@xiombarg said:
As far as Thea goes, I guess I don't really know what is considered to be fast when dealing with renderings for Sketchup, but with the low polygon counts that are typical in my Sketchup models, a rendering in any typical animation program might take a minute or two at most for a good biased rendering.
You could try Thea Presto GPU engine when it will be available publicly.
Thea is now even faster! 
The new Thea Presto GPU based engine has just been announced.
Thea Presto - Rolex Watch Animation - YouTube
[flash=640,360:qs2lrng6]http://www.youtube.com/v/MOQFlTAYU9o[/flash:qs2lrng6]
Thea Presto - Diamond Ring Animation (2) - YouTube
[flash=640,360:qs2lrng6]http://www.youtube.com/v/KsOuIxh4CwA[/flash:qs2lrng6]
Thea licensed users will be able to test it next week.
The most impressive is the way they access pointcloud data from USB or a HDD in realtime.
The newest presentation of Geoverse !
Euclideon Geoverse 2013 - YouTube
[flash=640,480:1mkmbwvy]http://www.youtube.com/v/Irf-HJ4fBls[/flash:1mkmbwvy]
Impressive!
Well done Bruce & Euclideon!
I wonder how much their SDK is
@frederik said:
I assume they've tied him to a chair...
Give him at least something to drink!
@unknownuser said:
buy a mac.. then you can figure out why we tend to have more issues with our plugins.
I just recently realized when working on SKM library, that SU material editor on Mac is horrendous! There is no way to use same folder structure as on Windows, deleting only single materials allowed, no immediate display of a name of a selected material. I could add at least 3 more drawbacks!
I was astonished when I have discovered it! 
I couldn't believe that all Mac users had to fight with it for years! 
My sincere condolences.
SU Team:
Mat editor on Mac doesn't show a preview stored inside SKM file. What is the point in storing it, when you do not use it (on Mac)? EDIT: I know it speeds up materials preview under Windows, but i guess OSX is so fast, that you decided it is not needed on Mac, right?!
@frederik said:
Have to say that the lack of TSU Team members here at the SCF at the moment makes me feel suspicious...
I acknowledge that there can be several reasons causing their lack of interest...
Well deserved holidays? 
@tommy point said:
- Materials: Some faces of the model show materials while others do not.
You have to paint front side of a face. You can distinguish front from back-side in monochrome display mode in SU. There is FronFace plugin written by me, which can help you reverse those faces.
@tommy point said:
- Transparency: The glass in the windows is reading pretty much as opaque.
This is very basic thing. You have to edit the material. It can be done in two ways, by editing it in Thea Matlab or by applying SKM material from recently released SU library of Thea materials.
@tommy point said:
- Background: I haven't even begun to play around with background/context options yet, but I'd like to add some landscaping/trees, horizon, etc. Where is the best place to start for a basic backdrop and some entourage?
I am sure, you can find very nice backdrop images in Component, Materials & Styles section.
@tommy point said:
- Tutorials: Does anyone know of any other good "getting started" type videos for the Thea plug-in?
There are not that many user made video tutorials out there. I invite you to register in Thea Forum and check our tutorials section. The Thea users community is extremely helpful, similar to what you can experience here.
@tomot said:
Which raises the question where is the Gold? ...is paper backed by nothing, nothing more than the ultimate Ponzi scheme?....do you care?.
Why the whole banking system is a scam - Godfrey Bloom - YouTube
A speech in European Parliament summarizes the whole scheme very well.
[flash=640,360:15k7rkup]http://www.youtube.com/v/hYzX3YZoMrs[/flash:15k7rkup]
@ppoublan said:
Does someone could confirm SU 2013 has or not better features to build user input data interfaces ? Or should I go any way with Applets and html code ?
No improvements whatsoever.
You can try a library Aerilius-onscreen-gui. That is what He has doneto improve things.
Hi Pilou,
Something from France for you. Designed by Nikola Tesla, initially replicated by Tariel Kapanadze and now by Fabrice Andre.
Kapanadze Generator 2KW ENG SUB - YouTube
[flash=640,515:3m79d4h2]http://www.youtube.com/v/B6hVasVR7AI[/flash:3m79d4h2]
I like his comments around 4:35 very much
@olishea said:
Cheers Mike, I want to use it as a savings account more than anything, but would be nice to be able to withdraw actual money from time to time.
@unknownuser said:
The price of a bitcoin can unpredictably increase or decrease over a short period of time due to its young economy, novel nature, and sometimes illiquid markets. Consequently, keeping your savings in bitcoin is not recommended. Bitcoin should be considered as a high risk asset, and you should never store money that you cannot afford to lose with Bitcoin. If you receive payments with Bitcoin, many service providers allow you to convert them instantly to your local currency.
I am working on it as we speak. It is a highest priority for me to fix it.
Please hold off with the full switch to SU2013.
This shouldn't stop you from testing the new version, but at the moment Thea is not correctly reading materials inside SU2013 for Mac.
I hope the fix will be ready in few days.
@sepo said:
Any Idea how to go about plugins such as rendering soft such as vray, lightup, podium, twilight, thea. Do you need to reinstall them or just move folders?
In case of Thea you can copy/move folder. Please make sure you have revision higher or equal to 071 installed. Mac version is not fully functional in SU2013 yet. We are working on it. Windows version is fully functional and SU2013 is on the list in the installer.
@chris fullmer said:
Generally, we did not do things that would break plugins moving from SU 8 to SU 2013. But there are always exceptions and unintended consequences..
Right. A change inside SU on Mac...
@alan fraser said:
As for the complaint by Tomasz that the Extension Warehouse doesn't work in V8
It was not a complaint! I have just stated the fact in favor of SCF plugin shop. 
@alan fraser said:
@tomasz said:
My impression is that SU2013 have been released earlier then expected, because the new feature of "extension warehouse" have had to start competing with SCF "Plugin store" as soon as possible.
There is no 'competition' the extension warehouse is built right into the program. Sketchucation always has been a great resource and community, but the plain fact remains that most SU users are unaware of its existence...or if they are, they don't visit.
Right. The "extension warehouse" will reach much broader audience... but it doesn't work in SU8 ((free) for commercial use)
Now when I think about it, there can be more reasons for this: financial, summer holidays coming in the northern hemisphere... I know well that a middle of a summer is not the best time for a release.
@juanv.soler said:
but , a question raises to my mind ,
should not we better pay the Masters for their work than to pay to Trimble ?
I have raised a question some time ago, but there was no feedback.
The question was: is the community mature enough to start a "kicksrater" for a new architectural modeling/drafting software? How much would it cost to get an initial version?
I imagine my own architectural software for a long time, but I am not capable yet of producing such a tool.
I worked with Archicad, but it is an old software with bad habits. Revit appears to be complex and not user friendly. I know there is Microstation, AllPlan, but I don't know much about them.
There was Octree architectural modeler with several interesting ideas, but it didn't get out from beta. It is dead since ca. 2000 .
My impression is that SU2013 have been released earlier then expected, because the new feature of "extension warehouse" have had to start competing with SCF "Plugin store" as soon as possible.
From the developer point of view, new SDK looks promising, but we will have to wait till it is usable within SketchUp itself.
