Too complex

[turtles]

Hi Im new here, My name is jay and I have a question.

A little about me. 28 from the UK at college learning AutoCAD 2D/3D, I have used Sketchup for a long time but not really learnt all its features fully. its more of a way for me to relax and create without having to be so exact like CAD.

I have made a model and uploaded it to 3D Warehouse, I know its a complex model and I have tried to reduce it as much as I can. I have made a few models some for Google Earth and some just to kill some time and this is this first complex one I have made, So I was wondering if somone could take a look at it and identify where I could improve/reduce the size of the file for Google Earth.

Many thanks Jay

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8e3e6ab82a54466991e927c004fde445

[d12dozr]

Hi Jay, the bridge looks good!

Most likely, the fasteners (rivets?) you have modeled are the main reason you are getting the "Complex" tag. Considering that when you look at the bridge in Google Earth you won't zoom in to see that level of detail, I would just delete them completely. If you gotta have them, I would suggest using a photo texture or modeling each bolt with only 4 or 6 sides to save file space and using components in place of the groups you have to save space further. Also you could make one instance of a gusset component like in the attached picture (using a 3-sided arc instead of the default 12) and copy for each gusset you need.

For further models, anything that has more than one instance should be made into a component and copied to minimize file space.

I hope this helps!

Marcus

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[turtles]

Thanks for the fast reply! I have removed the rivets and this seemed to work. An entire side of the rivets was doubled up too no wonder google did not like it! Thanks for your advice. Next time I will start it with a bit more structure to my building work and think on when I ca reuse a component.

Thanks again