Instability on Mac os x 10.6.2

sally · 6 Mar 2010, 08:05

Hello,

I'm using Sketch up version 7 (7.1.6859) (fairly new user but learning fast!!) on my I Mac and have problems with instability, It has crashed completely a couple of time and I get regular freezes which last sometimes about 20 seconds and sometimes up to a minute or so. If I have lots of components in the model (eg graphics of plants etc) it runs really slowly and flickers a lot when I zoom or pan. Zooming using the mouse or the zoom key is so slow it is almost impossible to use. This doesn't seem to happen when I have no downloaded graphics. It's all very frustrating!

I have looked at the forum and note that I am not alone, I've seen about the fixes but they all seem to relate to Mac OS x 10.5

Any help gratefully received, thanks, Sally

tfdesign · 6 Mar 2010, 08:25

Hi Sally! I'm also running 10.6.2, but Im having little problems. What version of iMac are you using? How much memory do you have? Do you have enough disc space, and how many apps do you have open at any one time?

Tom

tfdesign · 6 Mar 2010, 08:32

You also mention that you have lots of plant models too? Plants can use high amountsof memory, because of the modelling of branches. If you think about it, if you have an under spec'ed machine, it will find it hard to draw on power, if using such models. (really you need a Mac Pro for serious CAD!)

Edson · 6 Mar 2010, 11:53

tom,

allow me to both agree and disagree with you. even a mac pro will in time not be enough to model complex stuff if the model is not well organized using layers and scenes. from personal experience i can say that you can handle quite complex models in "under spec'd" machines when the above is done.

another helpful thing that can be done is to replace temporarily the high poly comps with low poly substitutes (and bring back the high poly ones only at the very moment of exporting the image - no orbiting). fredo06's GhostComp is a plugin that does just that automatically (http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=21469&hilit=plugin ).

by the way, i am having no problems with 10.6.2.

sally · 6 Mar 2010, 12:10

Hi Tom,

thanks for getting back to me, my Imac is 27inch and has a 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 4 GB 1067 MHz DDr3 memory. I have 956.58GB of disk space available out of 999.86GB Would you say this is under spec'ed? (I'm not very technical!!) I don't normally have any other apps running at the same time, maybe safari if I'm using a tutorial .

The problems do seem to be when I've loaded plants into the designs, although a lot are simple 2d ones. I have always done my garden designs by hand but am now trying to learn a CAD system. I am trying Sketch up and wonder if I will get the pro version? Do you think this would be more stable? Are there better CAD programs out there?

Thanks Tom, Sally

sally · 6 Mar 2010, 12:14

Hello Edson,

I've just seen your comments, I am new to sketch up and haven't learned about layers and scenes, so that may well be the problem! I will investigate. Thanks, Sally

Edson · 6 Mar 2010, 12:22

sally,

you are hardly under spec'd! with this machine you can do anything (i used to model complex stuff with my iMac 20", core 2 duo, 2.14 ghz, 2mb ram). now i use a macbook pro 2.8 ghz, core 2 duo, 4mb ram which is an inferior machine when compared to yours and i do virtually anything with it. so yours is not a hardware problem.

have you imported a dwg file into sketchup? sometimes this causes a lot of problems. also, pay attention to what i said above, in the previous post.

sketchup is not a CAD system. it is a modeling app. one thing cannot be compared with the other. sketchup free and pro have no differences as far as stability goes.

Edson · 6 Mar 2010, 12:43

sally,

if you are a beginner, you will benefit greatly from watching the videos available. i will mention three sources of great videos:

the ones produced by google itself: http://sketchup.google.com/training/
http://go-2-school.com/ see their podcasts. they can also be found on youtube under The Sketchup Show. there are more than 50 good videos there.
sketchup basecamp: a series of lectures given in a conference held at googles's hq in 2008. http://tinyurl.com/y8vqhzo
the best ones for me are
Modeling Smart
Working With Terrain and Other
SketchUp and Digital Photography
SketchUp and Photoshop
Hooray for Groups and Components
SketchUp Tips and Tricks
Diving Deeper into Components
Adding detail with the Follow Me...
SketchUp and AutoCAD
to learn about layers and scenes: http://tinyurl.com/y8cko3p
http://www.aidanchopra.com/ , the companion site to the book Google Sketchup for Dummies 7, by Aidan Chopra (excelent book).

i also suggest you get three other books: Sketchup for Site Design, by Daniel Tal (the guy is a landscape architect, this book is all for you); Real World Google Sketchup 7, by Mike Tadros; and Google Sketchup 7 Hands On, by Bonnie Roskes.

if you watch all those videos and read the books you will soon be a master modeler. learning by just using an app is slow and you never really learn the best practices involved.

good luck.

sally · 6 Mar 2010, 16:50

Hi Edson,

wow, thank you so much for all your advice. I have been wading through the sketch up tutorials, but haven't done the layering one yet. I've done a few models really to make sense of it and maybe I got a bit carried away without doing all the tutorials first. I'm very grateful for the other tips and sites you've given me though and I will be ordering those books this weekend!

Thanks again, Sally

chrisjk · 6 Mar 2010, 19:23

Without the sort of constant attention a gardener gives to his domain, SU models can quickly get overgrown and disorganized.

A very useful script is ttcleanup.rb by ThomThom that can be used to (as its name suggests), clean up an entire model - removing unnecessary clutter such as orphan edges, unused textures, components and the like that can really weigh a model down.

tfdesign · 6 Mar 2010, 21:32

@edson said:

sketchup is not a CAD system. it is a modeling app.

I wish someone could tell me the difference!

Edson, CAD stands for "Computer Aided Design" right? Anything that is designed, is modelled right? Even SU will export DWG files? In 2D and including dimensions too?? (Perhaps even ACIS data?) Then SU is a CAD package!

Hi Sally. I am VERY jealous of your computer. Do you want to swap?

sally · 7 Mar 2010, 06:30

Hi Tom,

Sorry, couldn't possibly swap, it's my new baby!!

Edson · 7 Mar 2010, 12:32

@tfdesign said:

Edson, CAD stands for "Computer Aided Design" right? Anything that is designed, is modelled right? Even SU will export DWG files? In 2D and including dimensions too?? (Perhaps even ACIS data?) Then SU is a CAD package!

tom,
i am sorry. you are technically right. sketchup is a computer application that aids design thus it is a cad system.

however, from my point of view as an architect, sketchup is more of a designer's tool than a cad system. in terms of usage, unless we are talking about a very small project, it is not practical to produce construction documents with sketchup whereas apps autocad, archicad, vectorworks and similar ones are excellent for that. on the other hand, sketchup is way better for designing in 3D and testing your ideas on the fly with materials applied to the model and so on.

this is all arguable, of course. there must be someone out there who produces construction drawings for huge buildings in sketchup as well as there are people who do all their modeling with something like autocad.

bjanzen · 8 Mar 2010, 15:32

For more on using SketchUp Pro for construction documents, see the heavy traffic on http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15911

b