@gaieus said:
QT indeed has a plugin to play WMV files. Now I am not sure that QT Pro would also convert them to MOV but I can imagine.
Good point! 
Can someone point me towards a WMV file? I'll give it a go. (I think these can be read by Mac, although I've never used them here).
@driven said:
It is possible to make a SU Quicktime plugin, if anyones keen
With or without Quicktime Pro, my Macintosh will output Quicktime movies, without a plugin (and I believe Windows will also export an AVI file). However, the quality is nowhere as good as what you see on the screen. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get SU to export at the highest resolution?
Folks, if you can torrent it or whatever, the latest BBC Horizon science programme is about dogs and their relationships with humans. It was an excellent documentary, just don't let your daughters see it, because they will forever pester you to get hold of a domesticated silver fox!! 
How research into dogs is giving scientists a greater understanding of human behaviour.
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)
@unknownuser said:
Handbrake should do it but I'm not 100%. It's free and has lots of knobs and whistles. And the current version supports 64bit OS
not sure about Mac version
FWIW, the Mac version of Handbrake works fine!
I just got Quicktime Pro 7 for this Mac, and now it seems I can export even higher resolution from SU than I could before, but it still doesn't look quite as good as when I'm modelling.
MOV files are native to Quicktime, so I would suggest the best thing would be, buy Quicktime Pro (Windows and Mac) for £20.
Anyone out there on a Mac, using Quicktime Pro 7 while rendering scenes within SketchUp?
At present SU's rendered output no way reflects how good it looks on screen (it's pretty grainy and fuzzy, even at the highest resolution output possible). Does any have any experience with a hike in quality, after upgrading to Quicktime 7 Pro?
It's a long shot, because I know most of you guys out there are Windows users.
regards,
Tom
Lee, I can recommend Cadsoftsolutions in Cambridge, as a good UK-based SketchUp reseller. You need to talk with Nick, who will also provide you with support, although I would also recommend Aidan Chopra's brilliant SU for Dummies book and YouTube tutorials too.
http://www.cadsoftsolutions.co.uk/
best,
Tom Fenn
@chris fullmer said:
@all the storyline haters
Here's another, more scathing and to the point review, by Bill Frezza;
@unknownuser said:
“I didn't see him in the credits but Al Gore, earth's first carbonless billionaire, must have been a script consultant. The arch villains are stick figure caricatures of greedy, baby-killing corporate capitalists. Unrepentant conquerors of nature, these amoral Halliburton proxies think nothing of shipping an army of mercenaries across interstellar space to plunder and pillage for profits. Do you think Cameron might still be suffering from a touch of Bush derangement syndrome?
“The heroes are pre-technological tribal environmentalists. They don't just hug trees, they worship them. Living loin-cloth lives in harmony with nature, they are content to follow the mystical ways of their shaman, whose beautiful daughter of course falls in love with a crippled marine seeking redemption. Money and technology mean as little to the natives as written language, leaving aside what Ralph Nader might have to say about their dangerous pterodactyl piloting. Try as they might the ugly Americans can't find anything to offer these noble savages in exchange for the valuable mineral deposits they're sitting on, not even universal health care. Despite technical marvels half a century ahead of ours, mining technology has somehow degenerated back to the open pit horrors of the past. The wise and selfless scientists who have fallen in love with the natives are powerless to stop the inevitable conflict. Cut loose the dogs of war - cue tanks, bulldozers, and bombs!”
If you haven't seen Avatar, the 3D special effects extravaganza of the season, treat yourself to some fun. Never before have live actors and computer animation been so deftly interwoven. Try to catch...
(www.realclearmarkets.com)
I don't think there is anything wrong with 'capitalism' as a whole, it's just our current capitalist model which is all wrong ("cowardly capitalism"?!).
I get by, reading Spiked online, which is great for old Marxists like myself. My wife has recently read "Das Capital" by Karl Marx. She said, although very complex, it was a brilliant read. When I've got some time (!), I too will have to pick this book up and read it.
Is the plugin in your Mac or Home/User library?
Sandeman, have you at any point installed Podium for Mac in the past?
I read this too;
Looks like there's gonna be a head to head fight (Apple's 'tablet' could be announced next month according to umpteen sources ). This is going to be an interesting year to come!
I have to confess that I haven't seen Avatar yet, as it tends to be the type of film I avoid. 
