Jeff

I got my hopes up, only to be dashed again. When I started to download the files I got an error message : "Invalid Menu Handle". And nothing was received. Do you have any idea what the new problem is? Maybe you could ZIP the file and send it that way?

PS---While I was struggling with the effects of intermittent power supply voltage drops, I seriously researched a new Mac to replace my 6 year old PC. But a new power supply fixed the sudden crash issue, and I reconsidered the feasibility of changing horses in mid-project. My 65 year old brain had enough problems learning to draw with these new-fangled computer thingies. So learning a whole new system might cause my personal power supply to overheat and crash.

@unknownuser said:

it's a longshot but, i might be able to open it on a mac then resave it and send it back to you..

i've been able to open a corrupted file from someone i work with before so that's where my suggestion stems from.. if you want to try it, upload the file or PM it to me.

It is indeed a longshot, but I guess it's worth a try. I downloaded the SU viewer and the file opened normally, and even displayed a couple of Scenes before it stopped responding. Unfortunately there was no way to select/copy a component before the lockup.

So far, the power supply blackouts don't seem to have damaged the OS or SU in any significant way, just the drawing files. If you can open the file long enough to save it with a new name, the dragon gargoyle is the main thing I'm interested in. Thanks Jeff.

---John

@honoluludesktop said:

Look to see if you have a "AutoSave_file_name.skp", or a "File_name.Skb". If so you may be in luck.

Unfortunately, the backup files don't include the component I'm looking for. It's only in the corrupted files. Even a BugSplat backup is a day too old.

SketchUp 6,4.265, on Windows XP

Due to sudden crashes apparently caused by faulty power supply, I now have a corrupted drawing file. As soon as I open it, and the drawing displays, SU begins to act strange, and then stops responding. So I have to shut it down.

I installed a new PS, and I have an older file that I can work with. But there is a special custom component in the corrupt file that I would prefer not to reproduce. So I want to open the bad file just long enough to copy and paste the component into a new file. Unfortunately the corruption hangs SU almost immediately.

I tried opening the SU6 file in a trial version of SU7, but it also locked up. I would appreciate any tips for recovering data from a screwed-up file. Thanks.

Unfortunately, after I select all wireframe lines and color black (by material), some of the original faces and textures are rendered as black.
So I'm back to square one. Either the lines are all black, or all by material. Apparently I can't have some of each.

Thanks JL, that's a good idea. I'll try it.

Now I have a new problem. Apparently I have only two choices : all lines black, or all lines By Material. I need to have multiple choices. I want black lines, except in certain cases. White edges on white material just doesn't work. I'll keep looking for a solution.

Thanks for the tip. I finally found the solution I was looking for. At the bottom of the Edit Edge dialog is a box for color. But it was hidden until I stretched the box size. Now I can choose By Material, then select the lines and use the paint bucket to color them. I had previously changed the material, but until I found the edge color box, the material was not displayed.

SketchUp 6,4.265, on Windows XP

I want to show some light lines on my model to represent joints in limestone panels. I don't want them to be actual Edges, just gray shadow lines. I tried drawing on the surface of a group. The lines are tiny when zoomed in, but they look fat when zoomed out or when printed. I tried changing the Edge color, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Does anyone know how to draw gray lines in SU?

In SketchUp 6.4.265 I find most functions to be simple and intuitive. But the snapping function is the single most frustrating thing about trying to draw with in 3D.

I am used to the sophisticated snapping constraints in my CAD application, which also does 3D, but with hardware intensive solid objects. It allows me to turn-off certain kinds of snap objects, such as "endpoint outside active", so the inference engine will ignore them, and snap only to the things I'm interested in.

Apparently I'm the only one with this problem, because my searches in Help, Forums, and Tutorials find very little discussion of how the snapper operates, or how you can control what it jumps to.

Am I missing something in SU? Does SU7 have any snapping improvements?

SketchUp Pro 6.4.265 on Windows XP

In my CAD software I can pan left/right or up/down by using the arrow keys. It also has auto-panning when the cursor touches the edges of the work area. In SketchUp I have to interrupt what I'm doing with the mouse in order to shift the screen around. I find that awkward and time-consuming. Is there any way to Pan without using the mouse?

