This one has always really bugged me, and Anssi's explanation has now made it abundantly clear as to why textures on a "scaled" component still have a width and height that make no sense to the "apparent" size.

I see there is a relationship to the concept that you can scale an individual component without all other components being affected. Or you can "paint" the default materials within a component by paint bucketing from "outside" the component and it also will not affect all components. Only that which you do to the component in edit mode, on the INSIDE, will affect the component. So too, a texture applied on the "inside" will need to be sized and positioned, but when the component and applied material are scaled together on the outside it is only an "illusion" so to speak.

I laughed so hard. What else could I do. Actually, I'm not at all sure it is just about being an old fart, but also how very busy and complex our lives have become. We have so much to juggle.

At least my antics provide entertainment for my kids.

(PS Peter, you are still really quick on the uptake. Very clever!)

AAADD

KNOW THE SYMPTOMS.....PLEASE READ!

Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.
Somehow I feel better,even though I have it!!

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. -
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
Put the junk mail in the garbage can under the
table,
And notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
On the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
Since I'm going to be near the mailbox
When I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table,
And see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
So I go inside the house to my desk where
I find the can of Pepsi I'd been drinking

I'm going to look for my checks,
But first I need to push the Pepsi aside
So that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm,
And I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi,
A vase of flowers on the counter
Catches my eye--they need water.

I put the Pepsi on the counter
and
Discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk,
But first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
Fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
But I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
So I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,
But first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
But quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
Get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to
Remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed
The bills aren't paid
There is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter
The flowers don't have enough water,
There is still only 1 check in my check book,
I can't find the remote,
I can't find my glasses,
And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all damn day,
And I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
And I'll try to get some help for it,
But first I'll check my e-mail...

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!

Fantastic! Can't wait.

I thought this plug-in would be useful in finally solving the missing "sweep" tool, so I tried it. More specifically, I showed this one before, trying to make a squared handrail on a spiral staircase. Using follow me doesn't work because it curves the form so that the top isn't parallel with the ground. For this spiral stair case the steps are rotated 30 degrees so I tried the ruby with a 30 degree input. Totally didn't work. I tried various different inputs and I finally found one that visually, was "good enough". The input was -3 degrees.
Can you take a look and let me know if there is a better number and if I there should be some relationship that can always be used to figure out what angle to use?
Even if not, this saves just a ton of time as is and it is quite adequate for this job too! Thank so much.

SpiralStairRail.skp

Kwist,

I'm sorry the "signature" offends you. I specifically asked and got permission for that last year from the moderators. I don't want to do anything "against the rules".
I'm sorry that people who are doing the best they can to make a living is offensive to you. I have been a long standing member of the SketchUp community and slowly tranformed into selling commercial products over time. I developed many friends here and most of them are "rooting" for me and support me. I like to support others who are trying to start or promote a business as well as I know how tough it is. Generally the products that are advertised in and around forums such as this are quite directed and geared to the very audience that participates in the forum. It can be useful. If there weren't many people who were interested in the advertised products then people wouldn't advertise, so clearly some people find the adverts beneficial.

I don't know why those of you who are in a "service" business think that any one who is selling a product is rolling in dough and represents evil big business and has no right to bring your attention to their product. Architecture is a specialized and tiny market and traditional advertising is so expensive as to make it impossible to use and still offer the product at a marketable price.

Yes I support any individual or group of individuals who is starting a business, struggling with a business and small enough to be personally involved in these forums. That is not to say I support only people who sell a product. I also offers services in training and modelling. I certainly understand the point of view that those of us who are performing a service are too often aske to provide above and beyond the contracted amount for free and, yes it is frustrating, but this isn't that situation. I give away a whole bunch of my stuff for free under various circumstances. Not the least is my time and my knowledge but often hard product as well. It is sometimes good business to do so and it is sometimes me just plain wanting to be helpful.

I have mouths to feed, as do you but I don't receive a paycheck. It is easy to be holier-than-though if you haven't tried to run your own business and have no empathy. Maybe you have run your own business and are so overwhelmingly successful that you don't have to make any marketing efforts. If so, then lucky you but we are not all so fortuneate. I do aplogize that my trying to make a living is so repugnant to you.

Kent, I may have something for you but you may need to clean it up.
However, it didn't start life in SketchUp. It is a freebie from "Great Buildings Online" and created in Design Workshop. It is Shroder Haus. I imported into SketchUp, cleaned it up a little and I use if for soome class demos. I took some liberties with the colours but you can change that back. I has an interior including piano and furniture etc.

If you would like to have a play with that, I expect you may need to say that it came originally form Great Buildings and was modified in SketchUp. I don't even need my name mentioned.
Let me know.

susan.sorger AT entouragearts.com

Poor Kent. I should hold my tongue becuase I can't tell you the number of times I have posted something here that I thought was innocuous and then had people jump all over me. I'm still here though.
Kent, for the most part people here are amazing and helpful and this is really a worthwhile place to be.
Then someone gets a bee in his bonnet and a bunch of people jump on board and all hell breaks loose.

I don't think there was anything at all wrong with Kent's "tone". He was providig you the background info and explaining the terms. What he is suggesting is exactly the way it is done all the time in publishing this sort of trade book.
If you were being "commissioned" to model something to his "specs" you would indeed be within your rights to complain. But he doesn't want anything specific. Anything you already have that you have already been paid for but still retain the rights for will do? How much money do you want for something that you have kicking around any way? Will $100 make you happy? I suppose he could come up with that but why bother when some other person will likely be happy to have his name in print for free? Like I said, happens all the time. It is the way things work.

