Small file is acting very sluggish -- please help
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See attached file
The attached file is small (about 352kb), and is made up of a lot of repeated components. It is a landscape layer showing three different types of trees downloaded from the warehouse. (slightly modified but still very small individual components).
It runs very slowly on my system (SU7.1 on Vista 64 bit), even while much larger files run significantly faster. Is in the "not responding" mode at present. I have purged several times, and tried to "fix problems", and I have even tried locking the components internally (go to edit component to see them locked).
I have also tried to rebuild the model from scratch to see if it still is buggy, but it still runs slowly.
Last, I tried to make the whole model into a group and then a component, thinking that saving it as a component might clean it up, but when I tried to save it as another file, the program crashed and I got the BugSplat screen.
Can someone please try it manipulate the file and see if they have the same issue? Any advice on how to proceed?
Thanks,
Steve
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Hi Steve,
I do not know what you have in that file but my SU cannot even open it.
Note however that it is not the file size that counts (the most) in a file but edge and face count (for the processor) and textures (for the video card). So a fairly "small" file (with wise use of components to keep file size down) can reach really poly heavy models.Could you points us to those components in the Warehouse?
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Kills my SUp too... what have you done
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Oh dear, Gaius, and Tig, I am VERY sorry that it caused you problems!!!
The components are all from the Google Warehouse (search "tree author:Google)
3d "Evergreen magnolia tree high polygon.skp"; 3d "Summer birch deciduous tree high polygon.skp"; and "Ash deciduous tree high polygon.skp"I will gut the base of the components and put in a place holder to mark locations, and see it that frees up the program.
Best,
Steve -
That ash alone is enough to slow down most machines, expecially if there are very many of them in the file.
They are very poorly made trees for a few reasons. Super high poly is one part. I like high poly, but those tress are especially wicked.
Also, they make each leaf a single component (if I recall correctly). And it turns out that the way they grouped all the leaves as zillions of small components also freaks out a lot of computers. It would have been better if they made a branch component and exploded everything within each branch. That would compartmentalize the component in an easier way for the processor to handle.
So, good luck with those trees. They are hard to use.
Chris
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OK, here is the clean base, showing only the locations of the various trees as components.
This should cause no one any problem to open.
--Steve
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@chris fullmer said:
That ash alone is enough to slow down most machines, expecially if there are very many of them in the file.
They are very poorly made trees for a few reasons. Super high poly is one part. I like high poly, but those tress are especially wicked.
Also, they make each leaf a single component (if I recall correctly). And it turns out that the way they grouped all the leaves as zillions of small components also freaks out a lot of computers. It would have been better if they made a branch component and exploded everything within each branch. That would compartmentalize the component in an easier way for the processor to handle.
So, good luck with those trees. They are hard to use.
Chris
Thanks Chris. The exact type of tree is not important now -- I only need to indicate something like a taller vertical element (Italian cypress, Lombardy poplar - which I made from stacking the foliage on the magnolia) ; a medium size umbrella shade tree (sweet acacia, african sumac, olive, etc) and a large monumental tree (eucalyptus, ash, California sycamore). These need to be 3D, and the quality of branches and leaves to filter the scene (as opposed to just large shapes that have some transparency) is important.
Do you have any components that you might recommend?
BTW, I see you are at Berkeley. I did my doc at the GTU, and worked with Kathleen James Chakraborty from the Architecture Dept. She has since moved on to Ireland, but I know your school well.
--Steve
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When I have a high-poly repetitive item that is essentially for final show purposes, like a tree, I make a very low poly flat representative component, with the "always face camera" attribute. Then I put the high poly trees on their own layer, and the low poly trees on their own layer.
When working on and navigating the model I turn on only the low poly layer. (if I really need it)
When I have a scene that needs to be viewed in detail or printed, I switch layers.
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File size doesn't count for much. It's the number of polygons (faces and edges) in your model that matters. Using components you can get very small file size, but still have a large model.
Another reason file size isn't a good indicator is textures, they can make a small model have a very large file size.
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Also using Attributes and Dynamic Components can add considerable file size, although I do not think they effect performance.
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@jgb said:
When I have a high-poly repetitive item that is essentially for final show purposes, like a tree, I make a very low poly flat representative component, with the "always face camera" attribute. Then I put the high poly trees on their own layer, and the low poly trees on their own layer.
When working on and navigating the model I turn on only the low poly layer. (if I really need it)
When I have a scene that needs to be viewed in detail or printed, I switch layers.
Thanks a good idea, JGB. Right now I have the trees on a separate layer that turn off to navigate, and only turn on when I need to take a screen shot.
Thanks everyone for the info. If anyone has any low poly 3D trees that present well, please let me know.
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Note that Fredo also has 'Ghost Component' tool that lets you replace complex components with simplified ones and then swap them back later...
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@tig said:
Note that Fredo also has 'Ghost Component' tool that lets you replace complex components with simplified ones and then swap them back later...
I was just going to suggest this brilliant plugin myself.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=21469 -
@gaieus said:
@tig said:
Note that Fredo also has 'Ghost Component' tool that lets you replace complex components with simplified ones and then swap them back later...
I was just going to suggest this brilliant plugin myself.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=21469
quick-draw tig at your service...
Happy New Year
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Did anyone mention turning off Fast Feedback in the OpenGL preferences? I just had a it work for me on a very small file that was acting very slow.
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