Thank you Gaieus! That is exactly what I need.

@chris fullmer said:

We'll have to wait and see what 8.0 brings. Hopefully more greatness. I'm personally hoping for even more Ruby improvements for the ruby developers and more UI improvements. And greater ability to deal with large models would be cool too.

Ditto!
Developing SketchUp as a platform is something the users will benefit much greater of in the long run. That and sort out current bugs and UI annoyances. (Yes, I'm looking at you Toolbar Chaos and Shadow Bug)

@davidboulder said:

I haven't read all of the posts, so maybe someone has suggested this. Have you tried (on a copy of the file) make texture unique, and then purge the model. This will make things a lot smaller. However, I think this would have to be one texture at a time, but I suppose you could write a script for that.

tried it (and tons of other things 😄) ... doesn't work

valkama, i'm still puzzled but glad you found a work around.. if i import via the method you described, i can still do 3ds exports no problem

Forgot the link to Chris' plugin: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=18963

Hey, nice one! Where can you download it? I REALLY want it!!! GREAT WORK!!!!

I'm hanging back a few weeks I think before installing Snow Leopard. Give Apple chance to come up with a few fixes.

Thanks everyone for the comments... I definitely agree that there is too much foreground and that the bushes are too skewed in front. Its funny how you notice those things after you come back to it the next day...

Thanks again..

Chris. Using the watermark feature is great. Worked perfect!

Thanks

Jason