EDrawings color problem

bagger05 · 27 Jun 2012, 13:24

I have drawn a box in SketchUp (free version - 8.0.14346). The box was drawn in two symmetrical halves. I created the first half, made it a component, copy/moved the component, scaled it by -1 on the center grip (to make an opposite), and then moved the new half into place butted up against the first half. I painted the component gray (which of course made the other component gray as well), and then exported the drawing to eDrawings.

When eDrawings opened, one half of the box was gray, the other half was black.

Does anyone know why this happened?

Thanks in advance,
bagger05

Dave R · 27 Jun 2012, 13:47

Could you post the SKP file?

bagger05 · 27 Jun 2012, 14:01

Attached (color problem).

The half that is situated on the origin is the original creation, the one closer to the camera is the copy. The copy is the one that appears black in eDrawings.

I have a variation on this drawing with a cutout (color problem 2). In this drawing, the half of the box on the origin is the original creation, but the end piece with the cutout is a separate component. The half of the box that is closer to the camera was copy/moved and scaled to -1 like I described in the original post and appears black in eDrawings. The end piece with the cutout was copy/moved, but was NOT scaled and made into an opposite. In eDrawings, both end pieces appear gray as they do in SketchUp.

So it appears that the color problem is caused by the fact that the component was made into an opposite. Is this a known issue with a good workaround? Obviously I could just create the opposite half as a separate component and that might solve the problem, but since most of what I draw are boxes made up of two halves, that would make each drawing take twice as long.

Thanks for the help,
bagger05

color problem.skp

color problem 2.skp

Dave R · 27 Jun 2012, 15:54

I've not heard of this issue before at all. What happens if you use Flip Along instead of Scale to make the mirrored counterpart?

Gaieus · 27 Jun 2012, 16:07

I've heard issues with mirrored geometry in other software (e.g. Lumion), too. If it is the final stage of the design/presentation, I suggest to explode at least that mirrored component (or work on a copy of the file and explode there) before sending to eDrawing. There's probably no solution inside SketchUp.

bagger05 · 27 Jun 2012, 21:16

Gai,

I exploded the component and then sent to eDrawings and the color is no longer an issue.

Dave,

I am new to the program so am not familiar with "flip along" but I did move/copy the component and simply rotate it 180 deg. This also prevents the color issue. Unfortunately that solution would only work for boxes that are exactly symmetrical.

I also tried this:

I deleted the copied component (which was scaled to make it an opposite). Exploded the original component, copy/moved it, scaled the copied piece to -1 making it an opposite, turned both into components, joined them together, and then sent it to eDrawings. No color problems.

Obviously this is an issue for scaled components, not scaling in general. So that's good.

Dave R · 27 Jun 2012, 21:27

Flip Along is another way to create a mirrored component and I think more practical in most cases. It would interesting to see what you get when you try it on a copy of the component.