Large Sketchup Models - 300Mb +

BarrySmit · 13 Apr 2010, 14:56

Hi Guys,

I need to get some help with larger 300Mb+ sketchup models. I currently have the following problems:

sketchup is a single processor app (this sucks as my other 7 processors stand and watch) - how can i change this?
Memory allocation is very low, and the app at best uses 2Gb of real memory (again the other 6Gb of memory chill and relax) - how do I allocate more memory to the app?
The current file that i'm working on is now at 320Mb and every second time i hit save, sketchup returns a error message saying "failed to save" and then a second error message "could not save, as file is missing" (the file is actually missing from my finder, gone (no idea where it goes)) (any suggestions???? how is this even possible???)
when i import a dynamic component, and change the attributes, the model (you can guess this one) crashes again

Any suggestions?

Barry

thomthom · 13 Apr 2010, 15:23

Purge you model. Window -> Model Info -> Statistics Get rid of all unused stuff.

Ensure that your textures aren't too big. In most large models I've encountered it's been the textures and scene background images that takes up the most of the file size.
SU doesn't display textures any larger than max 1024x1024 so there is no point for any textures larger than that. 512x512 is usually enough.

Remove hidden stuff that you strictly don't need. Save it out to a component if you're unsure if you might need it later.

That should reduce the file size and reduce memory usage.

thomthom · 13 Apr 2010, 15:27

@barrysmit said:

sketchup is a single processor app (this sucks as my other 7 processors stand and watch) - how can i change this?

You don't. The software must be designed to utilize multiple cores. You as a user can do nothing about it.

@barrysmit said:

Memory allocation is very low, and the app at best uses 2Gb of real memory (again the other 6Gb of memory chill and relax) - how do I allocate more memory to the app?

Sketchup is a 32bit application - 2GB is the limit of what a 32bit application can use.

@barrysmit said:

The current file that i'm working on is now at 320Mb and every second time i hit save, sketchup returns a error message saying "failed to save" and then a second error message "could not save, as file is missing" (the file is actually missing from my finder, gone (no idea where it goes)) (any suggestions???? how is this even possible???)

Not sure what this is. Maybe you're running out of memory during save? Not sure at all what this is. Happens only with this file?

@barrysmit said:

when i import a dynamic component, and change the attributes, the model (you can guess this one) crashes again

This happens only in this model?

BarrySmit · 13 Apr 2010, 16:23

@thomthom said:

@barrysmit said:

sketchup is a single processor app (this sucks as my other 7 processors stand and watch) - how can i change this?

You don't. The software must be designed to utilize multiple cores. You as a user can do nothing about it.

So who then can i talk to? is there an update coming from Google in the near future?

@barrysmit said:

Memory allocation is very low, and the app at best uses 2Gb of real memory (again the other 6Gb of memory chill and relax) - how do I allocate more memory to the app?

Sketchup is a 32bit application - 2GB is the limit of what a 32bit application can use.

Again?

@barrysmit said:

The current file that i'm working on is now at 320Mb and every second time i hit save, sketchup returns a error message saying "failed to save" and then a second error message "could not save, as file is missing" (the file is actually missing from my finder, gone (no idea where it goes)) (any suggestions???? how is this even possible???)

Not sure what this is. Maybe you're running out of memory during save? Not sure at all what this is. Happens only with this file?

Yes.. (think it might be related to the file size)

@barrysmit said:

when i import a dynamic component, and change the attributes, the model (you can guess this one) crashes again

This happens only in this model?

Yip..

On the Purge option you mentioned earlier, i managed to drop 70Mb off the filesize, which is a great help...

Your other suggestion to drop the image size, i'll have to have a look at as i'm taking a lot of screen shot and adding them as textures... any suggestions on how else i can take a image or screenshot and place it on a surface and keep the size down?

i'll report back again later if there are any improvements.

B

thomthom · 13 Apr 2010, 16:29

@barrysmit said:

Your other suggestion to drop the image size, i'll have to have a look at as i'm taking a lot of screen shot and adding them as textures... any suggestions on how else i can take a image or screenshot and place it on a surface and keep the size down?

Are you cropping out the areas of interest - or do you use the full size screenshot as a material texture?
How many textures are you using?
What file format do you using?

tomot · 23 Apr 2010, 22:18

A short history:

I remember, before Google bought SketchUp, there was a very close connection between the developers of SketchUp and the users.
That communication took place at the original SketchUp forum. After Google bought SketchUp that connection got lost. Google was not even interested in continuing such a relationship. Hence several members of the old forum decided to carry on the forum on a private basis, which you are tuned into right now.

Google thought, its Google groups concept would be a good substitute for the SketchUp forum. But realistically Google Groups Suckz!... in my opinion.

