@arjunmax09 said:

Am I the only one who's facing this problem...inspite of updating my drivers?? Is there any option beyond disabling Open GL in SketchUp 8?? Why there's no such issue in version 7

We made changes to our rendering pipeline in SU7.1, but not in SU8. It would make sense that you might see differences on the same hardware/driver version between SU7-SU7.1 or between SU7-SU8. It is puzzling that you are seeing differences between SU7.1-SU8

Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that 'newer' driver versions aren't actually 'better'. Sometimes new bugs or implementation omissions creep in. You might want to try rolling your driver back a version to see if that helps.

john
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@arjunmax09 said:

I don't have such issues in SketchUp 7.

Did you install SketchUp 7.1? Or are you upgrading from 7.0 -> 8.0?

SketchUp 7.1 included an entirely new rendering engine, which may well have introduced new demands on your video hardware/driver.

john
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@honoluludesktop said:

Hi John, Doesn't v8 use a more advanced version of OpenGl then v7?

We made changes to our rendering pipeline in SU7.1, but not in SU8. In past experience with this specific issue (stipple patterns not displaying properly for selected faces) it is almost always an issue with incomplete implementation of "glPolygonStipple" in the video driver. I could be wrong, but it certainly worth checking the most likely culprit first.

john
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@tfdesign said:

I keep on getting a "SketchUp SDK Error" whenever I try to export a 3D file in an format apart from Collada or skp.

Hi,

It isn't clear from your posts what you're trying to do, though we do expect (in general terms) that exporters using our SDK should be able to create exported files in all our supported formats without errors. I'm willing to help you troubleshoot this problem, but will need some more information to do so.

Specifically, I need to know more about your model (can you post it for me to look at directly?) and I need to know the export format you are trying to use (is it .fbx?)

john
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@arjunmax09 said:

If I enable hardware acceleration, SketchUp performance gets normal but sometimes when selecting faces..the purple dotted hatch doesn't show up. What should I do??

This is a common problem that comes from an incomplete implementation of OpenGL in the driver for a video card. It isn't likely to be caused by something that was introduced in SU8... did you recently upgrade your video card or install a new driver?

john
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john
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@tspco said:

The paint bucket icon, that makes the material editor open, this morning su actually went non responsive, didn't crash completely but came close.

How many materials do you have?

john
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@unknownuser said:

On a more serious note...John Hejduk? I'm so sorry for you. I once had to build a model of one of his houses (I think it was called House 10 or something).

I think Hejduk deserves a closer look than you're giving him. "House 10" was actually by Peter Eisenman, who also taught at Cooper Union. They were both part of a group of architects called the "New York Five."

john
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Hi guys,

In our labs, SU8 renders significantly faster than SU7 and about the same as SU7.1. YMMV, depending what you're paying attention to in performance terms. Perceived performance turns out to be surprisingly subjective and often has as much to do with the last model you opened in SketchUp (and your performance experience with it at that time) as it does with the actual raw performance of the system.

Also, SketchUp performance appears inversely proportional to the amount of time left before an important deadline

john
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@unknownuser said:

-and, YES... ConstructionLine Stipple FIX !

What's wrong with construction line stippling? I don't think this I've seen this one reported before.

john
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@unknownuser said:

It looks like that plugin works pretty well, albeit with some caveats.

As I've said before, converting models from one native 3D model format to another is kind of like performing a machine translation from one language to another. Sometimes it works well (for example, translating from spanish to french). Sometimes it works less well (for example, translating chinese to hungarian) Think of COLLADA as your "esperanto", with all the possibilities and limitations that that implies.

john
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@mitcorb said:

@jbacus:
I am not sure if your quote from van Gogh is your comment or your signature line?

That's my sig- looks like my post is waiting for moderation, too. Here's what I said:

@jbacus said:

Hi Sam,

Glad to see you’re using SketchUp and 3D Warehouse at the AA, and I think you’ll find some interesting and surprising results if you keep at it. Never mind the tutting… they wouldn’t be doing that if you weren’t onto something interesting.

We designed SketchUp to democratize the world of 3D modeling and to make it accessible to the broadest possible range of “designers.” It is by definition an anti-elitist design tool. It is cheap (even free) where other tools are abusively expensive. It is quick to learn where other tools require enormous commitments of time. It naturally produces unpolished representations that invite discussion among stakeholders on a team rather than slick renderings that hold clients at arm’s length. It invites “expertise” no more or less than any other tool, but doesn’t require it. SketchUp is designed to be as powerful as a pencil and a roll of tracing paper. And as weak.

