any thoughts on adding some type of joint strength? for example a table (legs attached with joints)when dropped from 10' for example, would cause the joints to break thus allowing the legs to go their seperate ways.

MuseumMaker, i would love to see some of your projects. do you have a website? or maybe you could post some.

try this http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-match-photos-when-modeling-in-google-sketchup-246918_2/

you could also try the followmeandkeep plugin instead of followme tool, it should work.

if you could look at this file, if you have time not too important. if you dB click inside one of the body parts (select all) then apply a spherical map to it, it crashes every time?
tank.skp

its funny how people seem to overlook crashes like this (myself included) in SK, but when a descent prog like Hexagon, (which incidentally a lot of people got for $1.99 or $39.99 depending how you look at it) that crashes a lot less than SK crashes, theres an outrage of screeming and flaming on there forums... hmmmm?

anyway only an observation about how we all love SK i guess.

i think at this point the plugins and the community are what makes SK what it is. just try and imagine using it without any plugins; ouch . BTW, thankyou every ruby master out there. that being said, there's really no way for anyone to ever replace that that.period, full stop

Google should be on there knee's to the people that really make SK what it is! IMHO

WOW ,the projects on your website are truly amazing. bow head

maybe a better direction for this would be to create a plug that creates 'real' gradient textures based on the height of geo in a scene. they could then be projected manually or auto matically based on a plane that is created with a similiar prcess to a section plane?

i DL the gamesmart objects how do i install them?

PS also seems Esperient won't import my SK7 models? is this the case?

Well they are gorgeous what did you render with in your first post?

have you tried driving dimensions plugin? this may help if i understand correctly. they're also going to implement dynamic dimension linking and equations so this could get you where you're going??

just to clarify its the viewer thats jerky.
grafics driver ver 7.15.11.8122 jan14/09

BTW i'm trying to [DOWNLOAD BONUS SMART OBJECTS] and i get this:

Not Found

The requested URL /\images\stories\demos\BonusSmartObjects.zip was not found on this server.

some kind of pyramid?

there's jf's http://www.scriptspot.com/sketchup/script/obj-importer which i imagine you could modify if you knew what you were doing, this is probably the one you use.

then there's http://www.sycode.com/products/obj_import_su/index.htm which i doubt you'll wanna pay $195 for cause it dosn't seem to do anything the free one doesn't?

neither one will import textures for me, as far as UV, ??? i doubt it but i'm no expert. If you do update the jf one somehow please let us know

which plug do you use i know of two?

it would be cool to combine this script with the component spray tool as a pre-vis for the altitude settings.

if you want quality and you're not in a rush (descent renders usually take overnight), you can't beat Indigo and its free. very easy too, i'm not a great renderer but indigo renders usually look good just by hitting render, then as you get more confidence you can start playing with reflections, bump, etc... Also indigo is the only renderer i've used that can do a descent interior render with only the light coming in through windows even when the windows are small.

BTW, of the progs you're trying i think i would go with lightup, its just so cool how you can walk around after you render, plus its fairly new and only getting better. if i had one wish it would be that it was priced at say $79, at that i couldn't think why everyone wouldn't own a copy. still at $149 its descent its just a little less popular than i think it should (could) be.

any lightup for quick renders you can interact with and skindigo for works of art, thats how i roll.

try this instead, supports google earth, 3ds, obj ... http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/download/designer.html

so you can use it with all your modelers and its $38