Sometimes one is forced to use layers for reasons not directly to do with SU. For instance, the only way to separate different materials in a model you want to import into Revit is by using layers

Inside SU I find it often convenient to place all my glass on a separate layer that I can turn off when exporting to a vector-only format like EPS or PDF.

Anssi

In Finland, it has also been customary to have a little "first fire" celebration. Traditionally all the smoke from the fireplace comes in until the master mason has been given his vodka. Then he goes up on the roof and drops a little stone in the chimney to break the thin glass he has placed there.

Good luck to your project

Anssi

If you have SU Pro you can draw a rectangular face and make it into a component. Then add the LenX and LenY attributes to it in the Component Attributes dialog, and make them visible (and user editable, if you wish). Now you can use the Scale tool or the Component Options dialog to change its dimensions, and the dimensions are visible in the Component Options dialog box. The simplest possible Dynamic Component.

Anssi

I wonder how far your model is from the SU origin, or how large your model extents are? This might be another symptom of the large model artifacts and distortions.

Anssi

@driven said:

Right click on the groups and 'explode' them, then select all and right click, 'Intersect Faces' >> 'With Selection'.

If you don't want them all welded together, make new groups with 1, 2, 3, etc.. groups first then edit that group by double clicking it, do your explodes and then click out of the new group to move on.

You will end up with internal faces, but that's another story...

john

To combine "solid" groups, SU 8 has the new "Outer shell" tool that automatically removes the internal edges and faces created if you use intersect. The Pro version has even more "solid" tools.

Anssi

The small municipality where I have my summer cottage is a frequent victim of filtering. It's name is "Pornainen" that is a Finnish version of a formerly Swedish name with a meaning that, naturally, has nothing to do with the four first letters.

Anssi

LayOut cannot import DWG/DXF. You can either export the titleblock as an image from AutoCad (use the raster "plotter") or recreate it in LayOut.

Anssi

How about exploding and immediately creating a new component?

Another way is to insert the DC in a new model, save it and import that. The DC attributes won't be usable until you explode the component once. Exploiting a common error with DCs.

Anssi

Fantastic, even if it would work only for rectangular rooms...

Anssi

I took a look at the file. I cannot guess the reason. First I guessed that there might be internal faces, but the both spheres have the same number of entities. I also tried to unhide all the edges on the facetted-look one, as it might have been that some of the edges were hidden instead of smoothed, but I didn't find any.

Anssi

Yes. "Overkill" it is. The command started as a part of the unsupported Express Tools (I am not quite sure whether it is still in those or if it was "promoted" into a "regular" command already). AutoCad is similar to SU in that some of its functionality comes from commands that are actually plugins.

Anssi

AutoCad has the Overkill command that can be used to process imports from SU. It automatically converts colinear line segments into single lines, and erases overlapping objects. It generally does an OK job.

Anssi

Sometimes even new computers ship with outdated drivers. You can try to upgrade the display driver (download the latest from ATI) and hope for the best. Check that the settings like Antialiasing and Anisotopic filtering and other 3D-related settings in the display control panel are set to "application controlled" or equivalent. Some very old ATI cards performed better if "Fast Feedback" in the SU Preferences>OpenGL settings was turned off.

Just suggestions.

Anssi

What graphics card? This used to be a common problem with Intel motherboard graphics that don't support OpenGL well.

Anssi

It is a matter of preference - like the lens you choose when you take photographs. 35 degrees is equivalent to a short telephoto or a "portrait" lens, and if you prefer a more wideangle effect you can choose something at about 60 degrees. In SketchUp the angle is measured vertically, so on a normal horizontal monitor, the appearance is always somewhat more wideangled than in a standard camera lens, where the angle is measured diagonally across the picture frame.

Anssi

@pbacot said:

I notice that sometime ACAD users create huge pdf files, others can make small ones.

PDF files exported from ACAD with the internal exporter seem to be somewhat different than those created with Adobe Acrobat. However, the usual culprit is imported image files in the ACAD drawing. AutoCAD resamples them, not too effectively. When you combine scanned images with vector graphics drawn over them, the complexity of the exported PDF file increases even further. Some of those even become unprintable. The trick I use in these cases is to export the file as a high resolution raster image from Adobe Acrobat, and then create a new PDF file from that. I once reduced a 400 MB PDF publication to about 1/20th of its previous size by replacing some of the pages that were ACAD exports by this method.

Anssi

If the same graphics card that you others are using is present in the machine, it might be that the driver is missing, so the machine uses the motherboard chip instead.

Anssi

When at home, do you connect your laptop to an external monitor?

Anssi

Intel graphics have had tons of OpenGL problems over the years, down to being unusable with Hardware Acceleration. If it now works otherwise OK with the missing selection box the only problem, I think it's good news. BTW, has turning Fast Feedback off any effect?

Anssi

The first thing to try is to press the Purge button in the Window menu>Model Info>Statistics dialog a couple of times. This deletes all the things that are embedded in the model file but unused, like components and materials you have tried.

Anssi