Sketchup Components on Mac vs PC
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Hey everyone, I have a very annoying problem and Im hoping someone out there has a solution. I recently switched from a PC to a Macbook Pro for sketchup. What is happening is when I go to import a component on the Macbook pro, I cant see thumbnails of the component, only the skp icon and the name. On the PC, I would import, view the folder by thumbnail, and find what I needed. It doesnt work on my Mac. Does anyone have any solutions or know why this is happening. Its making it impossible to model because I cant see thumbnails of any components to drag into the model. Thanks so much in advance for any help.
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OS X doesn't support .skp files
i posted some workarounds here:
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=138040#p138040in the meantime, you can go here:
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and request support for .skp files.. if apple ever does give support, we'll be able to look through full size previews of our sketchup files in a very fast and efficient manner (coverflow etc..) without actually opening the files..
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@unknownuser said:
and request support for .skp files.. if apple ever does give support, we'll be able to look through full size previews of our sketchup files in a very fast and efficient manner (coverflow etc..) without actually opening the files..
The preview embedded into .skp files aren't that big. They are embedded max 128x128 sized PNG files.
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@thomthom said:
@unknownuser said:
and request support for .skp files.. if apple ever does give support, we'll be able to look through full size previews of our sketchup files in a very fast and efficient manner (coverflow etc..) without actually opening the files..
The preview embedded into .skp files aren't that big. They are embedded max 128x128 sized PNG files.
right, that's an embedded icon created by sketchup..
if os x supported the files, it would actually look into the files and show the previews full size - .. i see you have 10.4 so you can't check out what i'm talking about but with leopard, they introduced coverflow and quicklook. (cover flow is the same thing as browsing through albumn covers in iTunes.. apple made it so i can look at my whole computer that way.. not just iTunes)with leopard, i can open a folder full of PDFs or TIFFS etc. and browse through the folder by looking at the actual documents instead of by looking at their name and/or tiny icons... (all via finder... no apps have to be open to do this)
i might make a quick video in a little bit to show what i'm talking about.
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I believe I've seen it. But I have my doubts how well it would work for 3D formats if the OS where to read the file natively every time. Imagine if you have a folder with lots of 50-100MB models?
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i just tried it on a folder with around 240 TIFFs in it that were each 100MB+..
there were no glitches or slow downs and i was doing it at full screen resolution..
the previews were pixelated (but still recognizable) but if i sat on the individual preview for a second, it cleared up..those are my medium format scans though and i never have skp files even close to that size..
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2D image formats are much easier to read than 3D. You'd have to read, interpret and render internally the content.
Though, it'd be nice if Google released the specs for the .skp format. I was snooping around in it with hex editors when I was trying to write a thumbnail extractor in PHP. I managed to sniff out the PNG preview, but I couldn't reliably read the statistic data.
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I thought you got some access to the .skp format through the SDK, or does that just come with a 'plug in the data and out pops the file' sort of thing?
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@thomthom said:
2D image formats are much easier to read than 3D. You'd have to read, interpret and render internally the content.
Though, it'd be nice if Google released the specs for the .skp format. I was snooping around in it with hex editors when I was trying to write a thumbnail extractor in PHP. I managed to sniff out the PNG preview, but I couldn't reliably read the statistic data.GraphicConverter X does what you're talking about but i'm not sure if they had to get anything from google or if they were able to do it on their own.. (well, actually, they've probably only accomplished the preview part.. not sure about statistic data.. what's the statistic data you're talking about?)
here's a GraphicConverter example using some random duplicate skps:
typical look of opening a folder in icon view via finder..
browsing the folder with GraphicConverterX instead of finder:
now, all i have to do is open the folder using finder again and it looks like this:
same as above with icons set to their max size (128)
all of the previews show up instantaneously when i open the folder through graphic converter.. there is an option to save larger previews to so i can see them full size in coverflow but it takes a little time to build them (maybe ~5 seconds for the folder above containing 12 skps).. this is almost a sweet workaround except i have to browse the skps via GraphicConverter first.. if os x would add support for SU then it would all happen automatically...
and i don't think it's out of the question to have apple support the files.. every time a new digi camera comes out they update the OS to support the raw files etc.. -
Up to 128x128 it would use the embedded thumbnail. But does it generate images large than that? Or is it supersampled?
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@remus said:
I thought you got some access to the .skp format through the SDK, or does that just come with a 'plug in the data and out pops the file' sort of thing?
It has C++ libraries to read data. But nothing which I can hook up to PHP.
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@thomthom said:
Up to 128x128 it would use the embedded thumbnail. But does it generate images large than that? Or is it supersampled?
yeah, i just did some experimenting with it and i don't think it's looking in the actual file and creating a new hires preview.. just blowing up the 128icon and it doesn't look too good at 256x256 and horrible above that size..
bummer.
still, i'm optimistic about the possibilities
... we'll see what happens in the future (probably nothing). -
actually..
this is just a matter of google staying up to date with leopard.. most of the newer apps and/or updates have 512x512 icons..
it's funny looking through my app folder with coverflow because a lot of the app icons look clean and pretty then SU,style builder, & layout are pixelated...
so yeah, google updates their icons and OSX gain the ability to read them and we're set... i don't think either of those two things would be hard to implement (seriously, maybe 1 programmer working 1/2 day on it at each company??) but it seems the big corporation software companies are about as fast as politicians when it comes to getting things done.
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@unknownuser said:
actually..
this is just a matter of google staying up to date with leopard.. most of the newer apps and/or updates have 512x512 icons..
it's funny looking through my app folder with coverflow because a lot of the app icons look clean and pretty then SU,style builder, & layout are pixelated...
so yeah, google updates their icons and OSX gain the ability to read them and we're set... i don't think either of those two things would be hard to implement (seriously, maybe 1 programmer working 1/2 day on it at each company??) but it seems the big corporation software companies are about as fast as politicians when it comes to getting things done.
And Vista and Windows7. They both support large icon views. HD has reached the world of icons.
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ο£Ώ thank you very much Jeff Hammond, had the problem of visualization on OS X 10.5.6, this would help much. ο£Ώ
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