The interaction between SU and BIM applications has always been a mixed bag. In the stone age SU had import plugins for Archicad and Autodesk Architectural Desktop that attempted to translate SU models into the native objects of these applications, with not-that-impressing results. Vertical faces were translated into walls, horizontal into slabs and oblique ones into roofs, and hole-cutting components into doors and windows. Good idea, but the results were usually messy with many redundant objects etc. unless your SU model was very simple, preferably a clean outer shell of a building.

Today SU models can be imported into Revit and Archicad either as imported objects or mass models. So SU can be used in a limited way to model things like furniture or other things that do not have to be parameter-driven. Also, I haven't found a way to smooth curved SU surfaces in either application, so in hidden-line 3D views SU-imported curved objects are fairly unusable. The same things apply largely to imported "mass models" too. As SU is a face-modeller, the usual massing tools don't work, but you can apply building elements to SU faces.

I am now doing my first full project in Revit. On the whole I feel it is quite a powerful tool, but it works quite differently from traditional CAD. It is almost totally about modelling/managing the building database, and if you look to work in a traditional CAD way you should probably look elsewhere.

I always say that my ideal BIM application would be a mixture of Revit and Archicad features, with the SketchUp interface.

Anssi

The proper way to save dynamic components is to export it by right-clicking on the component and select "Save As..". That keeps the component to be saved inside an "envelope" file.

Anssi

@honoluludesktop said:

work of the world's great(est) photographer, Ed Weston

There are so many great photographers that I couldn't add the (est) suffix to anyone. Another I love is Josef Sudek:

@solo said:

I have an even more irritating issue, I have SU on only one machine, when I open a second instance of SU it shows as expired in second intance and runs as slow as snot on a cold day.

So far nobody has suggested a solution.

You might try to use your firewall settings to block SU from network access. It might slow down SU startup, though. Just an idea.

Anssi

It happens also if you have a network license, and all the licenses are taken.

Anssi

Thanks

Yes, it's perfect-Runs circles around my old LP (Rafael Kubelik/Elsie Morison)

Anssi

An old trick I use is to never use the imported linework except for inferencing. I place the imported drawing some way up from my "work plane". Then I draw a large rectangular face. Then I start modelling with the rectangle or line tool, placing it on the face until the "on face" tooltip appears, press down Shift, and start clicking away at the points in the imported 2D component. I also try to keep an eye on axiality to avoid the ******* small deviations that try to creep in (yes, there are sloppy drafters in my colleagues, and I am sometimes one too).

Anssi

You can right-click on materials in the In Model tab (little house icon) of the Material browser and select "Delete" from the menu.

Anssi

Today I fought some minutes against faces "not filling". I was working within a group, and it took me a little while to realize that I had accidentally painted the group with a totally transparent PNG texture. Doh.

Anssi

I haven't used Poser for a long time, but I seem to remember that OBJ from SketchUp worked best if you checked the "Triangulate all faces" option in the Export Options dialog box.

Anssi

SketchUp generally does not seem to like other ways of arranging your screens than those allowed by the standard Windows settings. Using Nvidia's Nview, for instance, does not seem to work.

Anssi

@tig said:

This is really a CAD issue ?
AutoCAD 2010 has mesh smoothing tools these might help ?
Sketchup is not a solid modeler

The Autocad tools do not work well on SU exports. Every SU face is converted into a separate polyface mesh, whether smoothed or not.

Anssi

@tig said:

When you export a 3d DXF/DWG file from Sketchup it should be in current units - e.g. mm.
If it's a 2d version I think it's always in inches.
If you give the file to a third-party then tell them what units to expect - they can adjust the scale on import/insert...
As has been said... recheck by importing the file back into a SKP and check its sizes..........

No - the problem is the same for all SU DWG exports, whether 2D or 3D. 1 mm or m or cm is quite correctly translated into one drawing unit in the DWG file, but the unit indicators in the drawing file are written with imperial settings:

• the "Measurement" system variable is set to 0, while it should be 1 for metric.
• the "Insunits" system variable is set to 1, while it should be 4, 5 or 6 for mm, cm or m, respectively

I have been nagging about this for years. It's partly fixed for exports from LayOut.

Anssi

@mitcorb said:

I perceive that the computer/Sketchup/OpenGL don't care if it's inches, parsecs, or Angstroms. Just give it a unit.
I perceive also, that computer modeling is really done proportionally, about the virtual bellybutton at 0,0,0 within a sphere whose outer limit is not specified.
So, on that basis, you could create a unit system, say of inches, or milimeters with a built in multiplier that overcomes the problem of those tiny empty faces.

No. SU has a built-in measurement system that uses real-world units, internally inches. AutoCad's units are inherently abstract - the program doesn't care a damn if for you "1" means an Angstrom or a lightyear. Both AutoCad and SU have problems with metric units that have been grafted on an interface that was originally designed for imperial users.

Anssi

Honoluludesktop,

What I did was draw a freehand object in SU, pushpulled it, and exported to ACAD 2010 with the SUPro exporter. The 3D polylines exported do not have any width, bulge or thickness attached either to the polyline itself or the vertices (checked with the entsel and nentsel autolisp commands). Group code 39 is missing altogether - as it says, it's optional. I wonder if the exports for different ACAD versions differ, or if VoloView is adding fantasy of its own. VoloView is itself a rather old application-I would recommend the latest TrueView version: It's free, it works with the 2010 format, and it can convert DWG files to older and newer versions, down to version 10 or 12 DXF, I think.

Anssi

There is one thing to note about DWG files: When exporting, while the metric units are correctly translated into units in the drawing file, the file has its unit flags still pointing to inches. This may cause problems, if the receiving application is using the unit flags to choose a potential scaling factor: Autocad, for instance, if set correctly to metric millimeters, imports SU-exported files 25.4 times too large. The options here is to either open the files in AutoCad before placing them anywhere else, and putting in correct unit settings, or then set the receiving file to ignore unit settings (in AutoCad: Units command>Unit to scale inserted content: Unitless). IMO it is a bug(a long-standing one, it has been this way at least from SU version 3).

The latest maintenance version of LayOut exports the units almost correctly, but the exports are 2D only.

Anssi

Honoluludesktop,

What viewer are you using? I cannot duplicate what you see. I use AutoCad 2011. No thickness or width added to polylines or arcs. Face elements become polyface objects, while edges are correctly translated to corresponding ACAD entities. A cylinder has a circle both at the bottom and top.

Anssi

Are you only doing visualization? I have never heard of anyone doing construction documents with 3DS Max.

I have lately been getting more familiar with Revit. As to exporting to SU from Revit, I did try it on a small project and it went quite well via 3D DWG. The reason was that I had all kinds of entourage things handy for SU so I rendered the model through SU.

Anssi

A simple way to "flatten" a model in SU Pro without a script or other special tools is to select plan view, turn on parallel projection, and export a 2D DWG file to full scale, and re-import that.

Anssi

I seldom export to 3D DWG from SU, but I tested by trying to create a similar part to yours, exported it and opened it in AutoCad 2011. To me the result was quite as expected: The edges became a circle and a loop of lines and arcs, and the face became a polyface mesh with a hole in the middle. No weirdness to be seen. So I am suspecting your CAD. Is the result the same even if you only have the edges to export? I am just wondering if your CAD is able to correctly interpret the 3D face geometry, or if the face geometry is partly covering the lines. Does your CAD have a 3D view where you could verify what is actually happening?

Just thoughts

Anssi