I know I shouldn't really say it, but I'm far more of a Wallace and Grommet, 'stop-frame' type of guy. The first 3D film I saw (of the new 3D generation), was "Coraline", by Henry Selick, which I thought was awesome. Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr Fox" is also awesome!! Anyone seen these?
Here's the stop-frame master, IMHO, Jan Svankmajer, at work;
and if you liked that....
and
Happy new year!
@sepo said:
@tfdesign said:
Hi Sepo.
Do you mind rewriting the installer for Mac (just before Podium comes out of beta), so it doesn't bugger up our OSX plugin directories?
Cheers & happy xmas!
Tom Fenn
There is no Beta for Mac...so I am not sure what you are talking about.
Well, there is a Podium 1 for mac, so I am only assuming that there will be a Podium 2 also for Mac, at some time too, in the not too distant future? 
Either way, the Podium 1 installer screws the ruby navigation path up for us Mac users. I am simply asking if you would be so kind as to pay it some attention- when for example, you have coded (if at all?) Podium 2 for Mac! 
Spaces is pretty powerful. There is a similar type of function in Ubuntu as well, but you can have different windows from different apps open and fly between open windows and apps- much more powerful than the dock system in windows (xp). You could for example, if you were managing websites, have an open space for each site, photoshop open in one, illustrator in another- keep everything neat and tidy. Shortcuts can also be added in each window, allowing files to be moved around very fast. Also ther are spring loaded windows- something I really miss in XP- no need for copy and paste (although that is there too).
@kxi system said:
Mac bites the wallet too hard anyways...
Here we go again. What a load of utter nonsense!
I use a Mac and I also use a PC, but I'll always turn the Mac on in preference to the PC, because the way workflow is managed, is far more efficient. I'm also flabbergasted by the amount of security updates Microsoft keep chucking at me (and then I have to wait for ages until I can turn the damn thing off, while it installs 1 of umpteen updates. 
FWIW, I've just finished a visualisation for a client, which was done entirely with QCad, SketchUp, Keynote and iMovie. All in all the software has been mainly free (apart from QCad, which cost me £13 and Keynote, which came as a bundle as "iWork", which was about £25 or something like that). The bundled iLife apps are incredible- for what they offer.
I'm really looking forward to purchasing the Twilight renderer- which is probably the only disadvantage I can see, and one that used to be the other way round, waiting for the developers to port from Windows to Mac.
regards,
Tom
Hi Karina.
If you can get hold of a Mac (or hackintosh), there is Sketchers Studio, which has been specifically designed with SU in mind. There is also SU Animate too- which works with Windows.
I too tried Blender, but I found it even more complex than Pro/Engineer!!!
Jeff, try the inhalator. (No more brown fingers!)
http://www.nicorette.co.uk/inhalator/
The inhalator worked great for me. Many people say that you really need will power, which is true, and you need a bit of that with the inhalator (!), but the inhalator really does help. I gave up while writing my degree dissertation. 
(and I still got a 2:1 with honours!)
The patches and the gum though, were crap 
Hi Sepo.
Do you mind rewriting the installer for Mac (just before Podium comes out of beta), so it doesn't bugger up our OSX plugin directories?
Cheers & happy xmas!
Tom Fenn
I did a bit of FEA in my engineering degree, using ANSYS- but it was mighty complex. I think you are taking on a huge project here!
There is decent FEA software around, and perhaps it would be better to develop a plugin that would communicate between SU and FEA, rather than trying to do stuff from scratch? I was for a start, really impressed with an application called GMSH, but it may be too complex for architects- more for engineers, but at least SU could be used as the CAD modeller for GMSH? Perhaps the physicists (you need these guys, more than mathematicians!) at GMSH could also help with basic physics problems.
For further reading, I'd recommend "Structural Timber Design" by Abdy Kermani, published by Blackwell Science Ltd (available from all RIBA bookshops ISBN: 0-632-05091-8). This book covers all the properties of timber, and their types, as well as the complex formulae needed to solve various problems- like how strong timber frame walls should be, to withstand wind pressures from various sides, and the calculations needed to have just the right amount of wood, to withstand those pressures, at the most value for money (sustainable technology), and the all the maths needed to work it all out. It's not a 'cheap' book, but it's all in there, and best of all, to British Standards (BS 5268: Pt2: 1996). There is also a bit of info in there, on the software called MathCAD.