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Exporting as a 2D graphic

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  • S Offline
    skylabridges
    last edited by 25 Sept 2015, 17:02

    I have a sketchup file of a fairly complicated building that I would like to export as a 2D graphic to work on in Adobe Illustrator. I need to get vector line quality results.
    So, I have the image of the building, I wait for like 7 hours for it to export as a 2d graphic .pdf through SKP, and it all looks fine. However, on working in Illustrator, even though the file is only 10mb and Illustrator should easily be able to handle this, it keeps making Illustrator crash. I've spent two hours with adobe online support and I sent them the file, and it also crashed their computer, so they thought it would have been to do with the way the file was created.

    Does anyone have any ideas where I've done something wrong? I have layout, and also vector rendered the image in their, and that also has the same results. I have done this kind of thing before from sketchup, and I'm feeling a bit frustrated it isn't working this time. I have even downloaded other vector rendering programs, but the file seems to crash in there too.

    The only thing I can think of, is that the mode is using a section plane - and this might be causing it to act this way? Although I have done small tests of simple shapes with section planes and they have worked without a problem.

    I am running on Mac OSX 10.10. 16GB RAM, and have Sketchup Pro

    Any idea's gratefully received!

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    • K Offline
      kaas
      last edited by 25 Sept 2015, 18:47

      No idea whats causing this. Maybe try opening the pdf in Inkscape (open source) and re-save again into some vector format? Nothing to loose.

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      • U Offline
        unearthed
        last edited by 25 Sept 2015, 21:12

        It might be a bit of a kludge but do you need to export the whole building - is it just a facade you need or whatever. I understand it's never ideal to start running two files but I do sometimes do this for large/complex files. Also just in case its useful have you checked that you don't have any lost object kilometres away from your building?

        Growplan - People ∩ Plants ∩ Place

        windows 7 64b, 4GB RAM, SU 8.0.16846
        Gimp, QGIS, Vectorworks 12, Bricscad 11

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        • S Offline
          skylabridges
          last edited by 26 Sept 2015, 10:32

          Yes it is all rather odd. I've deleted everything that you can't see on the model, and have pasted this into a new document. I am exporting this agin to see if it works. I've tried opening the pdf's in other programs and saving again, but they still don't work. I can't tell where the problem is coming from, knowing that I've done this kind of thing before. It's weird because I can open the pdf in acrobat and zoom in and the lines are perfect vector lines, exactly as I want, but doing anything else causes the program (Illustrator, Acrobat, Affinity) to crash. So I can't work out where the problem is coming from, as the crashing isn't program specific, rather file specific. Anyway, I'm hoping it's some glitch, and the new renderings will work (as I have to have this project completed within a couple of days and am running out of time and options! It doesn't help that each vector render takes like 6 hours to complete!) In the mean time, if anyone else has any advice, it would be gratefully received!

          S

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          • H Offline
            HornOxx
            last edited by 26 Sept 2015, 20:30

            Hi
            sometimes it helps to open the exported PDF file in Acrobat Pro and export from there into a new PDF
            which then is "better compatible" to your used Creative Suite for some reason...

            never trust a skinny cook

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            • S Offline
              skylabridges
              last edited by 28 Sept 2015, 16:54

              Thanks all for replying. Still no luck unfortunately!

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              • D Offline
                driven
                last edited by 28 Sept 2015, 23:01

                have you tried exporting as .eps?
                an 18MB skp takes less than a minute and produces a 2.5MB .eps...
                it also produces a better quality image than .pdf export...

                the other thing is, what are your 'Display Style' set to before export?
                john

                learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                • H Offline
                  holdenc
                  last edited by 29 Sept 2015, 17:12

                  Another option may be, since you're on a Mac, Print to a pdf.

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                  • P Offline
                    pbacot
                    last edited by 29 Sept 2015, 18:01

                    How does eps produce a better quality (I see no difference)

                    Print to pdf is a completely different animal.

                    MacOSX MojaveSketchUp Pro v19 Twilight v2 Thea v3 PowerCADD

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                    • L Offline
                      LARV
                      last edited by 29 Sept 2015, 22:31

                      @driven said:

                      have you tried exporting as .eps?
                      an 18MB skp takes less than a minute and produces a 2.5MB .eps...
                      it also produces a better quality image than .pdf export...

                      the other thing is, what are your 'Display Style' set to before export?
                      john

                      They´re vector in both .eps and .pdf. No difference in quality. Vector is vector.

