The one thing in Sketchup that WILL drive me nuts!

toxicvoxel · 18 Aug 2008, 14:28

Before I post this to Google HQ and in the bug list can somebody see if they have the same problem with shadow info on pages in this file:
(read the text file to replicate the error)

This recurs on files from time to time making the page setups in the file useless for future use.
If anybody has a solution or work-arround I would be happy to hear from you.

Shadow_Info_Error.skp
Shadow_Info_Error.txt

Tobobo · 18 Aug 2008, 14:43

I have had the same issue with a few of my models not sure what the solution is. Sorry I couldn't help, but at least we are not alone

DavidBoulder · 18 Aug 2008, 15:55

Yep, your test files have same results on my mac.

I've had similar issues to this where scene is fine in SketchUp, but that scene placed in Layout exhibits odd shadow behavior.

HFM · 18 Aug 2008, 16:42

unmark the 'shadow Settings' in scene manager on each tab, activate shadow settings, click around so the shadow will update and voila!

after these steps turn back on the shadow Settings in the scene manager and your done

caronte01 · 18 Aug 2008, 16:46

I have a file that has that problem also. I believe it has something to do with having different north orientations on different views.

toxicvoxel · 18 Aug 2008, 17:33

HFM,

@unknownuser said:

....after these steps turn back on the shadow Settings in the scene manager and your done

It works until you close the file down and reopen it. When you activate the tab it's the same old problem.
Or am I misunderstanding your instructions?

Carento01,

@unknownuser said:

I believe it has something to do with having different north orientations on different views.

North is consistently oriented in all tabs so I doubt if that is the problem.

Thanks for your input anyway.

Chris Fullmer · 18 Aug 2008, 17:59

I got it!

Turn on animation between scenes. You can put it down to "0" if you'd like, but this will fix it.

That being said, I have no idea why this is. I'm guessing its an odd glitch inside the file, perhaps having to do with how it was created. But maybe not, maybe it can happen in any SU file.

I noticed you had a custom location set based on long/lat. Did that get imported with some cad or GIS program? or did you input it?

This is an odd bug. I'll keep playing with it and see if I can recreate it from scratch so it can be submitted to Google with complete steps. Or maybe they can look at the insides of the file to see what is being messed up when the animation on/off gets switched. Anyhow, cool bug.

Chris

Chris Fullmer · 18 Aug 2008, 18:23

ok, I am totally able to recreate this.

Make a simple box model.
Turn off animation between scenes.
Change location from default. I am using something in the UK. I'll test later to see if that is necessary. I'm thinking it might be since its on the other side of the world from the default Boulder, Colorado, USA location.
Turn on shadows and set it to morning.
Make a scene.
Change shadows to evening and make a new scene.
Save model
Close and re-open.
click on scenes and at least one will be messed up.

OK, I just tested it using Boulder as default location. It doesn't mess up the way it does if you use something around the world. There is something quirky here and it appears to have to do with the custom location, or the country selected or the time zone. I haven't been able to pin this one down 100%, but at any rate, its not behaving as desired.

Chris

HFM · 18 Aug 2008, 18:24

@toxicvoxel said:

HFM,

@unknownuser said:

....after these steps turn back on the shadow Settings in the scene manager and your done

It works until you close the file down and reopen it. When you activate the tab it's the same old problem.
Or am I misunderstanding your instructions?

Carento01,

@unknownuser said:

I believe it has something to do with having different north orientations on different views.

North is consistently oriented in all tabs so I doubt if that is the problem.

Thanks for your input anyway.

My fault entirely, didn't check that

toxicvoxel · 19 Aug 2008, 07:03

Chris,
You're the man! - Activating animations fixed it.
Thanks for taking the time to look into it.

And yes the custom location was set up in SU.

caronte01 · 19 Aug 2008, 08:48

Chris, cool, that solves it. In my file I have a custom location also....

plot-paris · 19 Aug 2008, 11:24

Chris, I am impressed how systematically you tracked down the bug. well done!

Tobobo · 19 Aug 2008, 11:45

So just to clarify,

It only happens when you set the page transitions to 0?

Chris Fullmer · 19 Aug 2008, 14:41

Glad it fixed the problem for you Toxicvoxel and Caronte01. I'd imagine its not the kind of bug they would find in Boulder since it seems to require the location or country or something be set around the world AND have animations turned off. Kind of a sly little bug.

Ahh, thanks Jakob (plot-Paris). Yeah, after working on figuring it out I had about 20 versions of the file saved to my desktop where I had tried different methods to fix it. Then once I did finally fix it, I had tweaked so many settings it took a while to figure out which setting was really the offender. I'm still not 100% sure where the problem lies, but like I said, its something to do with the custom location when u have turned off animation.

So to clarify, its not when animations are set to 0, its whent hey are turned off completely. A workaround if you don't want animations on is to turn on animations but set them to zero. That will make it appear as though animations are off, and it will not bug the shadows system.

Chris

toxicvoxel · 20 Aug 2008, 21:41

In the mean time I received this response from Google support which is a little disappointing because it doesn't fix the problem.
They seem to think page shadow information is saved in the style definition!

@unknownuser said:

Google Help
to me

show details 7:40 PM (3 hours ago)

Reply

Hi,

Thank you for your note. We understand you're encountering some problems
with shadow information on page tabs. We've evaluated your file, and it
appears as though you aren't saving style information before saving and
closing the SketchUp file. SketchUp can automatically prompt you to save
these settings if you browse to "SketchUp" > "Preferences" > "General" and
check the option to "Warn of style change when creating scene." When you
update your scene you'll be prompted with a warning message, and you'll
want to "Update the selected style" then update the scene. Alternatively,
if you have the Styles menu open, you'll see a circular arrow pair in the
top left corner indicating that your new style hasn't been saved. Once we
saved your scene, the shadow information appeared to work correctly
between tabs.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
The Google Team

Mike Lucey · 20 Aug 2008, 22:16

100% Chris, Well done

Its great to have so many experts here

Mike

Chris Fullmer · 20 Aug 2008, 23:54

Ahh, thanks Mike.

Well, I agree, that response from google is a bit underwhelming because that was the very first thing I tried too and it definitely does not work.

I'll see if I can drum up a bit more support from them for you. I think this is a great bug that should be looked at.

Chris