Optimizing the model

[fluffy82]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering...

Finding some new informations, I have to partly rebuild the basic model in the picture.

I already made a component out of the column and half an arcade, and copied it around the buildings perimeter. That's obviously the less "heavy" way.
But for adding the entabulature (the horizontal thingy on top of the arcades), which way would be the best to obtain a lighter model?

• make the entabulature in a group, separate from the column/arcade component, by using "follow-me" on a profile

• include a short part of the entabulature into the component with the arcade and the column which is copied around

• make a component out of a short part of the entabulature and copy it, but separate from the component with the column and arcade

Thanks in advance for any tips!
Tom

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[Alan Fraser]

Hi Tom,
Personally, I wouldn't pay much attention to the entablature, as it's just a simple extrusion. It's not going to have that many faces. I'd probably model it as a single group...then you could move the whole group to a separate layer, so its visibility can be turned off to give you access to the arcades...for including doors, niches etc. If you wanted to place a repeated frieze along it, then that could be done as a separate repeating component.

I'd be far more concerned about the amount of detail in those corinthian capitals. There are two types of 'heaviness'...the actual file size, which can be greatly affected by the prudent use of components...and the actual number of faces in the model, which is what affects the navigability of the model.

The file size is only really important if you need to post the model to somebody. The navigability question is utterly dependent on the complexity of the geometry...putting stuff into components or leaving it as raw geometry has no discernible effect on this. If a model has a huge number of faces, it will be slow to navigate, however you package it.

The capitals might be ok...it's hard to tell from the image. If they are very complex, take a look at this thread for ideas.

[fluffy82]

Thanks Alan.
I know my way around SketchUp, but I'm a total nitwit in how to count faces etc. I thought the file size/number of faces/navigability were all very much related to each other.
My main goal to reduce file size (or better, if I understand correctly: reduce the number of faces) is I don't want to wait 30 seconds every time I click somewhere or move the camera.
If it doesn't matter a lot for the navigability of the model, I will indeed stick to my first idea to extrude the entabulature in a separate group.

About the column: it is really not that complicated. Much less than I would want it to be anyway.
It's a reconstruction, so the idea was to make a "simple" model first and then replace these raw capitals etc later on with very detailed components, modeled from the real remains.
But thanks for the link, I guess it might be an idea to project the details as an image onto the simple capitals in stead of making an actual 3D-version. Same for the frieze.

Cheers!