Hi Dave,
The LO file is too big (24 meg) for upload. That's because it references a monster Sketchup file. Don't know how to make it any smaller. Alas, none of my other layout drawings are small enough to be uploaded on the discussion sites. Do you have an e-mail? I'll give you a different file that will be more manageable yet still exhibits the same PDF problems.
Thanks!!
Hi Dave,
No, actually I'm saving this to my D drive (a regular hard drive and not a solid state). Just wanted to keep the solid state drive as uncluttered as possible. The Sketchup program is running on C drive.
If this is the problem, then I guess I can do a "working file" on the C drive and just remember to save it on my D drive when I get done for the day.
Thanks for the tip!
Frank
The last file was too big so I attached another one.
Sorry for the confusion!
Frank.
Hello,
I've been working with Layout for a few months and I finally got to the point where I was able to actually print something useful. However, when I exported the file to PDF, I noticed stray horizontal lines throughout the document. They seem to repeat the same way on different pages, but I don't see them on every page. The document looks great in Layout. Am I doing something wrong with the Adobe Reader? I've attached a file so you can see what I mean (look on the upper left margin).
Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.
Thanks!!
Hello,
I've been working on some relatively simple models and I've had some problems saving them due to computer lockup. I'm beginning to think it's some sort of bug. It happens when I try to save when I'm using an X-Ray face style. This doesn't happen all of the time, but frequently enough that now am careful to switch out of X-Ray face style BEFORE saving. So there is a work-around but......
I have a brand new computer specifically configured for graphic modeling, and the models that I've had problems with are pretty simple (one is attached). I don't get bug splats, and I haven't taken the time to fish around the Trimble website and report this -- probably should. Just was wondering if anybody else saw this problem.
Thanks!
Frank Borik
Hello,
Thanks for the reply. After a bit of snooping around, I determined that if I wanted to use GoSimulate Lite, that I needed to find the SU plugin. The older websites said that there was a beta version somewhere out there, but I could not find anything after about 20 minutes. So I quit walking down that path. Fortunately, you led me to another website, SketchUp Sage. I was able to browse for a few other CAD analysis programs and found something called Gazelle. The only hitch was that I needed something called an .stl format. Following that thread, I came across a SU plugin from Dieder Bur in the Plugin Store that was an stl importer/exporter. So after downloading the required plugin, I found out I was in business. After I remembered that I had to to explode my component in order for the .stl to export properly, I was in business!
Now, the only drawback is that there is scant documentation (like -- none!) for the Gazelle software, and it's not particularly intuitive. Their help consists of an e-mail address. I guess you get what you pay for.
Thanks again, for your help!
Frank
Hello,
I'm undergoing the design of a house remodeling project, and some of my ideas to confront certain design challenges would benefit from a stress analysis of the particular component of interest. In searching the web and these forums, I found a reference to something called GoSimulate, which seemed to have just the things I wanted: Use of an existing SketchUp model, put in some force and material parameters, and you get a really nice stress analysis in color. Admittedly, my models are fairly simple, and I could probably grind out a first order analysis by hand. But it sure would be nice to have a program do it automatically with the von Mises yield areas shown in 3D. At any rate, I looked up GoSimulate and went to the EnMesh web site, but only found downloads for "Space Claim" and "IronCad" (whatever those are). Alas, no SketchUp plugin. So, is there something with similar capabilities that does not cost an arm and a leg? Just want to check this out before I go back to my graph paper and slide rule.
Thanks!
Frank
Hello,
This plug-in looked very nice, and I downloaded it from the plug-in store. It worked great about 3-4 times, and then I started getting bug-splats. I tried removing and reinstalling the plug-in, with the same results. Fortunately I have the original gear that the plug in made (it really is nice!) and I think I'll be able to take various components from it and make the other gear that I need. However, making brand new gears will be a challenge to me. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Frank
Thanks, Dave and Alan, for your help.
One thing I did not reveal in my earlier discussion is that I'm doing interior rendering with simulated lights. (I'm designing where my new lights will go and I want to have a look). In any case, I know that lighting, and especially interior lighting, is a real time hog, and I think I'm also not using some of the twilight features correctly to turn off the lights I'm not rendering. So... it's back to the drawing board (or computer screen, I guess).
Thanks, again, for your help!
Hello,
I am planning a home remodeling project using SU, and I wanted to try some rendering to get a better look of what the final product might be. I'm using Twilight Render, and after doing some reading (Daniel Tal's Rendering in Sketchup Book) to get familiar with the rendering process, I was ready to try my hand at it. I started with some low resolution renders, but as I increased the resolution and the rendering presets, the renders started to take FOREVER. By this, I mean 8 hours later and the raytraces are only 50% complete. So, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong (very likely), or if I just have unrealistic expectations on how long the rendering process takes. In order to narrow down the variables, here is some backrgound.
I just got a new computer tailored for rendering (the "Solo" one that was advertised on these boards from JNCS computers).
I tried very hard to keep my model organized and turned off layers that I knew I wasn't going to have to render. Additionally, I used the outliner to hide components that I didn't see in my rendering view (don't know if hiding components has any effect).
