Beautiful, totally unafraid of colour, no hesitation and recognisable landscapes - and oils outside (especially on the hill) must be a logistical nightmare, no?

This looks like it could really save me some time, but this is a worry:

@unknownuser said:

Unfortunately, we do authorize the software

I live/work in a remote location with local satellite access (which is not 100% reliable) I never purchase software that needs to handshake on startup or requires a livelink. So...is BuildEdge still like this?

With really large models I use proxy or simple objects for working; I also use an intermediary 3D working layer when editing complex components: so I enter the object with only the proxy showing, with my intermediary 3D working layer active, say for a 3D tree, and when I'm finished I put the tree into a switched-off layer which has 'complex' or '3D' in it's name (to remind me not to inadvertently switch it on).

This way I can have a huge file, but I'm never moving the view when it's complex (which is one thing that SU spits the dummy at)- only exporting a view/image/models etc.

Also have you tried thomthom's CleanUp (on a copy of your file)?

Also what about saving your components as a set (Components browser > far right icon > save as a local collection) and then bring them in when you need them? This way you might also be able to bring them in turned off (I don't know this, but it works with other CAD's).

I also use two scenes; one for working, the second for exporting; for instance my trees are simple 2D circles (1 face and 25 edges) and one that's full 3D.

Try TIG's Import All From Folderhttp://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=331966#p331966 - I haven't used it but it sure looks promising - as usual work off copies and read the instructions.

Drop Vertices by TIG http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=346754#p346754 is your friend, I use it daily.

Also do you want terrain to slope down or drop suddenly like a wall?

OK So I did a full uninstall and reinstall. Other job files export to dwg fine, the only difference with this file is many of the components are scaled.

[note to self for future ref] So don't scale components again that I intend to export.

Thanks Box, @ least you got something out, but it exploded all the components down to lines (which Acad year did your export as?), and yes ArCAD SU is somewhat indifferent when it comes to dwg export, it's just that it's never failed completely for me till now. Well can't sleep so I'll have another go...

I'm been trying for some time to export a dxf or dwg from a drawing (enclosed), I've stripped the drawing down to almost nothing, flattened it, descaled all the symbols but every time it crashes, I've also tried for diff Acad versions, even R12 fails, although R12 also messes up symbol names even if it does work! Ideally I want Acad dwg 2000 or 2007 - could one of you have a go at it?zipped version 8 windows, unzips to 9Mb

It'd be a very useful filter on posts if there the post would automatically append (or prepend) the user's version number - often I look at posts and find it's 13 or 14, and as being on 8 I know nothing of how 14 works so can't help.

Thanks very much TIG - I'll go off and test it on some components with diff. scaling and see what comes up.

These are for plants as my numbers are climbing into the 1000's (and soon into the 10,000s) so I export to Excel/Vectorworks for counting etc.

Hi TIG, When I ran Descaler it successfully descaled all components but gave all my components unique names. Components are all either circles or simple 2D blob shapes, lying flat. Is this a bug? Or is there a way 'round it?

Thanks very much Dan, That was it - I use a shortcut tool called Clavier and I'd set Alt P to do something specific, and I now see that with Clavier I can set limits on the extent of that system change.

Results from - puts Sketchup.get_shortcuts.sort [strange there's only one alt instance - my other alt shortcuts work - I reinstalled last week to see if I could get functionality back and still no change]
A Draw/Arc
Alt+Backspace Edit/Undo
B Tools/Paint Bucket
C Draw/Circle
Ctrl+A Edit/Select All
Ctrl+C Edit/Copy
Ctrl+Insert Edit/Copy
Ctrl+N File/New
Ctrl+O File/Open...
Ctrl+P File/Print...
Ctrl+S File/Save
Ctrl+Shift+E Camera/Zoom Extents
Ctrl+Shift+W Camera/Zoom Window
Ctrl+T Edit/Select None
Ctrl+V Edit/Paste
Ctrl+X Edit/Cut
Ctrl+Y Edit/Redo
Ctrl+Z Edit/Undo
Delete Edit/Delete
E Tools/Eraser
F Tools/Offset
G Edit/Make Component...
H Camera/Pan
I Camera/Image Igloo
K View/Edge Style/Back Edges
L Draw/Line
M Tools/Move
O Camera/Orbit
P Tools/Push/Pull
PageDown View/Animation/Next Scene
PageUp View/Animation/Previous Scene
Q Tools/Rotate
R Draw/Rectangle
S Edit/Item/FredoScale/Box Scaling
Shift+Delete Edit/Cut
Shift+F1 SketchUp/Context Help
Shift+Insert Edit/Paste
Shift+T Camera/Standard Views /Top
Shift+Z Camera/Zoom Extents
Space Tools/Select
T Tools/Tape Measure
Z Camera/Zoom
nil