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                      • D Offline
                        driven
                        last edited by 30 Sept 2015, 00:30

                        @larv said:

                        ...They´re vector in both .eps and .pdf. No difference in quality. Vector is vector.

                        neither are pure vector...

                        they 'can' both contain vector data, images and text...

                        how they achieve that depends on the library used for their creation...

                        in EPS lines are vectors, it doesn't support transparency and embeds bitmap images without compression, which can produce larger file size...

                        PDF was developed to extend EPS and is closely related,but...

                        in PDF lines can be raster or vector and it supports image compression...

                        the main benefit of later versions of PDF is transparency support...

                        however, the PDF engine/library used by SU on a mac doesn't export transparency and compresses images as jpg's...

                        added to that, actual line quality looks lesser than it's EPS parent can produce to my eye...

                        It's compressed image quality can vary depending on the view content and file size can sometimes spiral exponentially...

                        If quality is the primary goal, export the edges as EPS, the texture and the shadows as tif and combine them in post...

                        In some cases the visual differences between EPS and PDF requires making both with identical settings, opening in Preview and toggling to 'spot the difference'...

                        In my experience the line look stronger in the EPS versions...

                        john

                        learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                        • L Offline
                          LARV
                          last edited by 30 Sept 2015, 22:15

                          Regarding quality, after eight years of doing infographics for seven different newspapers, sending vectorfiles as both .eps and .pdf to print, none of my colleagues has ever noticed or heard of any difference in quality between the two. We would know if there was one that is noticable to the eye...

                          This goes for Illustrator files. If there´s a difference with other software I don´t know.

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                          • D Offline
                            driven
                            last edited by 30 Sept 2015, 22:37

                            @LARV, theres a big difference between newsprint and high quality output from 3d data...

                            we were discussing the quality of file export of SU on a mac before you chipped in...

                            so, do you have a mac?

                            do you export pdf or eps from SU on your mac?

                            this is what SU procuces on a mac...

                            Producer;       Mac OS X 10.10.5 Quartz PDFContext
                            CreationDate;   Wed Sep 30 18;44;09 2015
                            ModDate;        Wed Sep 30 18;44;09 2015
                            Tagged;         no
                            UserProperties; no
                            Suspects;       no
                            Form;           none
                            JavaScript:     no
                            Pages;          1
                            Encrypted;      no
                            Page size;      36000 x 36000 pts
                            Page rot;       0
                            File size;      9712 bytes
                            Optimized;      no
                            PDF version;    1.3
                            

                            note the PDF version, have a lookup how old and restrictive that is...

                            for your newsprint it probably would look more like this

                            Creator;        PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2
                            Producer;       Mac OS X 10.5.8 Quartz PDFContext
                            CreationDate;   Thu Aug 11 11;21;12 2011
                            ModDate;        Thu Aug 11 11;21;44 2011
                            Tagged;         no
                            UserProperties; no
                            Suspects;       no
                            Form;           none
                            JavaScript:     no
                            Pages;          18
                            Encrypted;      no
                            Page size;      1224 x 792 pts
                            Page rot;       0
                            File size;      8472815 bytes
                            Optimized;      yes
                            PDF version;    1.6
                            

                            lots more detail and a PDF version that has lots of extra functionality...

                            learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                            • S Offline
                              skylabridges
                              last edited by 1 Oct 2015, 12:46

                              So, when I did test pdf renders of smaller sections on the model, they came out fine and I was able to use them. So, based on this I assumed it was perhaps one of the more complicated sections on the building it was struggling with. So, I took out a couple of these sections, and I've rendered it as an .eps, and it does seem to have worked (ish). I am still not thrilled with the results, as it is still running very very slowly in illustrator (the eps file is 30mb though), but for now, it does seem to have worked enough for me to get by with. Thanks everyone!

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                              • D Offline
                                driven
                                last edited by 1 Oct 2015, 13:58

                                another approach would be to use Layout hybrid mode and see how they look in Illustrator...

                                learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself...

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                                • S Offline
                                  skylabridges
                                  last edited by 1 Oct 2015, 18:25

                                  Yes I tried layout also, but had the same outcome...

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                                  • L Offline
                                    LARV
                                    last edited by 2 Oct 2015, 11:58

                                    "do you export pdf or eps from SU on your mac?"

                                    Like I wrote, I was refering to Illustrator files. If there´s was any difference with other software I don´t know. Skylabridge wrote; "I have a sketchup file of a fairly complicated building that I would like to export as a 2D graphic to work on in Adobe Illustrator. I need to get vector line quality results". Both .eps and .pdf will open as vector (=vector quality) in Illustrator.

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