"Jack Stein" wrote

and it seemed easy enough by just selecting and moving part of the design.
I haven't tried it yet, but on your base cabinet, which I grabbed, I
attempted to select part of it but it didn't select as shown in the
video... I spent 30 seconds on it though, will try again with the
tutorial in hand.

On the scaling issue: On normal models you will see scaling handles on all
three of the x,y,z axis. On a dynamic component the creator can constrain
the model to respond only to the axis he wants you to see, and he can hide
the rest.

Since a base cabinet is almost always 34 1/2" high (z axis), and 24" deep (y
axis), there is no need to use the scaling handles for these two axis'.

On these particular models, you may have to "orbit" the model slightly to
that you can clearly see one of the side panels in order to see the x axis
(width) scaling handle ... there should be on either side. On the wall
cabinet you should see two scaling handles, one for height (z) and one for
width (x).

I'm still not too clear on whether the professional version has
capabilities a hobbyist would need?

Other than the ability to create "dynamic components", there is no
functional difference between the Free and the Pro versions. Both versions
can _use_ dynamic components, but they can only be _created_ in the Pro
version.

The Pro version also has many more importing, exporting, and printing
options, in addition to a presentation program/function called "Layout" that
acts like programs similar to PageMaker, which allows you to create
presentation documents, plans, etc from models.

IOW, there is nothing I can draw with the Pro version that you can't draw
with the Free.

I'm not too clear on what dynamic components are? I haven't figured out
yet how to resize things to scale yet, but I watched a video on Fine
Woodworking (thanks for that link) and it seemed easy enough by just
selecting and moving part of the design. I haven't tried it yet, but on
your base cabinet, which I grabbed, I attempted to select part of it but
it didn't select as shown in the video... I spent 30 seconds on it
though, will try again with the tutorial in hand.

There is apparently a bug in SU7 on some systems that, when downloading and
then opening a dynamic component, you may have to "explode" the component
_one_ time to get it to work.

However, try this before doing that: Single click the model to select it;
then on the toolbar go to Window/Component Options and click.

This should bring up the "Component Options" window, and, if a list box
should appear with dimensions on it, you're fine and don't need to do
anything else, except to select whatever dimension you want, click Apply,
and the model will resize to your chosen dimension.

If you see the sentence "There are no options to choose on this component",
then context/right click on the model and chose "explode", then go back and
try the above again. That should fix it.

I'm hoping that is not something only in the pro version..

It's not ... dynamic components can be _used_ by the free version of
SketchUP7 with no problem.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)