Just found the SoapSkinBubbleTool and it's a little different to stop toolbar opening every time.

In the plugins folder there's a folder called SoapSkinBubble, and in there is a file called SoapSkinBubbleMenu.rb. Edit that file and find the line:

sbToolbar.show

and change that to:

## start troypiggo edit
#	sbToolbar.show
state = sbToolbar.get_last_state                                                 
if (state == TB_VISIBLE)
  sbToolbar.restore
end
## end troypiggo edit

I've found this annoying with other apps as well, like Word and Excel/Office. Since this thread, I've been searching around, and looks like if you go to System Prefs->General, untick the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" stops it from happening globally I think.

@notareal said:

Have you read trough http://www.kerkythea.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10866
Also you will need to have X-11 installed.

Thanks mate. Did the manual extraction and works fine. Seems it's the installer, not the app itself that's the problem.

I'm very new to all of this, but thought I'd have a play with some rendering with a free renderer. I see Kerkythea seems popular in a poll I cam across here, so downloaded it. Install fails, though. Anyone else had this issue?

Is there another or better free renderer solution? Doesn't necessarily have to be integrated with SU. I don't mind going between apps. And prefer not to use a trial version that's free.

How about Blender?

@driven said:

Hi

you can disable the 'Resume' feature for SketchUp from Ruby Console using

`defaults write com.google.sketchuppro8 NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false`

replace text if it's not pro8. [i.e. com.google.sketchup7]
you need to restart SU twice before it works.

to turn the feature back on use

`defaults write com.google.sketchuppro8 NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false`

same conditions apply.

john

Should the first one of those be "true" instead of false?

Thanks for the tip.

PS - lol at your signature and mine above each other.

Aah, no I didn't. Thanks for that. Been driving me nuts and the solution sounds so simple.

How do you stop section planes from showing up in LO views? I've turned them off in the SU scene, updated the scene, saved the SU model, and updated in LO, but the section planes still show up. What am I missing?

Excellent. Thanks for the tips. Will look into watermarking.

Any tricks on creating a vignetted view? I saw a style in SU that does it, but when I use that in the view's style, I couldn't figure out a way to have it completely faded by the time it got to the edges of the view window, so it cut off suddenly.

I found it here:

http://mac.oldapps.com/safari.php?old_safari=813

Thanks guys. Will have a play with each suggestion and see how I go. Much appreciated.

Hi there. Couple of newbie questions. I'm starting to find my feet around SU, but couple of things that I assume are pretty common, I'm finding quite tedious and I'm sure there must be a quicker/better way of doing it.

1. Say I'm modelling a structural steel beam, and it has cleats coming off the side of it. I have been making the beam itself a component, the cleats also a component, then highlighting both so they both become one big component (nested?). If I want to stretch the beam, I was using "scale", but that wasn't giving the results I wanted. The cleat thickness was increasing too because of the scale. Then I realised I could use "move" and just highlight the end of the beam profile and the beam would stretch but not affect the cleat position, if that's what I was after.

Now say I do want to stretch the beam and want the cleat to move with it, ie keep the position of the end of the beam and cleat relative to each other the same. Now I assume I need to select the end of the beam profile and the cleat as well and use move. But I can't select the end of the beam and the cleat at same time as they're different components. I can select one or the other, but not both same time, even using the shift key. If I explode the components, all good.

Am I missing something?

2. Say I have 2 intersecting members, and I want to stop and start one of them each side of the other one, so one continues through. They're not simple rectangles, they're "I" beams or something. I could use "intersect faces", but I think the result would be a bit of a mess. I'd like the beam that needs the cut out of it to have square cuts, not profiled around the other "I" beam shape. One way, I think, would be to draw a rectangle and use it to intersect and cut the beam. But is there a better way, tool, plugin?

Sorry the above is wordy. Hope it makes sense.

@unknownuser said:

here's one such post:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=147126#p147126

there are more scattered about in various thread with me asking the authors to make the required changes

it's something to do with toolbar.show and or toolbar.restore

Thanks mate. That was a point in the right direction. I opened up the Hatchfaces.rb file and found the line with "toolbar.show" in it. I commented that out, restarted SU and it never shows on startup, which probably suits me considering how often I'll use it. If I close SU with the HF toolbar still open, it won't be there next time I start up.

Just for kicks, I substituted the line:

toolbar.show

with:

## start troypiggo edit
#toolbar.show
state = toolbar.get_last_state                                                  
if (state == TB_VISIBLE)
  toolbar.restore
end
## end troypiggo edit

and now it does indeed remember the state of the toolbar when SU was quit. Thanks again for the pointer.

Profile Builder does appear to be a scrambled ruby script, so I'll need to contact the author. I bought the pro version, so hoping it's supported

Thanks guys. Yes, I'm on a Mac. I might contact Whaat via PM (if OK) and let him know. Will also do a bit of a search on the fix. I assume it means manually editing the ruby code. That's cool. I've been doing a bit of reading about that and was going to have a go at some scripting myself.

@bmike said:

Overview of my process:

...

I often have multiple models referenced. The main structure / house / etc. Then I save that model and pull apart details, modeling only what I need to show. Reference these back into LO as needed.

-Mike

Thanks mate. That video explains it very well, even for a noob like me.

BTW I've seen some of your work in other sections of the forum here. Beautiful. Your drawings are works of art - balancing the technical and presentation is gorgeous.

Hi there. I've been building up a library of very cool plugins. A couple of them seem to open little toolbars at startup. eg Profile Builder (what an awesome plugin) and Hatchface. Is there a way to stop this from happening?

I see. Thanks for your thoughts. I've got some ideas after watching some videos on poches and door representations in plans vs sections and elevations. Think I'll give it a go in SU as you suggest. Not modelling every bar, but enough that show up in sections and details. Thanks again, mate.

Thanks mate. I meant to mention in my first post - what about things like reinforcement in concrete sections. I was thinking you'd model the concrete outline of, say, a strip footing. But on sectional details you'd actually draw the reinforcement in LO? You wouldn't model every reinforcing bar in the SU model, would you?

I'm new to SU and LO. Absolutely loving them both and realising their potential. I am a structural engineer, so don't have a lot of drafting training. I have done a lot of hand drawings, and know my way around AutoCAD a little. I'm interested in the "best practice" for producing a 3D model in SU and presenting it on construction drawings using LO.

Am I correct in assuming that most of you: do all of the modelling in SU; create some views with relevant styles for sections, elevations, details etc; the in LO you use those views and do all dimensioning, notes, show section marks there? ie no dimensioning or text really needs to be done in SU?

I'm particularly interested in dimensioning. If something gets stretched or moved in the SU model after a LO view and dimensions have been drawn, I think they're not associated? ie you can't stretch the model and the dimensions automatically get updated too?

What do you do in SU and what do you do in LO?