Is there a way to have a scrollable view of the icons in the component browser?

I have a lot of different coloured circles representing plants and
Big or Small icons with no names is not so helpful, but if I switch to Details then the browser cannot get focus from the mouse and List is not so great not being graphical

Hi Dan, when I put that string into console I get this returned -

nil
nil

I get the same return if I enter swap in F for file

Hi, I've lost the ability to do alt pto get the plugins dropdown (all other menu dropdowns are working fine) - has anyone else had this and how did you solve it?

Thanks Paul - these are still very useful.

I'veused VW since 2005 (currently on v2012). Due to it's odd way of handling 3D I've only used it in plan view (except for cut & fill ops) - compared with Acad it's a step backwards, whereas SU is yards ahead of both in 3D. In a nutshell VW is like having a dog and barking yourself.

I do everything in 3D in SU and then export to VW for say plant counting or area calcs as VW has a good internal spreadsheet (but it's NOT excel and VERY poorly documented). VW does NOT work with Excel despite what you may be told about ODBC linking. I also send images out of SU for layup in VW. I've found SU LO to be too slow but it's probably my machine.

I also show my clients live 3D models and plans over the web from SU - I've tried screencasting VW but client screen output is black(screenleap works but not join.me). ASFAIK VW was written (in Pascal) for macs, and appearsto have been ported to Windows - it is also absolutely dependent on the version of Quicktime current @ time of release (this is not well-documented and can cause genuine stress). BEWARE of auto Quicktime updates.

My work is landscape architecture and planning (from courtyards to coalmines - mine reinstatement surfaces), so I work at both very small, and very large scales - VW in my experience doesn't perform very well when a site gets very large (>3km across) or very complex.

When I have more money I'll switch to Rhino3D plus a few of it's plugins - which will still make it only 1/2 the price of VW. Also Grasshopper is going to push my planting plans to new levels.

Some things:
can be very hard to achieve small email-size pdfs, due to inefficient data handling, and putting bitmap info outside the viewport into the file - the only solution is to tile and class each tile separately! That said I've just finished a complex planting joband seven sheets come to 6Mb and the client can zoom right in to small groups of plants, which I'm happy with.

VW has plugins but they are scarce with poor backward/forward compatibility). There are some great plugin writers. But the support https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm site is looking tired and visits seem to be falling off.

There are occasional scaling issues where metric/inch conversion seems to be going on seem to be the core problem -

The layer class idea is good in concept; but poorly implemented - Rhino has sub-layers, whereas VWs layers and classes are separate. Each layer can have it's own scale too and when you make a layer it can default to anything - be aware (lack of validation is almost a theme with VW)

Depending on your field there can be very few people using it seriously. In a word I'm still ambivalent - with landscape architecture and software you often have to take what comes.

It should definitely be let out of the cage Rich - I currently use Excel, but with the ideas that float around here who knows where this could go...

From a landscape perspective and in design seen by the public I feel that with some projects if you take them on you can find yourself treading a very fine line between greenwash or propaganda and genuine progressive design (e.g. real sustainability).

One of my only no-go areas would be tobacco companies. Other than that it would be a matter of not wanting to align my company/self with certain individuals, as (aside from the grubby feeling) you risk being tarred with the same brush