I recently completed a stint as technical editor for a new SketchUp book by Bonnie Roskes. It is being published by O'Reilly and the amount of detailed work I needed to do was overwhelming. As a knowledgeable professional what I got paid was a joke. Worse, I had to forego othe work that would have paid well while I was doing it. This is not unusual. The publishing company relies on your hope and understanding that having your name on there is a form of payment. In fact, I don't think Bonnie will make much on the book herself either. O'Reilly might. Ask Aidan Chopra how many "millions" he has NOT made for the SketchUp for Dummies book. How about asking Jim Leggit how lucrative his books are? Generally,publishing a book, particularly a trade book, is not a way to make your fortune. There tend to be other aspirations associated with publishing the book.

Regardless, if you don't think that you would like to offer your model that has been kicking around gathering dust, for the sake of a possible little advertising, then don't. Just get out of the way and let the guy who thinks it is a good deal get in on it. Why on earth would you beat up on someone who is doing nothing different than the industry does all the time. He did not set out to personally insult you, it wasn't necessary to afford him such a poor welcome.

Hello Gentleman and thank you for your replies.

I think an hourly rate will probably be appropriate for this because there has been so very much back an forth on this protype.
It would appear that I have something that is printable with this go. So my client is going to see what the ouptut looks like and when he is ready to request the next round of changes he will need one of you to work with. What I have been doing has been really inefficient.
I will provide the contact info for each of you to him and he can take it from there. Thanks so much for responding.

Bonnie Roskes has published a series of Children's SketchUp books with exactly the sorts of projects you would be interested in. Some of the files for the book are up on 3D warehouse. Search on "Bonnie Roskes".
Bonnie worked together with teachers in a number of disciplines to come up with just the right excercises to teach some very specific concepts. Transparent to the kids because they are just having fun.

Here is a link to the books: http://www.f1help.biz/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

PS> Solo I would appreciate further input about your "camp experience" because I have sold a license ( only a single one so far) to a local camp run by a community college for a SketchUp camp. The camp is full days for 5 days and there are 2 different curricula: one for ages 9-11 and another for 12-14. I haven't written it yet but any input from you would be much appreciated. I intend to kid test it once it is written. I expect to have a number of demos by the councellors where the kids follow. Some "assignments" where they learn and then a selection from at least 5 different projects they can work on on their own as a "final". The councellors need to be trained on best methods for completing all of the projects to be able to help the kids and I am providing live tech support.
So, if you, or anyone with such experience, can provide me with that, I would appreciate!

Thanks Ton, but I did mention Cadspan at the very top. It didn't work at all. I always come to this forum first when I am searching for any information and I found that. I found that the CADspan converter did some very strange things. For instance, my model is identically mirrored from the centre out to the sides and the Cadspan script treated one side very different from the other. I had rounded edges on my model it was handled adequately on one side and very poorly on the other.

The export from VectorWorks had nos such problem.

Thanks so much guys. I actually submitted the scale version of my model in 3 different sizes ( this is a prototype) to an online service that has an automated fix it mechanism. They were able to fix 2 of the 3 STL files. The smallest was not fixable in an automated fashion.
So I have something for this go round. But because this is just a prototype and he will be refining and adjusting the product going forward, it really makes sense to find someone who works in a solid modeler to begin with.
So the call is still open.

Thanks again all. I learned a whole heap of new things here again.

Nope, nope. I don't have time to learn this. I just wasted hours trying to fix my SketchUp model in Moi (I exported as a 3Ds, imported to VectorWorks, which I don't really know, I have an NFR copy, and imported at a 1000 to 1 scale and then exported as an igs which I opened in Moi) and well, I got nowhere.
I don't want to start from scratch and figure out how the heck to do this in Moi,
So again I ask. any solid modelers out there who want to do this?

Solo, do you really think the painter had to be a Bush supporter in order to do the job?
It isn't a stamp of approval,just work.

It isn't like agreeing to be the official state artist or his Solids modeler once removed

http://blog.al.com/mhuebner/2008/12/birmingham_artist_mark_carder.html

Okay, I can't stand it. Guess who the client is?

Just call me a name dropper: the client is Mark Carder, the portrait artist who just completed Bush's portrait.
Neat, huh?

Thanks Remus, I will def have a look

I've been doing some work for someone who is creating a prototype for a tiny object.
I've been using SketchUp to do the model and then going through all sorts of gyrations to get it to export to a small scale STL file that is error free for 3D printing.
Please don't point me at the new scripts, they aren't satisfactory for this tiny thing. So I need someone to take over for me with my client because this is not efficient.
Anyone out there that has experience with solid modeling and is a free lancer available during daytime?

Porrfolio and rates to:

Susan dot Sorger AT entouragearts.com

I've been working with a tiny model too. One of the things that I did, aside from changing the precisions, is to work in a factor that is 1000x the real world size.

When I finished all my precise work,I scaled down to the real world size and everything looked just fine. Then I "Saved" and lost a bunch of faces. It appears that SketchUp does a "validity check" on saving and finds all the things that become distorted when you scale down. I just couldn't work as tiny as I needed to no matter what.

Lovely. I do have a question though. It isn't readily apparent from the images.
At the low poly count, other solutions have had a tendencay to cut accross bits of the image. that is, it lopped off bits. With a photo it may not matter, but with a drawing, some of the nuance is in the outline and if that is removed, it really takes away from the visual.
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