Layout To PDF Rendering Issue

JQL · 21 Aug 2015, 10:31

@dave r said:

:lol:

I used to start the vector renders for a project and go eat dinner. Now there's not even time to go pour myself a cup of coffee. And the coffee maker is only 8 feet from my desk.

LOL!

I tend to have all my projects in hybrid now and used to have a convuluted way of setting up Layers/Scenes/Styles and viewports to work with that.

Now is 10x simpler and 10x faster.

It's still not perfect but things that help are of course, hiding juxtaposed viewports (section or view), disable auto rendering (wich nowadays I don't do), locking viewports and rendering all in vector/raster when working and hybrid when exporting.

Dave R · 21 Aug 2015, 10:53

Ash, I do all my drawing work in SketchUp and all the documentation in LO. I haven't found a need to use other programs for the drawing work but then I don't often get CAD files from others. I do 100% of the drawing work for the projects. The only thing I need to create from the LO project is PDF files, too.

I expect it's difficult to figure out all the nuances and keep them straight when you have to work in many different programs. I'm glad I don't really need to do that.

ashscott · 21 Aug 2015, 11:15

Good on you. Working in multiple programs is a nightmare. However, I'm building a repertoire or techniques where I can get just about any design job done in Sketchup and Layout which is kinda satisfying.

pbacot · 21 Aug 2015, 14:01

Perhaps for load time issues, you can work with lower quality setting under Document Setup / paper / Edit Quality. I don't know how LayOut can be close to CAD clarity if you don't output with Hybrid or Vector. Your clients have a point. For most people CAD output will look better than LayOut, for now anyway.

pbacot · 21 Aug 2015, 14:08

@ashscott said:

Do you primarily work in SU or do you use other 3D software as well?

I ask because I am doing work across so many disciplines but don't have time to learn new software packages so am just sticking hard with sketchup -

Somehow we have to get past this, because this is what everyone has said about every design software except their first. You will still feel the same when you are as old as me. It's hard but probably unavoidable. SU is good because we can pick it up faster, but it still takes a while before one may produce professional work with it, as you know. I believe though it has been shown that you can "polish" your SU-LO work to be top of the line.

ashscott · 23 Aug 2015, 07:29

Yes, given patience I think the workflow you can learn in SU/LO is powerful because it is so fast for going from concept to working drawings. Initial learning curve is shallow, long term learning curve is steeper. All in all I think its well worth it.

sonder · 26 Aug 2015, 16:26

Ashcott, what graphics card are you using? a file like the one you posted should vector render almost instantly with a good card.

ashscott · 26 Aug 2015, 18:58

That was just a screen shot of a much larger file (many pages) with perspective and shaded textures on multiple pages.

sonder · 28 Aug 2015, 18:49

I actually don't keep a single project on one LO file. I create LO files based upon the drawing type - Site plans, Floor plans, Elevations etc. This really helps speed things up and should disaster happen with a corrupted file, your entire project is not lost. Then you can simply book the PDFs into a sinlge PDF if you care to. I keep them separate as it is easy to issue individual files as needed.

ashscott · 29 Aug 2015, 00:27

That totally makes sense. I do find that with engineering drawings I'm triple checking the practical implications of the design as I process the LO file and I often make numerous changes during this time - for example making something easier for folks in the workshop to actually construct. I feel this chopping and changing between LO and SU to make changes is more straightforward if I just have one LO document to update reference.

But when they get really big then yes, I have to split them up

utiler · 1 Sept 2015, 03:20

@unknownuser said:

I actually don't keep a single project on one LO file. I create LO files based upon the drawing type - Site plans, Floor plans, Elevations etc. This really helps speed things up and should disaster happen with a corrupted file, your entire project is not lost. Then you can simply book the PDFs into a sinlge PDF if you care to. I keep them separate as it is easy to issue individual files as needed.

Makes sense for auto numbering too. Keeping plans / elevations / sections in separate files means numbering prefixes work easily.