There are times when you want to move a selection in a specific direction – and there are ways to do that with:
1. Shift key – Press and hold the Shift key, while the move you are performing is the specific color of an axis, to lock move operation to that axis (the inference line will bold).
2. Arrowkeys – You can force SketchUp to infer parallel to a specific axis by pressing one of the following keys while using the Line tool, Move tool, or Tape Measure tool:
→ Right arrow key = red axis
← Left arrow key = green axis
↑ Up or down arrow keys = blue axis
3. Alt key – use it to force a free movement of an element constrain by the geometry it is a part of. You can combine it with a Shift key.
4. Entering a 3D Coordinate – SketchUp can move your entities to exact (using [x, y, z ]) or relative (using <x, y, z >) coordinates in 3D space. Type it in and you will see it in The Measurements Toolbar at the bottom right corner of the SketchUp window.
Procedure is simple. Create a copy of an object and after that type a multiplier value to create additional multiple copies after the copy or a a divisor value to create additional objects between the copy and the original object.
For example, typing in 2x (or *2) will create one additional copy (or 2 copies total, the one you manually copied plus one you automatically copied using this step) instead of just one.
For example, typing 5/ (or /5) will create five copies evenly distributed between the original and the first copy. You can enter distances and multipliers until you perform another operation.
This is the trick.
Here is a nice tutorial presenting how to create a screw with a use of this trick.
My last 3DS Max post about CG SourceFloor Generator script generated another question: How to create a toolbar button for any script?
Instead of mulltiple clicks: Maxscript–>Run Script–> and choosing .ms; mcr files from the folder it’s more convenient to create UI button to run specific script directly. And it’s easy!!!
Open the script Maxscript–>Open,
Highlight all of the code (Ctrl-A) then
Click drag it to a UI bar you want it to appear on.
This procedure will make a generic button at that spot in the UI that will activate the highlighted code whenever you click on it. Right clicking on the button allows you to modify it’s appearance. You can choose any icon from a list of max toolbar icon or create your own icons.
How to create your own max icon?
You need to create 24×24 pixel icon image and 16×15 pixel icon image (width x height) with a specific names as shown below and save them as Bitmap image (*.BMP)
It’s advisable to also create alpha channel images for these icons in the same size and format. White color for non transparent pixels.
To create a copy of a button press, ctrl and drag the button that you want to copy. It will create a copy of the button. You can also copy buttons from one toolbar to another using the same trick. It will work only if option Lock UI Layout (ALT + 0) under Customize menu is turned off.
To delete a button, press ALT and drag the button you want to delete. It will work only if option Lock UI Layout (ALT + 0) under Customize menu is turned off.
To dock your toolbar, just right click on it then Dock and choose the desire dock type (Top, Bottom, Left or Right).
If you want to delete your toolbar, just go to Customize > Customize User Interface… Now under Toolbars tab, just select the toolbar that you want to delete and click on Delete… button.
Recently in my work for a different graphic designer I needed to remove from my B&W render with lights only (Vray Raw Lightning channel) all black color leaving only white light with a transparent background. I couldn’t render it but after some search I have found a way how to do it in Photoshop. This is how to:
1.Copy your image to a new layer. Optionally, place empty layer below.
2.Double-click the new layer thumbnail to open the Blending Options dialog.
3.In the “Blend If” section, drag the “This Layer” black slider to the right to remove the completely black background, then hold down Alt (Option on Mac) and drag the right half of that slider further to the right until you see the effect you’re looking for. (See the attached image)
4.Select All (Ctl/Cmd-A) and Copy Merged (Ctl/Cmd-Shift-C) then paste wherever you need the new layer with transparent background. (NOTE: If you have other layers below this layer, turn them off before copying so that all you retain the is transparency.) Optionally, Merge Down with empty layer.
5. At the end with Levels (Ctr-L) shift all grays to white.
I did it for shadows also (Vray Raw Shadows channel) I hope my readers will find application for this trick.
