Purge Unused?
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The SU manual suggests that CAD files be prepared before importing, but it doesn't say why. I discovered that some models were getting quite large and that deleting polygons didn't help much.
What made a HUGE difference in the file size was going to Window>Model Info>Statistics and using Purge Unused to clear out unused layers and empty components that seem to have come along with .dwg files - files which had already been edited and pared down before importing. The difference was dramatic, as I got several ~2.5 MB component files dropped to 500 K, and a resulting 9MB file down to 2MB.
Question: Does this affect performance all that much? I't seems to have helped, but I was wondering how much it affects speed and stability compared to a similar sized file that is full of polygons and materials....
EJ
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Hi Eric,
I'd say "what you can see" in the window, affects performance mostly. All unpurged components, materials, layers, styles etc. will only affect loading time and saving time (this latter can also be a pain if you have autosave on) but the visual, real time rendering of the file will only be affected by the geometry, textures, styles and shadows used and displayed at a time.
This is why it is suggested to separate your model into groups/components which you put on different layers and turn their visibility off when not working with them and also, always work without shadows on and the simplest style - maybe even monochrome - to speed up rendering.
Now if you impőort CAD drawings - and especially when working with terrain contour lines, consider using "Simplify contours" plugin by Google (scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://sketchup.google.com/download/rubyscripts.html
It will reduce your contour polygons even more without actually (and too much apparently) affecting the appearance of your SU terrain. -
And there is a very nice plugin for purging
http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubylibraryDepot/Ruby/PurgeAll.rb
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