don't be crazy - it's on the internet - it must be true!

@honoluludesktop said: Was he around when @last was acquired? Page & Brin were the original pair back in the days when they used a corner of a friend of mine's office @ Stanford Uni. So yes, he was around then.

@jim said: Could not this be done more directly using an actual PolygonMesh instead of using cpoints? I mean, you could generate a flat mesh of some density, then iterate the points and adjust each points's Z coordinate (using .set_point) to the "ground" using raycast? You certainly could - the drape_cpoints then triangulate method was written some while ago in response to a request [it does allow you to adjust some of the cpoints before making the mesh so in some respects it's perhaps easier that trying to move a mesh's vertices later on?]... BUT a method like you suggested that auto-drapes a flat [grouped] mesh over some 3d solid forms below using a raytest and a 'vertex-move' method would be quite doable [so over to you...]

@rattusnor said: @frederik said: Any news about the price for this plug-in...?? i would also like to know that. It looks like a powerful tool. His already talking about SDS3 so SDS might become a yearly release. If that becomes the case, I would say a range from 19 to 39 with previous versions going for free or dirt cheap prices. SDS2 must be the most highly anticipated SU plugin release of 2011. If any had to hap hazard a guess, how many SDS1 were sold? PS. Check out his Fb page for more info EDIT : Here is the webpage http://www.facebook.com/whaatsup

@solo said: Please do, I'd actually like to be able to export a component to Photoshop, paint it then return it to SU. http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=46318 http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=23595&hilit=Photoshop&start=30

Thomthom In my dreams, you guys all together, form a company, and build your own software or maybe a patch for blender to turn it into a sketchup version. And sell it at sk price. Hell, sell it more expensive and I bet people would still buy it. Get this wonderful guys at sketchucation to support it and it would be a "marriage" made in heaven. Oh well its good to dream It's a pity most of users at sketchucation are all scattered over the world, because I would love a sketchucation meeting with all users in the forum (and to thank personally to all ruby coders out here). And BTW do you prefer beers or cookies? and how do I send them over mail?

@alpro said: Well forget the Blender route. Exported obj out of SU, imported to Blender, selected verts and changed tris to quads, no problems. Well a little problem, it only converted about 85% to quads, see pics. However the real problem was importing back into SU, like thomthom said the quads have to be coplanar in SU so when I imported your quaded head, SU put a hidden line everywhere it wasn't coplanar thus making quads into tris again. Mike Technically, all quads in any 3d application consists of triangles. It's just a matter of how the 3d application presents it. Internally each quad will consist of two triangles. SketchUp makes no effort to provide any form of quads and instead exposes the triangles directly to the user and leaves the responsibility there. Further more, just having a set of quads as you do in your screenshot provides no real benefits as the topology isn't regular. It's going all over the place with a mix of quads and tris at random. To have an efficient topology you need the quads to be laid out in a manner so they make nice loops around the characteristics of the shape. Then you can use tools that makes use of this regularity of the quad mesh to perform actions such as selecting rings and loops so you can quickly and predictably modify the geometry you want. To put it simply, quads has no benefit over tris unless the quads are laid out with a good topology.

@solo said: Wondering is there would be a way to create a ruby that could take a model or a selection of faces and turn all polys into quads? This would really help me for one to create smooth lower poly meshes. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=33895&p=297883#p297883

AHHH. I see. I am familiar with remote desktops and central based systems so I can see how the I pad can do that now. The simple fact that you can access your files anywhere anytime from one simple device is priceless! Is it very laggy when rotating a model? I always look forward to what they come out with next. Thanks