I've been using Twilight Render V1 for awhile now.

A large number of my presentations are producing using only Sketchup exports and there's not normally a time allowance within each job to render it. When I do render a job, it's out of my own time in order to "wow" a client.

Twilight Render seems great for this; I can setup materials relatively quickly, and render it out overnight.

The trouble is, I came across a Vray 3 trailer video on YouTube and it all looked rather impressive!

Does anyone have any experience of both? If so:

1. Is the Vray learning curve an easy one?

2. Once working at full speed, how much longer does it take to setup a render in Vray in comparison to Twilight?

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply!

It's a real shame Sketchup hasn't fixed this error in years, but good to know I've got a workaround I can use for the moment

Thanks, have just updated my profile.

I originally said Sketchup 2017 in the post title, but later changed the title and didn't realise I hadn't included it in the main text. All updated now, hopefully I get a fix soon!

It's frustrating as Sketchup 2017 wouldn't support Mavericks, so I had to update to Sierra to even install it. Now I find it's buggy on Sierra and can't perform this basic but essential function!

Thanks for the reply. This is affecting Sketchup Pro 2017 as well (I just tried Sketchup 2014 to see if it was limited to one version of Sketchup).

Here's a dropbox video link showing the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/s/66v6nq0tkd2lk0y/Sketchup%20Bug.mov?dl=0

No matter what it is set to, even the default 1920 x 1080, it will only export at 1280 x 720!!

Awesome, thanks!

This is quite buggy on a Mac. I can choose 4:3, 16:9, or custom. If I select custom and then start entering pixels, it changes the pixels in one of the boxes and constantly defaults back to 16:9.

I also just tried exporting a video at default 1080p. File > Export > .mp4 > preset to 1920 x 1080p > hit enter, then I end up with a 1280 x 720p file?

Whats up with this?

Edit: So this issue is also affecting both Sketchup 2017 Pro & 2014 on my machine... I'm guessing that means the issue is related to Sketchup and Mac OS not communicating properly... or it's an issue which has been around for 3 years...?? I'm running the latest Sierra

TL:DR Will only export video at 1280 x 720p

Looking for a plugin which can create a smooth camera view around a whole building and at a constant speed.

Although I can setup scenes manually, if they're slightly too far apart, one transition will move physically at a quicker speed than the other.

I've found some spiral/circle plugins, but I need one that can generate a bunch of sketchup scenes (so as I can render out the video).

Any suggestions?

I was adding an image over the top of my Layout file to act as a watermark, before I exported a PDF.

As Layout doesn't have opacity control for shapes or text (at least, I don't think it does?), I created an image in photoshop and saved it as 20% opacity. This was too light, so I kept re-saving the file in Photoshop at higher opacities (25%, 30%, 35%) etc until I was happy with how it looked.

Rather than re import the image every time, the quickest way was to overwrite the original watermark.png file, that I'd saved on my desktop, and then right click in Layout and update the reference (similar to the workflow of editing a Sketchup file and updating the Layout document).

I also deleted this watermark at different times, and then copied and pasted it back from other pages within the document.

Edit: Further to this. Leaving the image in the file is fine (and I think it does save). The issue comes when the image is deleted. I also tried Edit>Undo to undelete the broken image. The image comes back, but it still won't save. Also purging the image out didn't bring back the save feature.

This has happened a few times within a day now...

Working absolutely fine, saving regularly (and autosaving regularly). All of a sudden it will stop saving and bring up Error 107.

When this happens, I can't save, and I can't press "File > Save As" to overwrite, or save it as a new document.

I can copy everything over into a new document and save that absolutely fine, so there's no issue with the geometry or file name...

It keeps happening randomly. I'm working and saving a file regularly, and then all of a sudden it will throw that error and I'm stuck.

It's quite annoying (and scary!)

I'm running Sketchup Layout 17.2.2554, on a MacBook Pro which is running the most up to date operating system Sierra 10.12.4

I'd definitely consider a dual, or triple monitor setup.

Triple doesn't offer as much of an increase in workflow over a dual, but it's nice facing your primary display, rather than the bezels between 2 screens in a dual setup.

I mainly go between a 24" dual 1920 x 1080 setup and my laptop screen which is 2560 x 1600 on a 13" screen (so very high DPI).

After looking at the high resolution screen, it is hard adjusting back to 1080. With Sketchup 2017, there's no issues with the higher DPI and lines look amazingly crisp in Layout!

