? about file size/polygon count
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Actually, file size isn't all that important...except as a general indication of complexity or if you need to email it to someone.
What really counts is the amount of geometry in the model. This translates as the number of nodes/endpoints that SU has to keep track of.
Generally, your faces are going to be quads or tris, with the odd circle or arc thrown in for good measure, so the number of edges tends to be around 4x the number of faces.
There are exceptions, however...like if you decided to model a sycamore tree containing a leaf component that, although it was only a single face, had a nicely detailed outline needing 50 edges. No use congratulating yourself that you modeled a tree with only 2000 faces if it has 100,000 edges. A few of those babies are likely to slow you to a crawl.My general rule of thumb is that in most arch-viz/interior design situations you are unlikely to get closer than about 3 ft from anything in your renders...so detail it accordingly. For interiors which don't require a plan view, I'd tend to use 2D plants. If necessary, stick them in a 3D pot so they interface more convincingly with the floor or tabletop
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Alan -so is it possible to have a low file size, but high in geometry (and hence run slow)?
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@rose123 said:
Alan -so is it possible to have a low file size, but high in geometry (and hence run slow)?
Absolutely, Rose. I started a notorious thread some years ago called Geometry is Everything.
It had a repeated component of an image-mapped Corinthian column...1000 of them if I remember correctly. It was 125Kb...that's Kb not Mb...and killed most people's system stone dead.
EDIT:
Correction. Apparently it was 187Kb...but only 100 columns
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Froze mine up for a bit, too. That's a lot of columns! Ok, I see your point, it's geometry, not file size. Thanks!
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Another one for Krisidious. I'm off to put some columns in it now...
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@rose123 said:
Another one for Krisidious. I'm off to put some columns in it now...
that looks challenging. and decrepit.
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Ok, one more question, if you don't mind! In the statistics I can see the number of edges, faces, etc. Is there a range for that in which a model should fall? Like what would be small vs large?
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Well I would say that once you get past 100,000 faces you're going to star noticing... When you go to rotate around your model view you will notice at some point that SU will make your model into a ghost of itself to rotate more quickly and easily. This is the first clue you're getting too big.
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A ghost of itself? I just get a freeze and the message, "The program is not responding."
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The entire model will change to a type of greyed out, simplistic version of itself often showing a bunch of group/component constraints.
You get program not responding while rotating around the model? Or while performing a function?
One thing about SU, at least the old version, is that while it's thinking you should not attempt to do anything within the software and you might consider not doing anything with your computer period, until it finishes thinking. some plugins that are doing critical calculations use the progressbar.rb to show you what's going on, some don't... You'll learn one indicator is what type of cursor you can see at the time. black for ready to work, white for thinking. Others might be able to shine more light on this for you.
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I think I have a different SketchUp, the low-rent version or something, lol. Don't know about old, I have 8. I've never gotten a different color cursor or a grayed out model. If the file (geometry, whatever) is too big, it just runs slow and then freezes up.
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V8 is just the last version as of a day or so ago. V2013 is the latest.
You could share your model and we could look at it. You could try Goldilocks 2.0 to find what is so big... http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=281153#p281153
What are your system specs?
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Normally, SU will go through a progressive series of display abbreviations as you attempt to navigate a complex model.
In that columns skp I posted earlier, when it's first opened, you will probably find the SU initially refuses to do anything at all for quite a few seconds. However, once it 'gets used to' the model you will most likely find that you can actually rotate it...but you'll lose shadows, all the texturing on the columns...and all the fine detail up top, like the acanthus leaves, is replaced with simple bounding boxes. -
Alan -oh, I understand now about the display abbreviations. Yes, I've seen that.
Krisidious -I wasn't referencing one model in particular, just in general. Re my system specs, just standard off the shelf. What I have noticed is the difference a specialized video card makes in display, screenshots and exports. At work we have GTX 6000 series cards. I mention this because I've seen past posts from people complaining that their exports look jagged, and answers that suggested plugins and other stuff, but not the video card.
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I have two GTX 470's running sli. I've never heard of the GTX 6000 do you mean a Quadro 6000? if so that's an impressive card and should handle anything you throw at it.
Try Goldilocks and report back on any file. you've got a bottleneck somewhere.
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Another way of looking at this is "Geometry Density". You want appropriate amounts of detail - with drag and drop of components from external sources, its very easy to add innocuous content that has far too much detail compared to the rest of the model. I've seen simple school room models with more faces in a single coat peg than in the rest of the model!
For this reason, I wrote a free plugin called Goldilocks which can help track down in your model, where you've got geometry objects which have more detail than the surroundings.
SketchUp Extension Warehouse
Your library of custom third-party extensions created to optimize your SketchUp workflow.
(extensions.sketchup.com)
Adam
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