Every time I try to use the From Scratch and Smoove Tools my computer freezes almost instantly (I have lots of RAM, by the way). Anything I can do about this?

Thanks! I'll try it. I'm going to need a beer after all that!

When I stitch to make a face (and so far this is the only way I can make faces from non-planar surfaces) and use Eraser/Control or Shift to hide the stitching lines, then add a material to that face, the material applies along the hidden lines of the stitiching, and half the time the Texture Position option is unavailable, so I can't even try to square up the disparate face sections.

Is there any way to overcome this?

No--it's from an architect's plans. It's a very complex series of roofs, all at different heights, with some pitch changes, etc. This is why SU sees it as non-planar, but I have to find a way to make faces without the hidden lines showing up when I add the materials.

I understand that they're non-planar, but that's the way it goes--I have to find a way to make them a face and to add materials without the stitching showing up. I can smooth the stitiching on the surface, but when I add the roofing material, the hidden lines show up, and the texture position feature doesn't work for a good deal of the segments.

Here is a portion of one of the roofs--it runs into a saddle from a chimney.

roofsketchucation.skp

If I'm making a complex roof with many intersections from adjoining gables, dormers, chimney saddles, widely varying heights etc., SU doesn't seem to like this and won't treat the roof as a closed face (even though all lines do connect overall). I've been creating a face by stitching (usually with triangles, since rectangles don't seem to work), and hiding the lines with Eraser/Shift. But when I apply roofing materials, they show up inside each hidden triangle, and even with texture positioning I can't make them line up.

I would like, if possible, to avoid the stitching altogether, but haven't as yet figured out how to do so. Any deas?

Thanks! I just tried this and it says there are no intersections found! And now it's saying I can't put a component on the face of the wall.

I'm trying to put a logo jpeg on a wall in SU before export to Kerkythea. I import the logo as an image, explode it, and make it a component (KT doesn't seem to recognize it if it isn't a component). This, of course, puts a rectangle around it, so I made a crude clip map in Gimp (if anyone knows how to do this correctly, please help).

The problem is, when I apply the logo to the wall in SU, it flickers on and off as I rotate the wall (the same thing happens in KT), and it renders washed-out and grainy.

Any ideas how to solve this?

I have downloaded KT into a new computer, downloaded the exporters into Plugins, the exporter shows up in the Plugins menu, it says it is exporting the model, but KT doesn't open up. Any ideas?

Maybe someone here can solve this dilemma--I'm exporting from SU into KT, but the sun and shadows don't export (they are turned on in SU). When I do small test renders, everything is fine, but with a larger model, nothing.

I do have low RAM--could that be the problem? In KT, I go to Settings, Sun and Sky>Skip (sun already exists) to preserve the SU settings.

Thanks in advance!

Any advice on how far in the background from your object to position a sky billboard (I tried to export one into KT set back about 250 feet and it didn't work)? I'm wondering about using sky billboards to reflect the sky in windows.

Thanks for helping!

Maybe somehow I'm not using the watermark correctly. I can import a sky jpeg, but I can't position the image where I want it (you have to click to move the image to various predetermined locations). Also, if I recall, i couldn't size it as big as I wanted to.

A jpeg like this should reflect in windows in a rendering program, shouldn't it?

Thanks!

Does anyone have any experieince with using a large vertical plane in the background as a billboard for a sky jpeg? I tried watermark, but it didn't work well for me. I tried a curved plane with the arc tool, but the sky showed up painted on the sections of the curve. Does anyone have experience with this?

Great--thanks!

Any advice on making a curb? It's basically just an extruded rectangle, but the top edge is rounded--how to do that?

I've seen all those. What I'm looking for is how exactly they are to be used in Sketchup (or Kerkythea), and a step-by-step guide. Don't forget, there are people out here sincerely trying to learn these programs who are entirely new to these programs!

If you place your background images on various rectangles, won't the boundings lines show?

Could someone explain alpha maps for me and how they can be used in Sketchup (step-by-step tutorial?).

Thanks!

That did it--thanks! Apparently, Sketchup had installed itself to open jpegs, so I changed the settings and it's back to normal!

Thanks for helping on this! No, I haven't saved the jpegs in SU at all. For example, a friend e-mailed me a jpeg of a drawing he did--when I tried open it by double-clicking on the paperclip in OE, the message appeared. If I download a jpeg from a webite, the same. before I installed Sketchup, all I had to do to open these kinds of files was to double-click on them. I'm trying to get that feature back!

I will try your "associate" idea--thanks!