Saying that, if budget is an issue, I'd take a dual (or triple) 1920 x 1080 setup over a single 4k screen. The workflow benefits are great. Whether you use one screen for toolbars and palettes and the other as a single large workspace. Or you can have a screen dedicated to layout and another to sketchup...

The default scale bars don't match my drawing.

Is there an easy way to set this to the scale on my page?

Or is it better to just create a different scale bar for each scale I use (1:20, 1:50 and 1:100) and just keep them in the scrapbook?

And lastly, what scale is the standard scale bar set to?

Thanks

A lot of Sketchup (and Layout) is limited to a single core speed, even the 64 bit versions.

A 12 core computer is amazing for rendering with external plugins, but a higher clocked dual or quad core computer will probably get you a lot better performance modelling and producing documents in Layout.

I'm running a 13" MacBook Pro with only Intel Iris 5100 graphics.

I use Sketchup professionally, and have been doing so for 3 and a half years on this computer...

Under Mac OS, it shows up as a VRAM of 1.5GB, and I run Sketchup on either a dual 1080p setup (with the laptop closed), or on the laptop screen (2560 x 1600).

I've created a 9 page layout file at the size A3 (420mm x 297mm).

The council have just rejected it as when printed, although some of the pages print as A3, others are printing at A4 (half the size - and so the scale bars then become inaccurate).

As far as I'm aware, I can't individually set page sizes within a Layout document (not that I'd want to anyway). So I'm not 100% sure what's happened. Everything is at the same scale and looks 100% right in Layout.

I've exported the file as a PDF.

I'm using Layout 2014.

I just want to know if it's an issue I've created, or a bug in my version of Layout?

If it's a bug, I'll be upgrading to 2017 shortly. But if it's an issue I've made, I need to know how to ensure I don't make the mistake again! Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I'll just update my profile!

I'm currently using Layout 2014, and a mixture between Sketchup Pro 2014, and Sketchup Make 2016 (for heavier models). I'll be upgrading to 2016 Pro soon though, as I believe 2015 onwards was 64bit, and so hopefully that will help to unlock some speed in Layout.

I'm currently running a Macbook Pro Late 2013 2.4 dual core, with 8gb Ram. Whenever I produce renders (using Twilight), I let it crunch overnight and so I'm happy with the current CPU performance in that regard.

Lately however, I've been reaching a point where my models contain a very large number of plants/trees and this has slowed my modelling time down considerably.

I'm looking to improve how quickly and smoothly Sketchup can orbit around large models, and how quickly Layout can render everything in Vector/Hybrid mode.

My Macbook uses integrated Intel Iris graphics.

Am I pushing the limit of my current CPU or GPU?

I've recently discovered that you can buy something to run any desktop GPU from a laptop, which I can use in my office where I "dock" my Macbook.

I've watched some Youtube videos in which people have managed to improve the FPS of video games by 9x on the same Macbook as mine, when compared to the integrated GPU. I'm not sure how much Sketchup uses the CPU vs. the GPU though..?

Any advice would be a greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, even if I select a rectangle larger than the whole of the imported DWG and intersect faces, it says "no intersections found" when there should be a lot of them!

Even drawing rectangles with the sketchup tool (over a rectangle in the DWG), it won't form a face, only the linework. If I leave the DWG in a closed group and trace the rectangle, a face will correctly be drawn on top, it just won't work when editing the DWG linework. Essentially, the imported lines don't really work with sketchup!

This has been an issue in Sketchup 8 Pro, 14 and 16 (the 3 versions I've used to date).

Whenever I import a flat DWG, it always seems to struggle to form faces on completely flat geometry.

Or sometimes, a face will form, but in the process, it will remove all other ungrouped faces on the same plane.

For houses, as a workaround, I leave the DWG grouped and closed, and then redraw every line in another group, usually with the rectangle tool.

With gardens and areas with almost freehand drawn curves, this becomes a big issue and is extremely time consuming.

What can I use as a workaround? Even copying a pasting lines from the DWG to a separate, larger face won't form closed geometry!

This happens with 2D DWG's that were drawn on a completely flat plane in Vectorworks/AutoCAD and then imported into sketchup.

Is there any plugins to do something to the geometry so it works as it should? I've had this issue/bug since Sketchup Pro 8!

Thanks for the reply. That's a shame. I was hoping for a simple way within layout to create hedgerows.

Unlike plants, as these are always custom sizes, I was looking to be able to easily adapt any rectangle. Although I can use fills and edge colours, they tend to look best if the edges aren't completely straight lines. There's plants setup this way within the scrapbook, but it seems they've had all the points individually moved to create them.