If you have clipping in both perspective and parallel view modes, your model is probably either too big (miles/kilometers across) or too far (miles/kilometers) from the origin point for OpenGL to handle well. This can be caused too by having some extraneous pieces of geometry, usually the result from importing a CAD file, somewhere in "outer space". This has usually the added symptom that the model "disappears" if you do a Zoom Extents.

In the first case, you can split your model into parts and hide the ones you are not currently working with, or export the parts into external smaller files, and only bring them in again fot the final assembly.

In the second case, move the model somewhere near the SU origin and in the third, erase the extraneous parts.

Just suggestions

Anssi

The few "official" responses from the SU team to queries like this have always stressed that SU performance is more dependent on the CPU than on the graphics card, and that a "decent"(whatever is meant with it) card is enough. They also have said that the workload is divided between the CPU and GPU so that the CPU takes care of the geometry while textures and shadows are generated by the GPU.

My models are small, and I generally don't use tons of textures. My oldest computer is a 2.66 GHz P4 with a 64 Mb old ATI All-in-wonder card, and it runs SU 6 quite OK. At work I have a 3.6 GHz P4 with a Quadro FX 1400 card. Looking at the specs, it should run circles around the other, but in practice it is, well, just noticeably faster, as an user experience, the performance boost is even smaller than the difference in CPU clock speed.

Of course my next computer will be a multicore, but I just don't see a pressing need to upgrade just yet.

Anssi

I wonder what's up with your file. It worked OK with my test files. Is the SU file link in Layout updated? The scenes/styles/layout views/Model Info settings hassle has become quite complicated and the user does not always know the range where changes to different settings take effect.

Anssi

Mike,

For me it works like this:

1. When I right-click on a component with nothing selected, the menu appears.

2. When I select the component with a left click, and right-click while keeping the cursor pointing at the component (not its bounding box), the menu appears.

3. When I select the component with a left click or if it is otherwise selected, and I right-click elsewhere (in blank space or the bounding box), the focus is lost, and nothing happens

4. When I have an object selected, and I right-click with the cursor pointing at another object, the original object loses its focus, the new object gets selected and the context menu appears for that object.

This is different from, say, AutoCad, where you can right-click anywhere without losing your selection, but it seems to be with design.

Did you restart SU after changing the settings in the OpenGL dialog?

Anssi

Most likely it is not a SU bug, but a graphics or mouse driver problem. Assuming that you are using a Windows PC. Try turning off Hardware Acceleration (Window>Preferences>OpenGL). If that helps, and your machine has a decent video card (ATI or Nvidia-based), you should try upgrading the driver software - turning off Hardware Acceleration slows SU down quite noticeably with all but the smallest model files. If you are using an Intel motherboard graphics solution, I would recommend installing a decent dedicated graphics card, if your computer has the option.

Anssi

It was a theatre set in the Netherlands...(Snopes again)

Anssi

To go on: I have long wanted a multicore computer too, but the ones with a 3GHz+ clock speeds are still quite expensive so I keep waiting. Multicore would be great for rendering, but all the principal modelers and CAD apps are still single-threaded (some of them, like 3DS Max, support multiprocessors for rendering). I don't know if motherboards support it, but if I built a new computer for SU today, I would put in a 3.8 GHz P IV (less than 150 euros, maybe hard to find) and swap it for a 4-core when the prices come down, and SU starts supporting it. A Quad4 Extreme would be 8-10 times more expensive today, with possibly same or worse SU performance.

Anssi

These are just great! How long was the wait? I like Indigo very much, but my humble computers usually need to churn away about at least 12 hours to get anything decent.

Anssi

The "Correct reverse picking driver bug" function works only with some older graphics cards. Lately this problem has been reported by many users with laptop/desktop computers with motherboard-integrated Intel graphics chips. These are not meant for serious 3D work. If you have one of those, try first turning off Fast Feedback, and if that doesn't help, Hardware Acceleration. This will slow SU down with all but the smallest models, so the best option would be to install a real graphics card (preferably Nvidia-based)if your computer has the option to do that.

Anssi

Probably your roof shape is not wholly rectangular, so moving up would create creases in the roof surfaces. If you press Alt/Option when moving, you will be able to move in the blue direction (It's called autofold). Probably you will see some unexpected diagonal edges turn up.