Gaieus · 24 Apr 2010, 13:48

Well, whatever the "story" is (and basically it indeed happened this way), you can always see SU (now Google) employees around here.
Also, even if they do not act personally every time and react every topic, they get "notified" about the hottest issues via a bunch of members here.

thraxx2 · 28 May 2012, 10:55

@thomthom said:

Purge you model. Window -> Model Info -> Statistics Get rid of all unused stuff.

Ensure that your textures aren't too big. In most large models I've encountered it's been the textures and scene background images that takes up the most of the file size.
SU doesn't display textures any larger than max 1024x1024 so there is no point for any textures larger than that. 512x512 is usually enough.

Remove hidden stuff that you strictly don't need. Save it out to a component if you're unsure if you might need it later.

That should reduce the file size and reduce memory usage.

Thomthom,

regarding the texture size, it's true that it is huge, probably 70% of my file size (in my case). But if I were to use 512x512 or 1024x1024 textures, I think the quality of my renders with V-ray will greatly drop. Or are you saying that usually 1024x1024 are enough even for renders? I am using Arroway textures. They are huge but good. However every time I want to render, it takes forever to set up, before the white square thingy starts to render. Any ideas? Thank you!

Gerald.

thomthom · 28 May 2012, 11:18

It really depend. You don't need large textures unless they are up front of the camera. The further away the smaller you can go.

rv1974 · 28 May 2012, 11:21

@thraxx2 said:

@thomthom said:

Purge you model. Window -> Model Info -> Statistics Get rid of all unused stuff.

Ensure that your textures aren't too big. In most large models I've encountered it's been the textures and scene background images that takes up the most of the file size.
SU doesn't display textures any larger than max 1024x1024 so there is no point for any textures larger than that. 512x512 is usually enough.

Remove hidden stuff that you strictly don't need. Save it out to a component if you're unsure if you might need it later.

That should reduce the file size and reduce memory usage.

Thomthom,

regarding the texture size, it's true that it is huge, probably 70% of my file size (in my case). But if I were to use 512x512 or 1024x1024 textures, I think the quality of my renders with V-ray will greatly drop. Or are you saying that usually 1024x1024 are enough even for renders? I am using Arroway textures. They are huge but good. However every time I want to render, it takes forever to set up, before the white square thingy starts to render. Any ideas? Thank you!

Gerald.

Export to 3ds Max x64 and render with the original Vray. That's the only serious solution (de facto the
industry standard).

valerostudio · 12 Jun 2012, 17:49

I was working with some files a ways back (SU7) and they had massive components that were fitness equip models the client wanted in the renders and they were supplied to me as Solidworks files converted to 3DS - My files were 200+MB and all I can say is get the heck out of SU if you need to have a model this size. It just is not the right program to being doing this kind of work in. Thats all I can say. It took 30-40 min to open and save these files, they crashed all the time, it was the most stressful thing I have ever worked on.

Elvazur · 14 Oct 2012, 22:45

Well, I might have a (extremely) useful solution for you guys.
I found this on a guy's blog :

[mod="Gaieus":20iqenqz]Deleted link to uncontrolled and unverified exe file theoretically capable of anything harmful. If you need to "hack" your loading in a 32bit environment, there are safer solutions.[/mod:20iqenqz]
It's a patch for Sketchup.exe that makes it use 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB.
I literally went crazy when I found this, and turned out it works !

However, I'm also using Arroway textures... In my last scene, I have like a couple of wood texture, ground tiles, and grass, and it reaches the 4GB of RAM (even by saving in .EXR format).
So I guess I'm going to make a low resolution version of the textures I'm using the most, and applying them accordingly to the setup of my scene.

Elvazur · 14 Oct 2012, 23:31

@elvazur said:

Deleted link to uncontrolled and unverified exe file theoretically capable of anything harmful. If you need to "hack" your loading in a 32bit environment, there are safer solutions.[/mod]

What solutions ? ... Please let me know, 'cause it's been YEARS I'm having trouble with memory problems, and this is the only real solution I found, saving me a huge amount of time. Thought it would be a good thing to share it with our fellow SU-VR users.

(right now I'm making a render, "only" 1600px wide, .exr output, decreased texture sizes, and the memory Sketchup is using is up to 3.3 GB)

thomthom · 23 Oct 2012, 10:20

@elvazur said:

It's a patch for Sketchup.exe that makes it use 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB.
I literally went crazy when I found this, and turned out it works !

Not needed any more with SU8 (M1 or M2?) being LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE out of the box.

AirWindSolar · 26 Feb 2016, 17:29

Thread necromancy here to point out that getting rid of the terrain layer if you're not using it in a geolocated model can manage a huge reduction in file size.