@dave r said:

That's very strange. I will frequently have three or four instances of SketchUp open at once. I'm running XP Pro but I would think Windows7 should be able to handle that, too. Have you looked at the computer's performance graph in the Task Manager (I assume that's still available in Windows 7) when you are running SketchUp and open the second session?

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, and I've never had a problem running multiple instances of SketchUp (7 or 8).

And yes, Win7 still has the Task Manager, and it still allows you to get at it the easy way (Ctrl/Shift/Esc).

Have you tried Revo Uninstaller? I have found it to be very useful in removing the troublesome crap (like registry entries) that many apps leave behind (and there is a freeware version, which I linked to).

@solo said:

Terry, the key to your enquiry is 'landscapes'.

I have used almost every render engine out there and they all can do the job of rendering, however with landscapes I'm afraid unless you want to use 2D representation for a 3D space then Sketchup is NOT the tool.

Actually, I tend to default to Bryce when I want to render a landscape (or model one). It's pretty much designed for it.

Sometimes, though, I just want to render a part of the landscape (a house, for instance). This is why I'm asking about rendering applications. Bryce can do the job, but it doesn't play very well with SU.

@ Ecuadorian: Thanks. That's exactly the sort of answer I was hoping for.

@gaieus said:

I am working on a building with lots of different vaults (several types and sizes and there is only one of them that is really square). It's a building complex that have been developing for the last 3 centuries.

Can I ask where that is? (I ask because I'm an archaeologist and that complex looks interesting.)

The first image shows how the orange 'Solar North' button toggles an orange line that points to true north. This is the default startup, in which the green axis aligns to north. The second image shows how the orange lines retains its northward bearing after the orientation of the axes has been changed.

Thanks for all the advice, folks. I fully intend to keep an unmodified copy of my original model for future use (this is the one I will use for all design purposes. In a former life I was a carpenter - I'm well aware of the gap between plan and reality). I'm not looking to reproduce the realities of an old structure, just to simulate them. My primary reason for this is that anything I build will be square, level and plumb. When I show ideas to my wife, I want her to see what it looks like when new construction meets old (also, I just want to be able to tweak a copy of the model for the look of the thing).

Thanks,

• Terry

@rabbit said:

view / toolbars / solar north

It's in the free version as well.

I'm wondering whether a plugin exists. Ordinarily, I'd spend a bunch of time searching for it, but I have no idea what it would be called. Let me see if I can explain it clearly:

We recently bought a house. Almost immediately, I set about modeling it with SketchUp (the method to my madness is a desire to "try out" any remodeling my wife might get into her head). I'm pretty happy with the model (so far - I haven't finished it yet) except for one thing: the house is old (more than a century). What this means is that none of the corners are square, none of the walls are plumb and none of the floors are level. Because of this, the SketchUp model looks odd and just not right. Actually building a model to allow for all the imperfections would be a nightmare. The preferable solution would be to tweak the lines and angles just a bit, to random degrees and in random directions (a 'reality button').

Does a plugin exist that can do such a thing?

Thanks.

• Terry

I know there is a plugin (probably more than one) that makes square corners rounded. Is there one that does the opposite? That will take a rounded corner (possibly even an irregular one) and make it square?

From the looks of things, this is the right place to ask about this. I've been a loyal fan of SketchUp for years now. By trade I'm a Map Dork, so most of the time I deal in landscapes, but whenever I need a model, SketchUp is always my first stop (in the overwhelming majority of cases, it's my last stop as well). It's just a damn good application.

What I'm curious about is rendering SketchUp models and/or scenes. Specifically, I'd like to know what you all prefer to use for your renders. I know this is often a question of personal preference, and those are the sorts of answers I'm looking for. What do you use for renders? What sorts of constructs do you render with it? Why is this your particular preference?

At the end of the day, I'll probably give a few a try (at least from among the free/low cost category - I'm an enthusiast, not a pro here), but I was hoping you folks could help me narrow the field a bit.

Thanks,

• Terry

@danray35 said:

The only graph I could come up with was grid you can create with work plane except it doesn't actually get very accurate below one foot squares apparently, and I need something on the order of 1/2 inch.

does anyone have any ideas in this area on how to get a graph or grid that will work accurately?

Umm.....

You realize that this is all virtual, right? Therefore, you can scale your ship to anything you want. Just do the math.

• Terry

@thomthom said:

Since Progressbar isn't release yet, the list would be: none

That pretty much sums up all progress bars. I just can't bring myself to believe them.

Wouldn't you only need to have a file that each computer can access? If so, Dropbox should do the trick (watch the video). As an added bonus, Dropbox is cross-platform.

While I can see the lure of cloud computing, I don't think I'll ever convert to it myself. My reason for this is fairly simple: Severe thunderstorms.

@andrews said:

Doug,

As of SketchUp 8.0, we only support Intel CPUs on Mac. That means, no more PowerPC architecture (G3, G4, G5 CPUs) for any of the SketchUp software (SketchUp, Style Builder, LayOut, SketchUp Viewer).

Ending support for various CPU architecture, OS platforms and older graphics cards is always a bummer for someone, but it's a simple necessity of ongoing software development. Due to Apple abandoning their support for PowerPC (they did it before we did, actually), and the number of PPC users remaining in the world shrinking considerably every day, we ultimately determined that our engineering resources would be best spent pressing ahead with new technology instead of spreading our people thin to keep the PPC platform in-tact.

The decision to drop support PPC is similar in spirit to the decisions to disallow Windows 2000 in v7, to require at least SP2 for Windows XP in v7.1, and also recently changing the minimum MacOS version to 10.5. You see, at some point, the amount of extra work required to keep old platforms running, and the number of new and improved features that developers miss out on using by maintaining backward compatibility become too much to bear and we have to raise the bar.

As for the SU Viewer release schedule, ever since Google acquired SketchUp and started making the basic version free for anyone to download, the SU Viewer (which is only available in English now also) has become nearly obsolete. We know there are a few hangers-on who would argue against that, but the fact is that when push comes to shove and we don't have enough development or testing resources to go around, the SU Viewer will always get the short end of the stick. That's why it wasn't released at the same time as SketchUp 8.0 back in September.

Andrew

Good thing there are only two operating systems in the universe.

Maybe qwerky is trying to produce something that looks more like this (a 'folded surface'):

@lapx said:

(acad stands for autocad for those not familiar its the most used cad program on the planet I think).

You should probably rethink that. AutoCAD (now a part of the Autodesk package for those of us who actually live on this planet) does not enjoy anywhere near the popularity it used to. This is due mainly to the fact that it is dense and entails a learning curve that is rather more steep than is necessary. Programs like SketchUp have eclipsed Autodesk, and not for the reason you think. It's not a question of money - Autodesk's thousands of dollars v. SketchUp's no cost - but rather it's due to a general ease of use and abundance of features. Autodesk is dense and esoteric - SketchUp is open and intuitive.

Most importantly, SketchUp has the sort of support that Autodesk will never realize. This forum is a perfect example. Try to find something commensurate for Autodesk.

• Terry

A few other thoughts....

Does the building have a handy balcony or roof access? Either would be quite useful.

Have you checked Panoramio to see if anyone's already done your work for you?

• Terry

I assume you're referring to the skyline as seen through windows. In this case, couldn't you just take photos of the windows from within the space, then clip the images and use the clipped results as materials for the windows? Or do the windows not exist?

Or am I missing something?

Wow. My computer had to go smoke a cigarette and take a nap after doing only one Susan.