Taking files home... then watching them crash
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So, this is probably user error and I apologize in advance if you all have answered this a thousand times (I did look and found nothing quite compatible.)
For years, I've worked 'on site' at different agencies and then take the 'completed' skp files home with me in case they call with changes, which they always do. The problem is that in the past year or so these files, which worked fine at the different offices, sometimes fail to open at home. They open, pinwheel like crazy, pause and allow me to feel a flush of relief that they finally opened, and then cruelly laugh and pinwheel again indefinitely until I force-quit them. Sometimes they're merciful and just crash as they're opening. Admittedly they're fairly large files: 40 - 50 meg renders of retail environments with lots of different textures. But they very often open and work just fine at home.
The crazy thing is I work on a laptop, so its the same computer at work and at home. The only variation is that sometimes I use images for textures off of the different agencies's networks. I could see that there might be a missing link type issue, but I thought that SkUp worked differently than Maya and such and kept small files of the images in the file itself somewhere (?)
So, what am I doing wrong? Is there a way to 'Archive' a file like in Maya, where it makes sure all referenced and linked files get packaged for transport? Is this even the issue?
Appreciate any help I can get on this one. It would really reduce unbillable hours of frustration if this could be resolved.
Thanks, Hakken
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Hi Hakken,
No, you thought correctly: SU does not "reference" any files but everything is "inside" so the issue cannot be a broken link or such. You say you sometimes use images from those agencies. How large are they (pixel-wise)? Too big image textures may eventually tax your video subsystem - BTW it is a laptop: what video card do you have? Would updating the drivers help?
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have you tried importing the files into a new untitled document?
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When at home, do you connect your laptop to an external monitor?
Anssi
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Hi all, thanks a ton for spending some time helping me with this. To answer your questions:
Anssi - I attach to a second monitor when I'm in the office, not at home. Could that be related? I could see how that might relate to Gaius's driver point.
Krisidious - I haven't tried that. I have tried opening the ~.skp that comes with it with the same result. I will try the import idea today when I head out.
Gaius - they can be pretty large images, but I am pretty diligent about downsizing them to the 2000 pixel cap before I import them. I work on a MacPRO, and I keep it pretty consistently updated. I'll double-check the drivers tho.Thanks again for the answers. I'll let you know if the import or driver update suggestions fix the issue.
- Hakken
EDIT: I did try importing the file into a new blank file and that does seem to work, which is good but not ideal as I lose all of the scenes I had set in the original file. Great to know for an emergency, but I still need to work out why the issue is happening. I've been doing some experiments this morning and Gaius might be on to something with the file sizes. Could being over that 2000 pix limit be something that's crashing the program?
The only other thing I can think of is that it could be caused by the new Lion OS, but the issue did crop up before I installed it, so that's probably unlikely.
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SO, I think Gaius nailed it. I've had a few files that were still pretty big even though I downsized them. I went back into those problem files and downsized the images to the 1024x1024 size (is that the actual cap?) and I've had no problems opening those files on my laptop.
I still don't know exactly why I was able to open and work in the files fine but then not open them later. Is there something in SketchUp's start-up routine that would make chugging through large images particularly difficult?
Thanks again for your help in solving the issue!
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glad the import helped... also think someone built a scene importer plugin as well...
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