So Frustrated with SU
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Thanks so much for taking a look!, you are right it is around 5mb, not sure why I was thinking it was 9.
So I need to learn to cut down on the number of edges and faces? I do leave all of the heavy layers off, while working on it, but when I turn them back on is when everything freezes. -
Well, try that video drive update anyway. I have a computer with a 2.7 GHz processor but with only 512 Mb memory and an old ATI Radeon X550 video card and I could get around your model pretty well.
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Thanks very much for the help. I actually emailed SU and they sent me a link to a download for drivers, the date on the downloads is oct 2007, not really understanding why my computer would need that, but I will give it a try.
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In some cases there have been problems with soem graphics card drivers and SU, so you had to look around for old versions of the drivers untill you found some that worked. Perhaps thats the reason for the old link for SU HQ?
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@rudbeckia said:
@chango70 said:
I use 8600m GT without too much problem. I have the latest graphics driver. the default graphics driver kept crashing. Anyway it is 175.5 it think and its from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com website. You see the driver is actually for desktop and you need to run a mini-crack to install it on your laptop. There are clear instructions on how to do that on the website. Just follow it you should be fine. btw the latest Graphics card on Macbook Pro is also 8600M GT so you really shouldn't have a problem.
Chango- I can't find the 175.5 driver at that website, do you know where else I might could find it?
Looks like the latest stable is 177.73. Try that. http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19790
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Hi Rudbeckia, hi folks.
Your model dont look like it should slow down a fairly powerfull machine. I once worked on a 100 Megs model without too much problem since there where not any numerous repetion of elements in it. Maybe, in your model, there are some large quantity of geometries that may be slowing down your machine. Even a small file can bring a powerfull computer to a halt.
Try this test:
1 - Start SU.
2 - Draw a cube.
3 - Make a component with the cube.
4 - Purge the model to get rid of any unused material and or texture, component and style.
5 - Save it and check the file size. It should be about 9.29 K (thats what I have on my work PC).
6 - Select the component.
7 - Move/Copy it along the red axis and specify 99 copies. You should have a line of 100 cubes.
8 - Save again and check file size. It should be around 21.8 K. You now have 100 more geometries in the model but the file is a little over twice as big.
9 - Select the whole line.
10 - Move/ copy it along the green axis and specify 99 copies. You should now have an array of 100 x 100 or 10000 cubes. You will probably notice that SU is a bit slugish when orbitting and zooming. It is not that bad with panning.
11 - Save again and check file size. It should be around 1.19 Megs or about 128 times the original file with one cube although the number of geometric element is now 10000 times what was in the original file.
I leave it up to you to select the whole array and Move/Copy it vertically and ask for 99 copies. You will end up with 1000000 cubes and a very large file and SU will be nearly dead, if you have the patience to wait for SU to generate those 900000 additional cubes.
I just did a 10 fold augmentation by copying the 10000 cubes array up with 9 copies to get 100000 cubes. It took about 30 seconds on my work PC The file size is now 11.8 Megs and SU responds, slugishsly but its workable, only if I use Wireframe Mode and turn profiles off in the Style window.
My point is to show that even with a 1.19 Megs file, the computer begin to slow down noticably.
In your case, the culprit could very well be the trees and other vegetations but you dont have dozens of them although they may have thousands of facets each (the leaves). Maybe it is you graphic card driver that is to blame. I updated mine a while ago and it improved SU a lot, specially the antialiasing.
If you cannot post your file here because of its size, try uploading it to the 3D Warehouse since the limit is higher. After that, post the link here.
Just ideas.
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Just delete those high poly 3d trees (the birch ones). That specific tree gives me so much grief.....its crazy! I really don't like tha component. If you delete those 6 trees, I think you'll see significant speed improvement. Tomsdesk has given a lot of really great tree components that are avialable in the components section of this forum. Go look for anything by him, and you'll probably find a tree that you can use instead, that will look at least as nice, and probably nicer (in my opinion). Yeah seriously, I hate that tree......
Chris
EDIT: In general I don't use 3d plants unless I have to. I prefer to hand draw my own in photoshop and make 2d faceme components.
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Chris, I was just reading thru this thread again and saw those trees and have had the same problem: they slow me down more than they "should" too...?
Rubeckia, I have a new Nvida quadro FX 1700 since the first of the year: and have found different drivers work differently with different programs...and since most programs don't really care much, you need to find the one that works with the offenders. Mine are SketchUp and PSP (for some reason PSP just doesn't like the best one for SketchUp...until the latest was released just a short while ago!).