Anssi

The speed of InDesign (or even better, PageMaker)
Ability to import all kinds of 2D vector and raster graphics in addition to 3D SU.
Exploding and editing 2D vector formats, especially PDF
Output PDF pages with the model windows in 3D PDF

Total control of the SU model view from within Layout.

Together with SU, the creation and maintenance of scenes needs some rethinking and ironing out the quirks

Anssi

Current material name displayed in status area, clicking on it opens the materials palette. Choosing the paint bucket tool shouldn't affect material palette visibility.

Anssi

Now my eyes are all kaleidoscopic. Strong stuff.

Anssi

I'm enjoying this thread immensely...

Anssi

Painting whole components is indeed often a very versatile way of working, but the export options or plugins and the corresponding render applications I have used cannot export or work with materials applied to a group or component. The same applies to materials painted on the back sides of faces - a great method if you remain within SketchUp, but not a good idea if you need to export to a different application

Anssi

I wouldn't call it an "attempt"- it's really good! Of course, people frozen in the middle of a fast movement look always somewhat surrealistic when viewed in 3D. The sculptors seem to get away with it by either faking the thing or choosing phases of movement that look "natural"-just as creating a "random" tile pattern takes a lot of composing.

Anssi

I don't know anything about Vista, but I think this was reported in a post a couple of days ago, and the poster was able to correct it by starting to run SU in XP compatibility mode (I think the settings to do this are to be found by right-clicking the program icon).

Anssi

@pompeyfan said:

My Graphics Card is a 128MB Intel

If you have a slot in your computer, a decent graphics card would make a difference in all but the smallest models. The on-board Intel graphics use your system memory (that's where it takes the 128 Mb from)and doing so slow down other things as well. And they are not meant for SU or other 3D applications. Usually you cannot use them with Hardware Acceleration on. Almost any Nvidia Geforce-based card will be better, and if you model professionally, a Quadro FX can be recommended. Ati cards can be usually made to work too, but users report more problems than Nvidia (not that they frustrate some users too)

Also, adding the second gig of memory is not a bad idea either.

Anssi

This is something that has been puzzling me all the time I have used SU.

I just do not understand why Print and Export 2D image have to be so totally different in approach. Exporting vectors to DWG/DXF and PDF/EPS can be done to full scale from every parallel view. Of course only elements parallel to the view plane will be to scale, others are foreshortened. The PDF/EPS size is limited. Activating the Scale option for this shouldn't be too difficult.

Also, there is no straightforward way of making an accurately rotated Plan view, as the standard views do not follow modified axis directions.

The customary workaround is to make your buildings in separate files using the standard axis directions, and printing the plans from them, and then using the terrain model only for the assembly, with the buildings as components.

Anssi

I don't know if the film itself was anything special. Everybody knows that nice things can be achieved with software if you have the hardware to do it. Still-look at the slow regeneration when the "realism" is turned on at the near-end of the film. The thing is clearly pre-texturing the environment, just like a video game. The same might happen if the new renderer for SU, developed by someone, or something similar, ever gets done. And it was essentially a rendering app, not a modeller. Someone had still to have modelled all that in Revit. And the commercial product will cost something that only film studios and the like can afford.

I have no problem of using Autodesk software - I do it daily - if I don't have to pay for it myself. I still think i know AutoCad better than SU. But the established user base and their bias toward corporate clients makes it difficult for Autodesk to do anything radical and new, let alone free.

This is what makes me afraid for SU too. Remember the whining with the changes in v.6? So anything new Google brings to SU will also raise a storm of protest: Raise the minimum specs? Double the price?

I always seem to find myself an apologist for Google, but I still have not seen another software suited for designing my humble 3D architectural objects with a better interface. Blob architecture is no longer à la mode, and my clients wouldn't care for it anyway (not that it is easy to make in any of the BIM packages either).

Professional renderers might see this differently, but I understand that the use of SU among them for modelling (for projects without a BIM model supplied bu the client) is still rather in the increase than declining-even among users of behemoths like Maya or Max

Sorry about my incoherent ramblings

Anssi