Too many poor models in 3D Warehouse
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I use 3D warehouse a lot, particularly for things like furniture and fittings. However, I always find myself trawling through dozens of poor quality models before I find one I can use.
Problems I get with the models include:
- too many polygons (slows down the overall model)
- lack of respect for real world dimensions
- too many, or too large textures
- model looks different to image (sometimes, all sorts of horrible edges show when you download the model)
- duplicates of other models
It is the kind of waste of time that is very unSketchup. The 2014 3D warehouse is appreciated - it allows much quicker scrolling through the model images - but there are still thousands of models! And you can only sort by title...?
I thought Google (who hosts 3D warehouse, no?) would be the perfect partner to help with the searching of models, but they have been pretty poor at it so far.
I would love some way for some automated sorting, or 'curating' of models, to sift through the rubbish which is only getting bigger everyday. I propose a few ideas to "page rank" the models somehow:
- push models that appear in more collections to the top of searches
- have a system where Sketchup tells 3D warehouse which downloaded models are being kept in the model when saved (this is apart from the number of downloads, which does not necessarily equate to use). And push these to the top. Perhaps there are privacy issues with this one.
- a wikipedia style tagging system for poor content, tagged by other Sketchup users. And versioning. For example, a Sketchup user may discover that the model does not respect real world dimensions, and tags the model as such. The uploader will have the opportunity to correct the model and reupload. Otherwise, the model gets pushed to the bottom of the list.
- Allow community tagging of content, not just by the author.
Do you have the same issues as me? Do you have any ideas or tips to help the situation? Or maybe you have a collection that you have created yourself and use exclusively?
TIP: In advanced searches, you can filter the results by the number of polygons - that is certainly helpful for certain problems.
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@tommyk said:
I always find myself trawling through dozens of poor quality models before I find one I can use.
We agree; bad models suck.
@tommyk said:
The 2014 3D warehouse is appreciated
Thanks; you wouldn't believe the kind of effort it took to pull that off. The guys on the 3DWH team are incredible.
@tommyk said:
but there are still thousands of models! And you can only sort by title...?
You're off by a few orders of magnitude, but point taken. Trust me, it's being worked on, but we had to start somewhere.
@tommyk said:
I propose a few ideas to "page rank" the models somehow
Thanks; the 3DWH team will appreciate your suggestions here.
@tommyk said:
I thought Google (who hosts 3D warehouse, no?)...
No. The original 3D Warehouse was created by Google, on proprietary Google infrastructure, after buying SketchUp in 2006. In June 2012, Google sold SketchUp to Trimble. Last week, we launched an all-new 3D Warehouse.
BTW, does anybody know the gestation period of an African Elephant?
Andrew
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Good job, Frederik
But then, it could be some really esoteric humor. You know those computer guys
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Good to know that the Sketchup Team are aware of this.
@andrews said:
BTW, does anybody know the gestation period of an African Elephant?
This is surely a coded message. The answer is:
@unknownuser said:
Gestation in elephants typically lasts around two years
Which obviously means that since Trimble took over Sketchup in April 2012, it would take around 2 years for the new 3D Warehouse to have better search functions. Since it's coming to April 2014 now, I am super excited that you are going to sort all of it out in ONE MONTH. Hurrah! Good work. Job done.
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How about we turn the component browser into a web page menu so we can just use the thumbnails in 3D warehouse? My eyes hurt from straining to see the tiny thumbnails in SU.
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@tommyk said:
I use 3D warehouse a lot, particularly for things like furniture and fittings. However, I always find myself trawling through dozens of poor quality models before I find one I can use.
Couldn't agree more with the original post. I've spent untold hours finding models in the first place, and then even more time cleaning/purging/optimizing before I can use them... if I've actually managed to find an otherwise well-drawn (but poorly structured) model after an extended search.
Other common problems to add to the original list:
- object is distant from origin, making placement through the component browser a pain in the ass.
- ungrouped geometry: either no grouping applied at all, and/or only groups used with no components -- resulting in an unnecessarily large model size
- no use of mirrored components (especially in complex organic shapes), so again model size is larger than needed.
To follow-up on the curation/community tagging/moderation issues and suggestions:
- create a group of certified super-users as 3DW editors that can verify and stamp models as 'validated':
- clean geometry -- no gaps, stray edges etc
- drawn to SU "best practices" norms
- optimized complexity/model size -- through components/mirroring/curve segments etc
- purged of excess/unused components/textures/layers etc
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This group of pre-validated models would exist in either a separate curated section or simply tagged as "Validated" or "Approved" or "Top Model" or some-such, with a dedicated search option for only those models.
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Eventually restrict access to the curated section to paid versions of SU as a value-added service to the product bundle... once there is a large enough library of validated models.
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Not sure how feasible it would be, but it could be interesting if all uploaded models automatically went through a clean-up/purge/test process before being made available through the 3DWH. How difficult would it be to modify something like ThomThom's CleanUp plugin to run in a sort of optimized auto-mode on every uploaded model?(Given how long it can take to run on a single complex model, I can easily see scaling problems, but there's enough smart guys on the SU dev team --including TT himself!-- to resolve any potential issues.)
Lots of other thoughts on this, but this post is already over-long!
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@db11 said:
To follow-up on the curation/community tagging/moderation issues and suggestions:
- create a group of certified super-users as 3DW editors that can verify and stamp models as 'validated':
- clean geometry -- no gaps, stray edges etc
- drawn to SU "best practices" norms
- optimized complexity/model size -- through components/mirroring/curve segments etc
- purged of excess/unused components/textures/layers etc
It's quite a job to moderate the models - not sure what these super users would get out of it. That said, I do think moderation is needed - there must be a way for everyone in the community to share the job - Wikipedia manage to make it work without formal moderators.
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@tommyk said:
@db11 said:
To follow-up on the curation/community tagging/moderation issues and suggestions:
- create a group of certified super-users as 3DW editors that can verify and stamp models as 'validated':
- clean geometry -- no gaps, stray edges etc
- drawn to SU "best practices" norms
- optimized complexity/model size -- through components/mirroring/curve segments etc
- purged of excess/unused components/textures/layers etc
It's quite a job to moderate the models - not sure what these super users would get out of it. That said, I do think moderation is needed - there must be a way for everyone in the community to share the job - Wikipedia manage to make it work without formal moderators.
The fantastically strange and wonderful thing about the internet is that people will work for free if you give them titles and little stars to put by their name. That being said, as soon as they get those titles a lot of them tend to stop working so hard or at all... Listed, Visible Rankings of how many models uploads/downloads and how many moderated would really be interesting to see.
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