I get mine directly from the Nvidia site just to be sure. They have detailed instructions which work great (though the screen gets pretty scary in the middle of it).
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Thanks so much for all the advice!!! I may become a SU pro one day yet, many years from now lol.
I know my birch trees are heavy, drawing them in photoshop is a good idea. All of my models will have lots of plants always, ( I am a plant person!) to bad the 3d ones make things so slow.
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Drawing your own stuff in photoshop is a good option in my opinion, especially if you like your own hand done style. I was going to post some images here from a project I did where I made all my own plants, but instead I decided to post it to the gallery forum. So here's a link to it:
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=11685Chris
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Rudbeckia, I took a quick look at your model out of curiosity. I didn't have any problems with it. I did notice, though, that the building itself could have been modeled with components.
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Rudbeckia, Sketchup is well known to struggle with heavy geometry and I hope Google address that as their number one priority in Version 7. They've had enough people telling them, so I'd like to think it will be addressed!
I've had a look at the model and would make the following observations:
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Daniel is spot on, you could have modelled the building with components and saved yourself a lot of time and crucially it would speed up performance. Next time, instead of modelling each window/door individually, do it once, make it a component and then copy and paste.
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Choice of components. This has been correctly highlighted by a number of people. The silver birch is very slow to manipulate. There are other components that actually look better and are much faster. I doubt silver birch would be used as a species anyway on top of a tower block. Also I never use 3d people. They look like robots and can slow down your model. Use the 2d people components.
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Be disciplined with your modelling/placement. There was some unnecessary hidden geometry present which I deleted. Also some of the 'ske 122' components were placed twice on top of each other.
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I think you're doing it anyway but purging components/models/layers keeps the model lean.
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Think about the scale your model will be viewed at. If you are designing a tower block with a roof garden you could have 2 versions of the roof garden. Firstly a simplistic model for distant views with just the bare bones and principally 2d components. You won't need the small detailed 3d components like the inside of the fridge, small plants, rocks etc which won't be seen when viewing it from a distance. Secondly a detailed model for close ups. It may even be the case that all the close ups can be done in a separate file with no need to even show the tower block.
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Think about using 'proxy' files i.e. instead of putting in detailed trees from the start, put in a single line 'stick' component as a marker. Then when your model is complete you can right click and reload choosing the detailed component required as a replacement.
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It's also been mentioned, but hide the components that are not required whilst modelling. The outliner can be used to keep track of what is present and visible/invisible. Don't keep it visible all the time however as it can also slow down your model.
Simply deleting the duplicate components, hidden geometry and the 3D person speeded things up. Replacing the silver birch made it much faster. Also it's a personal thing, but when modelling turn off the sky and ground and use a white background. It may speed things up a little and is much less distracting.
Don't give up on SketchUp, you just have to work smarter within its current limitations. Any advantage in file handling you may get with other programmes, will be lost through longer modelling times. For the type of example you're working on Sketchup is unbeatable.
Kenny
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Hi Rudbeckia,
I've looked at your model and WOW(!)that's too many hi-poly trees, grasses, and plants! There are much lighter ways to do this, and I think this is just a learning curve thing.
Go to the 3D Warehouse and do a search on "low poly trees" and you will come up with many examples of good looking tree/plant/shrub/grass objects that are literally hundreds of times smaller than those in your model.
I regularly work with SketchUp models that are over 100MB without problems, but it depends on what is making the SketchUp file large; is it because of hi poly count or large textures? This can make a difference, and as you become more proficient with SketchUp you'll find the tricks that help keep a file light, like using components, creating .png based trees, .png based railings (instead of fully geometric railings), like down sampling the .jpg textures, lowering the amount of edges and thus faces on an extruded circle or polygon, etc...
This is a great forum to learn about these tricks of the trade.
And also, don't assume that a new computer hasn't been sitting in a warehouse for 6 months...or that the manufacturer was/is willing to open the box and update all of the drivers before it gets sent out the door. The graphics card manufacturers are upgrading their drivers much more frequently than the computer manufacturers, so always go to the graphics card mfg's site for the latest.
One other tip on keeping it light...make sure you "Purge Unused" from the Model Info window > Statistics pane. This will ensure that your model is cleared of components, styles, and materials that are not being used in your model.
We're here to help, so keep us apprised of your progress and any questions you have as you go!
Cheers,
- CraigD -
Thanks for all of the help everyone! There are some great pointers here! I will try to stop flooding the SU forum with questions
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