V6 vs v7
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I just installed SU on my notebook Dell running XP. To my surprise it was v7,,, not v6. Anyway, it installed good and works OK. But a few things dif.... one is, if I save a drawing on v7 it will not open on v6.
Well my main computer is an iMac running v6 (free)... Like v6 a lot... what are some of the improvements in v7 for Mac's OSX?
Any Mac users upgraded to v7??
Thanks
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I am not a mac user, but remember you can still save from 7 to version 6 file if you require to open file on your imac.
File SaveAs and choose type from drop down. -
The main improvement is dynamic components (DCs). Essentially these are components that behave parametrically (eg a set of stairs that adds stairs when you scale it.) With the free version you can use DCs that other people have made but you cannot make your own.
The other change that sticks out in my mind is auto line breaking, so if you draw a line that crosses other lines it will automatically intersect and be split in to a few lines.
Overall i think its worth upgrading just for DCs. If you want a full list of all the new stuff, have a look at the SU homepage.
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You forgot Layout2, probably the best and worthy improvement over this version.
Now you can print your work with good resolution and, even better, you can modify lineweights and linestyles of the viewport directly in Layout. -
I am sticking to SU 6.
The DC sounds like fun but I don't have any use for it (yet) in my daily job (architect).Also, none of the bugs in SU6 (shadow bug, no large polycount control etc..) have been fixed.
So there is no real need to upgrade, unless you just want to play.The only real benefit I see in SU7 is the fact that you can direct your textures to photoshop, do some fixes and get them back in place quickly.
I can't comment on Layout as I didn't try it yet in SU7... -
Well, I wouldn't call the lack of high poly count a "bug" but a lack of a feature.
The shadow bug is a real pain, true - IF you are exporting your videos directly from SU and not from a render app.
IF you are exporting from SU however, SU 7 is definitely way faster. I have exported a 9999 pixel png and a 9600 pixel tiff in just a minute or two.
To me, SU 7 definitely seems to be faster even with high poly models (well, I don't mean billions of 3D plant edges of course, just some modest millions of geometry).
But the greatest thing is that you can try both without worrying and make your own decision.
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@gaieus said:
Well, I wouldn't call the lack of high poly count a "bug" but a lack of a feature.
Well, you can look at it both ways.
To me, not being able to model complexer designs because SU can't cope with it, feels very much like a bug.
The waiting time to have SU responsive again for the next command is a true frustration@gaieus said:
To me, SU 7 definitely seems to be faster even with high poly models (well, I don't mean billions of 3D plant edges of course, just some modest millions of geometry).
In my experience, SU 7 is slower than SU 6, as the new in(ter)ference lock capability /engine seems to slow things down even further. At least, that was my impression. But I only had SU7 installed for 1 and a half day before killing it, so maybe I am wrong?
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Gaieus,,,,,
@unknownuser said:
But the greatest thing is that you can try both without worrying and make your own decision.
Thank you for the above...... I'm not used to a program not installing on top of the old version and killing any thoughts of going back. Very nice!
(Remember I'm on a new iMac 24")-- Installed v 7.... Like the "looks" and some of the "feel"..... using "Pan" I get the good old mac "beach ball" often..... maybe I've got to many other thing running, like internet radio, iTunes, and mac mail. Also had to close and restart once today because my "snap to indicator dots " turned into little opaque small white squares on all the drawing tools.... the restart brought things back to normal. If you look to the left side you will see the specks on my iMac, running OSX 10.4, and got 2gig of RAM. It's not a hotrod, but it also is not a slouch.....
Today I got my OSX Leopard disk to up grade from OSX Tiger..... Think I'll wait on doing this for a while.... To much new causes my brain to turn to oatmeal.....
Thanks for the advice..... any comments about my getting the beach ball or the little white square let me know... Oh, I tried the "cross hairs" while I was experiencing the issue and even the center of the cross hair had the little white square..........
