Hello are there any updates on when this could be compatible with SU2020 & 2021?

Thanks!

@jclements said:

TIG, first of all, thank you!

Three suggestions for an update:

1- Would it be possible to add to the submenu, an option to specify a new (or existing) layer the leader text would automatically be assigned too?

After using the plugin, a lot for all these years, I find that the text can get in the way at times but is still is required. So being able to turn it off for certain scenes via the Layer Manager is the answer ... but I often forget to change layers before using the plugin.

2- Ability to add prefix-text to a leader's text with descriptors such as "TOS" (top of slab) or "Pipe Invert" . That text would remain even if attached to geometry that is moved but could later be edited manually by the user.

3- Instead of creating the leader with a mouse-click, have it created via click-and-drag. With the current version, many times I have to adjust the leader's position with the text tool immediately after placing it with the mouse-click.

YES and YES!

Add Height from Datum is brilliant.... however for commercial use, when we mark up a plan with 100s of spot heights, we don't want to see the word "Height" on each one...these drawings get very very cluttered. My industry uses RL:41.1 (relative level).
The only way to change Height into RL is to cut and paste the tags thus making them plain text.

For the same reason, we need the ability to shift the tag.

In my case I have to label the top and bottom of a retaining wall - but these points sit directly above each other so i get two labels in the same place = unreadable.

Here's hoping a fix isn't too much work - if it is I'll top up your cookie jar/beer fridge.

HI Fredo,
Great tool concept! - this really improves things for those of us who create Site Plans in Sketchup.

But I'm having trouble using the Label Areas function.

I have selected a number of faces, and the areas are being reported when I hover over each one, as well as the total area of all faces. However, the area labels (text tags?) are not appearing when I click "Label Areas".
I checked layer visibility. Is there something else I can try?

If you can sort this out for me I will give you a nice big donation

Thanks!

@david. said:

. I know because I've used mid-range and high-end GPU's. The high end GPU made a huge difference in SU performance.

Hmm this is interesting news to me.

I'm about to purchase a PC for sketchup (and rendering with Indigo 3.0) and hadn't factored in a powerful GPU.. In fact i was planning to go with the fastest CPU i can afford and use ivybridge onboard video.

It would be great to hear some experiences from people who have actually tried i5, i7, overclocked cpus and various GPUs... I've done a mountain of research but very little evidence points to any particular setup being ideal. Overclocked sandybridge EE, probably?

My everyday workstation is new, 6-core xeon (watercooled), quadro 4000, SSD, etc.
Of course it runs sketch up very well, and is awesome for rendering, but it cost a fortune...well above my home pc budget!

i think i might have to head to a few shops and take along free sketchup and one of my models with lots of 3d trees!

Great tip Jean!

Im trying to achieve a similar solution, but for rendering purposes. I'd like to be able to delete anything that isn't visible in a scene.
This would speed up rendering time or, more specifically, the time it takes to process the scene prior to rendering,
Even making use of renderer component instancing, Indigo and shaderlight can take hours to process a scene with millions of edges/100k faces visible.

Hi Folks, I have a similar issue...would love some advice! I had a search on the Net but nothing came up.

My typical 3d trees have 200k edges, 50k faces, 15k components.

I noticed that modelling every leaf from a series of components (triangles) will result in 50k components, but this actually slows the model down (redraw rate).

Can anyone tell me if there's an ideal number of components per model, or as a factor of edges/polys? Which is most important in SketchUp models 5mil+ edges?
(Hardware: Quadro 4000, 6-core Xeon 3.2, SSD)

Cheers!
Sam.

I would buy a new Ivybridge i3 or i5 which go up to about 4.2ghz(more if you overclock). I would be interested to see a sandybridge vs ivybridge comparison at the same clock rate, for sketchup. i7's extra cores are useless for sketchup, except for perhaps exporting animations.

I'd also buy 2+ hard drives (one for apps, one for files), 8gb fast ram, a quality motherboard, best video card I can afford that isn't stupidly loud (or get some headphones), quality (gold) powersupply, quality (PVA or IPS) monitor. It's usually better value buying a cheaper CPU/motherboard combo every 2 years than it is to buy the best and keep it for 4 years.

I just got a new HP Z400 computer... watercooled 6-core (12 if I use hyperthreading) Xeon 3.2GHZ, and a Quadro 4000, 16gb Ram and a SSD. (gloat)

However, there's not a HUGE amount of difference between this and my old Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz. It seems that the new CPUs are designed to be fast for 64bit apps, which Sketchup isn't. Getting more RAM doesn't really help, for the same reason (unless you're using other software at the same time).

I think the video card (6600gtx 320gb to a 2gb quadro) had a bigger impact. The geforce was supposed to be one of the more reliable video cards out there, but I did get some playback errors and crashes (usually when offsetting or dividing faces) and the screen would 'cut in half' quite a lot, if objects or origin points are placed too far away from the camera in one scene. The Quadro seems very smooth and has hardly crashed..maybe once in the last month or two. I haven't tried the equivalent Geforce but I'm happy with a quadro (though I wouldn't buy it with my own money!). Quadros are supposed to be Awesome for 3DSMax.

In terms of capacity I can work with about 2 million edges at once, but it's a bit choppy..I tend to hide/unhide a lot. And that's being careful with components (every leaf is a component, for example). 5 million edges is about the max for one scene, but you can use a lot more with hiding/unhiding groups/components.

Exporting JPGs also tops out at 3000 pixels on large models, but I've gone to 5000 pixels on simpler ones.

I take large models into 3ds max (2012) and they are still very choppy to rotate, so I dont think sketchup is inefficient software.