I think the models you see in 3D Warehouse are evidence that our attempt at democratization is working. An astonishingly broad range of work is visible there- from the loftiest of mathematical theories to the humblest of amateur skateparks. SketchUp is used regularly by over a million unique users a week now. Most of whom, as is true of the general population of people in the world, aren’t architectural theoreticians.

I do think you’re wrong if you assume that the populist positioning for our product comes from a position of naiveté, tempting though that may be. Many of us on actually came from very theoretical backgrounds in architecture. I was a student of John Hejduk’s at Cooper Union (the AA across the pond) in the early ’90s and I well understand the issues you are raising. Given the choice, we just chose a populist path for our product over something more exotic.

I hope your research goes well. Or at least that it leads you in an interesting direction. I welcome further discussion on this subject if that’s useful to you– my email address is appended below. And I’ll keep an eye on your blog, too.

john
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BTW, the “…basic, dumb, utterly devoid of expression” rendering style is just a default. And, frankly, you could have chosen a different one when you started SketchUp for the first time. You really should look into customizing your template before you read too much into the “SketchUp sublime.”

Couldn't resist leaving a comment on this one.

john
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Maybe you'll like this link better. I don't use either Max or Maya very much, so I can't vouch for the quality of these plugins. But they do seem to do what you want.

john
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@jason_maranto said:

After all these hardware discussions I've come to the conclusion that the only major upgrade possible for a Sketchup user that will have any impact is themselves... meaning re-training themselves to work smarter within the limitations of the current system.

I will say that it is not a particularly compelling POV to pro users who can move onto "greener pastures" with multi-core, 64-bit, etc. type programs out there... I have the sense that alot of that is marketing hype, but the problem with marketing hype is it tends to work.

For what it's worth I can use Sketchup well at very high poly-counts without any real issues -- but I also dedicate alot of my time to "upgrading" myself.

Best,
Jason.

I'm still not aware of any programs on the market today that do exactly what SketchUp does faster by leveraging multiprocessing or 64-bit technologies, though there are certainly other kinds of tools (specifically rendering apps) that can use those technologies to improve performance.

I think you make a really important point, though. Learning how to use a tool properly and effectively is the key to using it well. And ultimately, to being able to push its boundaries.

john
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@unknownuser said:

Not that it was directed towards me, but I've pretty much given up on getting anything textured from 3ds Max into SU.

Have you tried COLLADA? Specifically, the ColladaMax plugin for 3ds Max to generate a .dae file from Max followed by a .dae import in SketchUp? I think COLLADA offers the best long-term hope for clean 3D asset exchange.

john
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By the way- it looks like this thread is starting to collect technical support issues for SketchUp 8 rather than discussing feature requests and our 2010 "Questions & Ideas" series. If you're in need of technical support, you're more likely to get a response from the SketchUp support team on our SketchUp Help Forum than you are 17 pages deep in this topic.

john
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@jim57 said:

Beats me how Google can work magic, absolute magic with search engines, then design and implement something so useful and complex as Google Maps, and utterly flunk out on selling SketchUp Pro.

Sounds like you have had a rough go of it. I tried to follow your path through the web store, but couldn't quite figure out where you started having trouble. So I'll just cut to the chase... have you managed to get SU8pro licensed on your system, or do you need more help?

john
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Hi guys,

I think I answered Brodie's question pretty clearly over in our user forum, but it doesn't look like that answer is making its way back here intact. Let me try to clarify.

Higher version numbers in the OpenGL spec (1.5 vs. 3.1) have no more impact on overall performance than do higher numbers in the HTML spec. HTML 5 offers developers some exciting new features, but doesn't inherently make pages in your web browser render faster than they did in HTML 2.0. Ditto for OpenGL 3.1.

Brodie: I can tell you're having difficulty decoding the spec on your new graphics card– I find the marketing lingo on those things pretty opaque myself. If you're truly pushing SketchUp as hard as you claim, you deserve a better board than the GeForce 310. You can get a very capable GTX 260 for under $200 on NewEgg these days, or a 470 for about $50 more. I think you'd be happier with those boards.

john
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@mozzie said:

Unfortunately, the resolution of the imported terrain colour is not that good. I'm getting rather pixelated surface materials; I understand that the terrain detail is probably better in SU8, but the using colour overlay methods + b&w 7.1 terrain gives much better results.

The resolution of both terrain mesh and raster image vary depending on location on earth (Google has better data in some areas than others), the current zoom level in the "Add Location" window and the size of the window on your screen at the moment when you press the 'Grab" button.

In general, the data returned by "Add Location" is both higher resolution and more accurate than what you were previously able to get from Google Earth. To maximize the resolution of your imported site context model, zoom in as close as you can and maximize the window size on your screen.

john
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