Thomble

Thanks for the great video, Alaskan_Son! It drilled down to my exact question about what was going on, and was a pretty great intro to drawing in the CAD module as well. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain it so thoroughly.

Thanks again for the replies, guys. I'm deep in the learning phase, which for me sometimes equates to some "reinvention of the wheel" exercises (or a lot of them). Drawzilla, I haven't gotten to the point that I'm drawing in CA, but will eventually get there. Because of a lot of familiarity with 3D Warehouse (Sketchup), I tend to use it as a go-to for prefabbed bits and pieces. What happened here is that I needed a basecap, saw some on 3D Warehouse, and figured I'd press them into use. For me, figuring out why something won't work usually teaches me more than giving up and admitting that there are easier ways of doing things. However, this time, I'll admit defeat and take your very constructive suggestions. MarkMc, importing as a pdf... I tried that. I know exactly why it's your least favorite. The thing imported in nearly as big as the entire floorplan. Thanks again!

Thanks for the reply. My computer isn't slowed at all. It's pretty much latest gen technology. Are you saying that the skewing of the profile in my User Catalog is related to computer speed, somehow? I was suspecting that it had more to do with some manipulation of the z-axis that I was missing (and don't have any idea how to do).

Disclaimer: I'm a neophyte at 3D modeling in general. I'm trying to import into CA some basecap molding profiles that I found on 3D Warehouse into a plan that I'm working on as a trial of CA x10. The profiles I'm working with in this situation come as a large number of moldings in one single Sketchup file. To isolate a single profile out of the larger group in Sketchup, I select the individual profile, right-click to get a menu, then select Make Component. That converts the single profile from what Sketchup calls an "entity" into a "component." This is a necessary step because entities can't be saved individually in Sketchup, while components can. Once I use Make Component on the profile, I can save it as a single item into another Sketchup document. Now I'm ready to import the single molding profile that I saved into the CA User Catalog. When I open CA and use File>Import>Import 3D Symbol, I select the file I saved, hit ok, and get the Import 3D Symbol dialogue box, and hit OK again. I get a "Could not read in an assigned material" error, which I take to be harmless, based on some previous (successful) experience working with 3D furniture pieces from 3D Warehouse. Here's the bind: when the profile loads into my Library Browser>User Catalog, it is skewed badly. The first pic I've attached is of the file open in Sketchup. The middle profile is the one I've made into a component and then used "Saved As" to separate it from its brethren. Here is the file where I've saved it as a single profile: When I load it into the CA User Catalog, it appears like this: Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong, and explain how to fix it? I've searched for over an hour and haven't found any reference to this happening. I'm missing something obvious, I suspect, but I have no idea what it is. Thanks in advance!