My model is fairly detailed. By this, I mean that I'm going to use it as a basis for construction drawings and material take-offs. So, for example, the kitchen cabinetry is detailed down to every part of every drawer, every piece of wood in the face frames, etc... That means lots of components. So when I'm trying to render the kitchen, the render engine is probably trying to render the entire cabinet support structure against the wall (which nobody sees). In these cases, it's difficult to hide things because you end up hiding the entire cabinet and/or risk messing things up. (I've noticed that the "hide" function is right next to the "erase" function ... the HARD way!) However, although my model has a fair amount of detail (545,514 edges and 264,289 faces), I'm lead to believe that rendering models with several million faces takes less than 8 hours.
I'm trying to render with a resolution of 1280x720 and a preset of medium+. This seems to be the tipping point where things get really slow, but the lesser resolutions and presets are really not very good. I'd eventually like to increase the resolution beyond this, but based on what I'm experiencing with the current presets, I know that things won't get any better.
I haven't done a lot with fancy material textures, so I'm basically using native Sketchup materials. My thought is that as you get more involved with the subtleties of surface reflection etc., that rendering times increase. That may be a poor assumption on my part, however.
So, my current focus is to figure out what I'm doing wrong and get render times to something more reasonable. Any help or suggestions you may have to reduce rendering times will be sincerely appreciated.
Thanks!
Frank
Done. Thanks again!!
Thanks, Dave. That worked like a champ! I should have figured that out when I solved my problem with the plug-in migration (same issue).
BTW, I discovered this while following your procedure for making tiles as a custom material from your Fine Woodworking article!
So, thanks for both the article, and the means to save the work!!
Frank.
Hello,
In attempting to migrate my custom textures from SU 8 (pro) to SU 2013 (pro), I found that I was unable to save a custom texture that I created with the material editor into the Sketchup material folder by dragging the custom texture from the primary selection pane (in model) to the secondary selection pane (the materials group you want to file it in). This prohibits custom materials to be used in different models without a complex work-around of importing an object colored with the material into the current model. It appears that something is trying to happen because a rectangular icon shows up next to the cursor when you attempt to move the material and hover over the secondary selection pane. But the material never shows up in the library, and never in other new models. This worked pretty well in SU8, but it's a NO GO in SU 2013.
Here are the steps I was following:
Am I doing something wrong, or is this a setting that I'm unaware of? I'm thinking it's a bug because of the icon that shows up when I try to move the material and the fact it has worked great in SU8.
Thanks!
Frank.
The link is good, but the bug reporting system does not list SU 2013 as an option. (Minor problem, just put it in the text.)
Thanks, Alan. I was able to search my computer for *.skm files and found them (under kind of a strange path) and migrated them successfully to SU 2013. Still, I can't seem to edit and save custom materials into the material folder for use in other models. I think I'm going to report that as a 2013 bug.
Hello,
I've created a number of custom materials in SU8, but for some reason, I can't figure out how to migrate them to SU 2013. I've tried looking in the SU8 material folder, and I was able to copy and paste a number of previously downloaded materials. However, I was not able to see the materials that I customized. I tried opening an existing model, where I found some customized materials, but when I tried to drag them from "in model" to the appropriate category in the secondary selection pane, that didn't work as I expected it to based on what I typically do in SU8. So... don't quite know where to look or how to proceed. I don't want to "recreate" these materials because they probably won't match what I already have in my existing models, which is problematic when making individual components in separate SU files.
Thanks for any help or advice you may have.
Frank.
OK, thanks! There's been a lot of talk about setting the permissions correctly, and I thought that I had the correct permissions to begin with. But, alas, I did not. Hopefully everything is now correct.
Thanks again!!
I had some trouble figuring out how to get the plug-ins all set up. Some of my favorites were in the new Plug-In warehouse, but others, especially those from Fredo, were only available in the SketchUcation Plug In Store. Luckily, I figured how to get THAT int SU 2013! However when I tried to load some of Fredo's plugins, I started getting some error messages. The first was a missing Fredo6lib message that told me I forgot to load the library (duh!). But then I got a very strange error message that said "the file DEFPARAM_Dir could not be found. Manually create this file and respect the case." I actually was able to exercise my limited knowledge of computers and successfully created the file and, volia! Everything is now cool. But I was wondering why this was a problem in SU 2013 and not in SU 8? There doesn't seem to be any file called DEFPARAM_Dir in my SU 8 plug-in folder. Maybe quantum weirdness?
Anyway, for those of you who are getting frustrated with trying to load Fredo's plugins, manually creating a file called DEFPARAM_Dir in your Sketchup/Plugins folder seems to solve the problem.
Hope this helps!
Wow! Thanks to everyone for their advice. After doing some (more thorough) research, I decided to try GIMP. The model is a lot like Sketchup with an open source code, plug-ins, and lots of active users and support.
NEXT time, I'll be sure to query the sketchucation board before I buy something so I can benefit from everybody's experience.
Many thanks!!!
Frank
Hello,
I'm trying to learn how to modify textures and do some post processing of renders, and a lot of the research that I've been doing leads me to Adobe Photoshop. I recently looked up their products, and being a newbie (and a bit of a cheapskate), I bought something called "Light Room" based on the features that it seemed to offer and the price. Unfortunately, it seems to do NOTHING that I want, so I'm a bit bummed about wasting my money, but more importantly, I don't have a usable graphics editing program (or at least one the I think I can use). So, before I go throwing good money after bad, I'd like to know if anybody has recommendations on alternatives to Photoshop to do the kind of graphic editing suitable for SketchUp, or which of the many "options" that Adobe offers gives me the biggest bang for the buck.
Thanks for any help you could give me.
Frank.