I used to play quite a bit, and seeing these images makes me want to start again. Very nice work.

Thank you, Alan. That's what I was thinking, and after searching "virtual spec building" I found lots of examples and information. Thanks.
Wyatt

Has anyone ever heard of or worked on a "virtual building project?"

A client gave me this description: "Create buildings that are ready for development and marketed nationally. A suitable site is located and a site plan is prepared for the proposed building. The actual building is not constructed, but the plans for the shell industrial building are drawn and processed for entitlements and approvals with local governmental agencies. Once a company has been identified, the construction is rapidly commenced and the building is completed to the company's specifications."

It seems like a pretty straight-forward architecture/site planning project for a build-to-suit client, but I want to make sure there's not something I'm missing. I've never heard the term "virtual" applied this way. I'd appreciate any feedback from people who are familiar with the process.

Glad you got it to work. I use Civil for site planning work, yes. It's a beast. That's both good and bad. I'd be happy to talk to you about it more if you have specific questions.

Chris, can you send me the file? I can convert it to ACAD tomorrow morning.

Wait, you said it's a *.TIN file? I've never heard of that. I'm still willing to try to convert it for you, but they may have done something strange if they exported out of Microstation(?) first. Always something new to learn about Civil.

At work I use a Logitech TrackMan Wheel and I have a Space Navigator, but I'm not sure I'd equate the two. Are you wanting a new trackball only for SketchUp or for other programs too? I've never tried to use a 3D mouse for anything other than SU or Google Earth so I'm not sure if or how intuitively it will work in other programs. I could never get the hang of SketchUp with a the Navigator; maybe I don't use it properly. It seems that I couldn't do everything with the Nav that I could do with my trackball and it took my hand away from the keyboard so shortcuts became slower to use. The Navigator or one of 3dConnexion's higher-end products would probably be better for your carpal tunnel than a thumb-driven trackball though.

You're pretty new to SketchUp aren't you? By extruding the plan view vertically to a coplanar face you distort the geometry. Check the dimensions on the angled face you provided as an example. My rotation example maintains the same dimensions. Unless of course there is some information you've failed to provide to us about what you're trying to do or how this needs to work.

Is this a common scenario for you, or have you simplified it for an example? If it's a real situation with geometry being draped on a single coplaner face, why not group the flat CAD edges, move the group on the blue axis until it snaps with the sloped plane, and then rotate it to match that angle? If you have more complex scenarios where you're trying to apply edges to a more complex surface, use the Drape Tool in Sandbox, or TIG's SuperDrape.

Juan, do you have a CAD program? It might be easier to set the elevations in CAD, export back to SU, and use the Sandbox tools. Unless of course, you actually want the stepped geometry.

TIG, would it be possible for a script to run based on the order of the selection. For example, the script would start by asking for a contour interval, n. Then the user would select the lines, and the script would apply n1, n2, etc. based on the order that the lines were selected. There would be a problem if multiple lines needed the same elevation so the user may need to run the script more than once for a given set of contours.

As an alternative, is there a way to create a dialog box where the z could be user defined, similar to CAD? Ideally, this should be integrated into the entity info box by the Trimble SketchUp team.

This is great, Chris. Thanks for sharing. Missed you at Basecamp, but at least you were getting some good things done in the meantime.

@rich o brien said:

Nothing sinister here it has always been like this. Just the new icons highlight that there is some restriction in these.

I noticed that access wasn't restricted or anything like that, and didn't suspect anything shady was going on. Just curious about all the new shiny things is all. I haven't explored all the new things yet, but what I see, I like.

What is the significance of the Resources and Special Interest forums being locked?

Thanks, John.

That method works for Pro users who can import dwg. Free users would have to use one of the other methods. Thanks for the tutorial links.

John2, I used the freehand tool to create the general outline of the tree and the larger gaps on the interior. It appears that beginner spent a lot more time doing that, or used a different method; perhaps exporting from photoshop/illustrator as described by my friend, John Pacyga, http://sketchupland.posterous.com/tree-component-process and Alan Fraser: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6687&p=42648

John,
That's a great looking tree. Thank you. I hope you don't mind, but I modified the component so that the tree would cast an accurate shadow.

(www.sendspace.com)

To me, the new logo indicates a shift to the more engineering mindset of Trimble. There are a lot of trained architects on the SketchUp team and the original vision of SU was likely as an architectural visualization tool. The latest icons with the house seemed to reflect those roots (and the largest user base? - not sure about that one). As we all know, SketchUp is used for a lot more than building architecture. In that sense, the new logo may be more applicable to the wider SU audience. That being said, I had to really hunt for the new icon on my taskbar this morning.

Edit: I do really like the visually consistent icons for Layout and Style Builder.

Thanks, Kris. Just saw this post. These look like they might come in handy, esp for details.

I don't know why this works, but if you change all the green materials to 99% opacity, the shadows appear. I also replaced your materials with new ones and the shadows also appeared. There must be something wrong with the way those materials were created/edited, but I don't know what that might have been.