@watkins said:

Have you tried opening and working on the model on another machine. As I said before, a recent Windows XP security update caused my machine to lock up when working on large models.

I don't allow Windows to automatically update for that very reason. I have all the major service packs, but none of the recent "fixes".

Postscript:

I don't know the significance of this observation. Even with Shadows turned off, when I start to draw with the Line tool, SU locks up---for no apparent reason. And in the Task Manager, I see two instances of SketchUp application. One has the SU icon, and the other is a generic icon with the SketchUp name. The generic icon may be for an error message, but of course I can't see it because the screen is blank.

This is just an update. After saving the file with a new name, I again---with fear and trepidation (whatever that is)---turned on the shadows in the model. This time it worked normally, with very little time lag. Until I selected the Line tool, and prepared to draw. Then the screen went white, and only slowly returned to the original view in a step by step manner.
So now I can't blame the lock-up problem on the file size, or the video card, or the weird component. I guess the lesson here is to get all your drawing done before turning on the shadows.

PS---Speaking of shadows, I noticed the Maple Tree component was not casting shadows. So I opened the component and selected <<Cast Shadows>>. Unfortunately, the shadows take the shape of the rectangular, transparent backgound around the natural shape of the trees. Is there a way to tell the shadow function to ignore transparent parts of an image?

Here's the tree image on 3DW:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a1b1b86f9ccff3eebb8aaa7fb7119bb2

Yes, I got hooked on the fall tree image, and even though it has cost me a lot of time and frustration, I haven't found an acceptable substitute.

@unknownuser said:

Turn off hidden geometry? Pic might be handy...

Thanks, that did it.

My site model renders with the dotted triangles showing. Shouldn't the polygon lines created by Sandbox disappear during <<Shaded with Textures>> rendering?

The photographic image tree component is still acting squirrelly, but that doesn't seem to be the cause of the lockups.

Apparently the lockup problem has more to do with turning on <<Display Shadows>> than with the Site layer & multiple landscape components. If I check <<use sun for shading>> no problem. I would expect the shadow rendering to slow down, but not to lockup the computer. I have a dual-core Pentium and 2.5GB of memory, so 7MB file shouldn't be too big. I typically work with much larger 2D files in CAD. Normally SU.exe uses about 30mb of memory, but during rendering with shadows, it jumps up to 140mb and 50% of CPU time.

Even though this is a special CAD video card, I have <<Hardware Acceleration>> turned off, because it has caused lockup & crashing problems in both 2D CAD and in SketchUp. It would be nice if the OpenGL hardware would work as advertised.

The lockup seems to be interfering with redrawing the screen and returning control to the application. I've tried some custom 3D settings for SketchUp, but so far no luck.

Does SU plan to use multiple core processors in the next release?

@gaieus said:

[
Susan has already explained this.

I appreciate the support, but what Susan explained is not what actually happened. The 3DW tree <<component>> was imported directly into the model. It displayed just like all the other components, but it did not appear in the component list, and it was labeled in Entity Info as an <<image>> instead of a <<component>>. So I didn't have any way to check <<face the camera>>. Later, when I downloaded to a folder, and then added the folder to the component toolbar favorites, it worked normally. When I have time I may experiment by putting a <<texture>> image in the favorite component folder, and see if it imports as a component or an image.

The thumbnail image of the tree was so small as to be almost invisible. Several of the 3DW components have that problem. Do we have any control over the thumbnail size? Normally when I create my own component the thumbnail almost fills the box. However, sometimes the angle of view makes it unrecognizable. Other than trial and error, is there any way to force the thumbnail image to <<face the camera>> so to speak?

The semi-lock-ups continue. Each time it stops responding, I have just turned-on Render mode and Shadows, so it's hard to find what's at fault. During the lock-up the screen goes white and then eventually redraws, and looks normal, except I can't select or deselect anything. The object that is currently selected is a Sandbox contour.

I just discovered under Model Info / Statistics / Only Components a <<Fix Problems>> button. When I click it, VALIDITY CHECK says "no problems found". I knew it couldn't be that easy.

Off-topic: when I render the scene in preparation to send it to Layout, the dotted polygon lines still appear. I thought they were supposed to turn-off in Render mode. How can I make them go away?