I don't know if this is the right forum for this, but was hoping someone could help since there seem to be hardly any good sources online for Twinmotion users.

I have a model I built in Sketchup 2019. A couple of weeks ago I imported the model in Twinmotion 2020.1 (the original free version). At that time, the datamsmith exporter direct link to Sketchup was working pretty well, no issues.

A couple of days ago, we decided to purchase both the latest Twinmotion, and Sketchup 2022. I also switched to an upgraded computer. While both models (SU and TM) are running very fast, I have not been able to get the direct link to work. TM should be updating any changes in the SU model. Instead, it has failed to import objects that were previously already imported, substituted some of the textures (even though I unchecked substitution), and left me we an inferior model. It failed to replace most of the TM vegetation that I had placed in the model as well.

So instead, I've tried just opening the TM file, and importing missing items, but that doesn't work since it places the imported items at a different location and doesn't allow me to move them.

I also tried merging the TM model with a second TM model that only has the missing items, that didn't work either, as it permanently brought in the entire model in aother location and I cannot get rid of it, even though I saved a copy of the original.

SO my questions are:

1. Why would the direct link fail? Is it because this model was started an old version and converted to the latest version of TM?

2. Why do imported or merged models not come in at the same location?

3. Is there anyway to reverse merge a file?

It's a nightmare. This is for a client. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

@dave r said:

If you turn off Profiles in the Styles Edit tab and hide any remaining visible edges in the riprap objects, you should get that sort of thing. You'll have to open the groups/components and select just the edges to hide. Something like Selection Toys can make that easier. Not exactly riprap but I hid the edges of just the screw threads here.
[attachment=0:234o0u9e]<!-- ia0 -->Screenshot - 9_20_2022 , 5_42_01 PM.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:234o0u9e]

Excellent. Thanks again!

@dave r said:

Soften the edges, turn off Profiles or set them to 1, make sure hidden geometry is not being shown, hide the edges...

I wanted to ask you one other thing. Is it possible to turn edges off just for the riprap elements? Turning edges off helps the looks of those tremendously, but then I lose it for everything else in the model.

Thanks guys. I have used Dave's suggestion to get it to a more acceptable level. I am intrigued by Rich's method and will give that a try when I have more time. I'm guessing that would eat up far less memory than all of these boulders.

@sketch3d.de said:

for SU modeling operations, the single-thread perfomance of the CPU is relevant only:

PassMark CPU Benchmarks - Single Thread Performance

Benchmarks of the single thread performance of CPUs. This chart comparing CPUs single thread performance is made using thousands of PerformanceTest benchmark results and is updated daily.

(www.cpubenchmark.net)

A mid-sized nVidia Geforce RTX is mostly sufficient, fortunately prices are dropping a little bit:

PassMark Video Card (GPU) Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

Video Card Benchmarks - Over 1,000,000 Video Cards and 3,900 Models Benchmarked and compared in graph form - This page contains a graph which includes benchmark results for high end Video Cards - such as recently released ATI and nVidia video cards using the PCI-Express standard.

(www.videocardbenchmark.net)

Improving performance of high-poly count models:

https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/improving-performance
https://blog.sketchup.com/article/10-tips-for-modeling-large-design-projects

Thanks, good information.

I'm creating a shoreline with riprap. When I zoom out to a higher level, the stone edges create a dark mass. Is there anyway to lighten the black edges up so it doesn't look so harsh?

I haven't been able to find a texture to use instead that does it justice.

@rich o brien said:

@bsquared said:

Is power management less critical with Sketchup, more so with rendering programs? And with air cooling, can one just buy additional fans? Thanks for your recommendation.

Yes, any prolonged extensive use of gpu and cpu will be a power consumption goblin. More power = more heat. More heat = more air movement. So you end up with a dog chasing its tail.

If your budget has room for liquid cooling that would be a direction I would lean towards.

A quicker option would be a gaming rig as these are a good match for archviz and 3d design work.

SketchUp chokes for any number of reasons. Turn off all the visual treats and shadows and it starts to chew through bigger models.

Good to know. Thanks for your help.

@box said:

Rich has given you some good advice there.
It is also worth repeating that you can often get more major gains from model management than from hardware upgrades. People often spend money buying a more 'powerful' machine in the expectation that it will make a huge difference and their heavy models will flow well. It is often not the case. A badly bloated model will bring any computer to its knees. Even a small file size model can have millions of edges contained within a few components, and those millions of edges will make things slow. We regularly see models that can be cleaned up by more than 50% sometimes as much as 80 or 90%.
So, all I'm saying is, be sure you understand the benefits of efficient modelling practices along with good hardware.

Thanks, model management is something I need to get better at. I try to separate things as much as possible with groups and tags, turning off what I don't need as I'm working. And not using ultra detailed items from warehouse. Do you know of any good resources for learning this aspect of Sketchup?

@rich o brien said:

Every app has its limits. SketchUp is primarily a conceptual design tool that allows users to go from 3D to 2D design docs fairly rapidly.

SketchUp's not geared towards handling truck loads of polys efficiently because by nature it is intertwined with parametric objects. Much the same how 3DS or Maya is not geared toward dimensioning and layout.

But if I was in the market for a device that was SketchUp and TwinMotion compliant I would be leaning towards 2080 TI or above for GPU, < 32 GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and a good CPU like an i9 12900 or i7 12700

AMD Ryzen 59xx have better power management if that something you need to consider.

Spend the remainder of your budget on air flow and cooling to keep it from turning into a sauna.

Your render software is where you see the gains. Maybe slights gains in SketchUp too but nothing drastic.

Is power management less critical with Sketchup, more so with rendering programs? And with air cooling, can one just buy additional fans? Thanks for your recommendation.

I'm looking to build a new PC for my office computer, and I'm looking for advice on key system requirements needed for working on large Sketchup models. It seems as though every company I've worked for they've had problems with Sketchup models lagging, freezing once the model reaches a certain size.

I realize there are things you can do minimize the size of your model, but since I'm getting a new computer, I'm curious to know what the experienced users on this forum would recommend in terms of hardware (graphics card, processor, memory, etc.)?

I'll also be using Twin Motion and possibly Lumion, Vray or Rhino.

Thanks!