Mike
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All this sounds to be some video card/driver issue. To make a check (on the Mac, I think) go to Sketchup > Preferences > OpenGL settings and disable Fast feedback first - if that doesn't help, disable hardware acceleration as well (I don't even know if these settings are available on the Mac
).If this seems to help, don't sit on your launders but try to update your video driver. What card do you actually have?
Also note that you may experience some problems with Leopard. To read more, have a look at this topic.
Other than this, I cannot suggest too much since I'm on a PC and just stabbing in the dark.
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Gaieus,,,
You are a great help! Blew into SU>Pref's>GL and disabled Fast Feed back.... but no help.... went back in and disabled "Hardware Acceleration"..... did the trick. "Pan" tool works OK, a little "jerky", but tolerable. But, now when I switch to "X-Ray" and back the drawing goes blank, I have to "select-click" anywhere in the drawing and it returns. I don't think either version of SU likes my video card or my video settings. I gonna work on those.
The card is an ATI Radeon 2600 Pro, Device ID 0X9583, ROM Revision 113-B2250F-212, DFI Driver Version 01-00-212. My Display Settings are: Display 1920X1200 and "Millions of Colors". I'm gonna play with that and check online for my ATI driver version.........
Actually, since I installed v6 SU a couple of months ago I've found ways around not having the "Pan" tool available. Which is alright, and I need to tell you that the issue with the "snap to" dots becoming white little squares was related to me switching back and forth between V6 and V7 many times. Today working on a chair drawing for about six hours in V7 only,,, I had no problems......
Now new question, when I print a "scene" in a drawing, any lines that are not on the "red, green, blue", are very ziggy, not nice and straight (?). Can you point me in a "clean up the line" direction? And how do I print two or more drawing scenes on one sheet of paper?
Won't be long now and I'll have enough info for what I do with SU and won't be a bother.........
Thanks.......
Mike -
I'd say that the zig-zagged lines are due to some antialias problem with low print quality.
When you go to your print panel, there are options for print quality. I am not familiar with the Mac UI but here is what it says about it in the SU Guide (scroll down to the bottom for these settings):
http://download.sketchup.com/sketchuphelp/gsu6_mac/Content/K-Input_and_Output/Printing/IO-Print.htmThe default setting is "Draft" about which the
@unknownuser said:
"...the Draft setting is used to produces quick images (usually output has jagged lines)..."
So that would be my first tip to set.
As for printing two scenes on one page; I couldn't advise more than go Pro (if you really intending to) and do it from LayOut since AFAIK it is not possible from SU.
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Printing from SU does not give good linework. Make a large window of the view and Save the image as a high resolution of .png or other 2d image. Print that file instead. The Mac print dialog only controls what your printer does. A draft will be lower quality but this doesn't mean (in my experience) higher print dialog settings will change lines that are jagged in the original.
There may be something else happening, by your description. The jagged look of lines in printing is due to their orientation to the view, not their orthographic direction.
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Gaieus,, pbacot,,
@unknownuser said:
As for printing two scenes on one page; I couldn't advise more than go Pro (if you really intending to) and do it from LayOut since AFAIK it is not possible from SU.
So Gaieus,,,,, let me practice on you..... Me to wife: "Yes, I agree with you about combining views on one page of paper, dear. It would really cut down on paper usage and be environmentally helpful. Gaieus from the SU forum says that the PRO version can do this. See, read his post. What do ya think??? Maybe NOW I can upgrade? (Beg, grovel, grovel.)" Yea, that should really do the trick!!
Additionally, Gaieus, I read the string about Leopard,,,,,,, I'm going to hold off for a while on the install.... thanks.
pbacot,,,,,
@unknownuser said:
here may be something else happening, by your description. The jagged look of lines in printing is due to their orientation to the view, not their orthographic direction.
I think you are correct. Any issues with the jagged lines are when the lines are not on one of the axis'. Like on the taper of a long leg or the slant of seven degrees on the back of a dining room chair. It's tolerable because all my drawings are "build-only" type, not "glam" shots. All the pretty stuff I see and have in my mind when I build from the drawing.
Still, for what I do in my meager little world of CAD, SU is still better for me than my TurboCad.
Thanks you guys......
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