@michaelneyses said:

...Really bad is the crash of Nvidia which will terminate SU 14 instantly. ...

The fact it runs well in V2013 doesn't say much. Trimble makes 'under the hood changes' all the time and those changes can have side effects for some of us.

I guess you have already tried:

• update the drivers
• check the openGL settings in Sketchup 2014, test several capabilities (preferences-openGl).

I don't remember well but isn't a quadro more suited for 2d cad work (drivers etc) instead of 3d? Maybe someone else has a clue...

@rich o brien said:

..I need two more seasoned testers/regulars to let me know if you have time to try something slightly experimental. One tester needs to be Mac.

Expected amount of time needed for testing? If less than a few hours, feel free to contact me. Not sure if you would want me though.. things always go wrong if I test something...

@jsnmcclintock said:

...However, when I use the created scene in Layout, the lines on this "Always Off" layer appear in the views when they should be switched off ie hidden..

Did you test this problem with the newest M1 maintenance that was released somewhere in June?

hi TIG,

Recently I did a project with lots of (high-polycount) trees and several camera positions. I really was missing some kind of LOD system. For instance, in one view some trees were very near and I wanted to use the high res version, in another view they were more in the distance and a low poly version would have speeded up the export of the views.

So I looked for an LOD system for sketchup and Google turned up your 'old' plugin. I tried it in Sketchup 8 (the clients preferred version) but I can't get it to work. See attached file (all the components should be saved inside). What am I doing wrong??

Regards, Max

proximity.skp

@unknownuser said:

The whole city is orange

I'm afraid no Photoshop was used to create that image... In every city you can find streets where people have wrapped their house in orange plastic...

@benjanowitz said:

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me out, again.
I need to have this shape:in 3d version. It's like a big empty tube. I know that it will be involved the Follow Me tool, but how?
Thanks,
Ben.

I would model it using Curviloft http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28586. Just need to trace the path (middle of the shape) and a few circles with different radius at the right places. Don't have the time to model an example but maybe using the above you can try/find out yourself.

@solo said:

First upset, Netherlands destroy champs Spain 5-1
Robben and Van Persie were frigging awesome.

That was a nice surprise! Watched it in a pub and people weren't surprised Spain took the lead and even expected much worse to come. Expectations in the Netherlands were quite low for this team. Defense sometimes f... up or players go berserk and get send off.
But, tournaments have their own logic and unexpected results sometimes happen (remember Greece who won Euro 2004). Will be very interesting to see what happens if they have to play more defensive playing teams or if the same kind of pressure is put on them.
For now though: Go Oranje!!

I just did a test on the updated Layout (14.1.1282) and it works fine for me in a new file: insert new text -> <PageNumber> -> works. Maybe re-install ?

@olishea said:

Hello,
...Is there any way to force SketchUp to represent these textures at full resolution?

Did you already try: preferences -> openGL -> use maximum texture size?

@masterpaul said:

...However that would only intersect one plane. It would not the rest...

I think if you're using SketcHup Pro you could export the section view as flat 2d lines (dxf/dwg) and import those dxf lines into the backrgound of the section.

I always use Bullzip pdf printer to export pdf's from Layout. I can see no visual differences compared to the native pdf output from Layout except for a lesser quality of transparent background fills using Bullzip (sort of rasterized). The pdf's exported with Bullzip are sometimes only 1/8 in size compared to the native exported pdf's if images are embedded, otherwise it's maybe only 1/2 in size.

Recently, I noticed that if I export pdf's, the text that use a (semi) transparent fill, using Bullzip that background fill in the pdf looks as expected but when printed on paper its solid black, no matter what color. I tested two Canon printers.

So I guess, either LayOut 2014 or Bullzip have changed something that makes actually printing (semi)transparent fills go black.

Anyone else noticed this OR has a suggestion for a another good pdf printer? I would prefer to mail my clients 6Mb pdf files instead of a native exported 50Mb pdf file if there's no visual noticeable difference.

Max

layout text background fill-bullzip.pdf

@ands43 said:

Can I add drop shadows to images in Layout?

There's no standard drop shadow function in Layout. But, you can of course draw a filled (semi transparent) rectangle on a lower layer than your image.
See more suggestions here: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12%26amp;t=24360

@ands43 said:

How do I add them please?

Did you try Google with search words: page numbers layout sketchup.
Result: http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000040

@marcdurant said:

Hi-

You're the second person who has reported this issue. So far I haven't been able to reproduce the problem, so no fix yet. If you can send me a copy of your layout file for investigation it might be helpful.

Thanks,
Marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks for looking into the issue. I just send you a pm with the download location of the layout file.

Regards,

Max

Did a 3d print job recently for a former client (I remodeled his house a few years ago). Can't share too much details but will share my process and tips.

It was a study for a technical part. I worked on my computer at the clients office for several days refining concepts on the fly based on their requests. At the end of each day the most interesting concepts were send to 3dhubs for low resolution 3d printing. After several sessions the top 3 concepts were send to a 3d printing firm that could print in higher quality.

My tips for modelling:

• check the specs for the 3d printer you're going to use. Adding smaller details than it can handle can result in messy surfaces.
• model scale 1 : 1 but set the units to meters (so 50mm becomes 50m). Just before exporting to stl set the units back to mm's again. Reason: Sketchup Booleans can't handle small units well.
• use a style showing endpoints and/or 'color by edges' to track down problems
• if the object is symmetrical, only model half. Keeps Sketchup fast, gives better view into the object and also helps some of the plugins.
• my first concept was modeled as a 3d shape and I would cut and add detail to it (Booleans). Problem with complex / double curved volumes is: if you want to alter one curvature, you may have to start all over again. So I switched to modelling using lofts.
• model with contours (curves and splines) and build the 3d shape with Fredo6 Curviloft. Keep a constant amount of edges for the contours. With Fredo6 Curvizard you can simplify the contours if Sketchup is getting slow OR the model becomes too complex.
• think in simple volumes and build the parts for an assembly (see image): white is lofted volume, green will be added using Booleans, red will be subtracted using Booleans.
• in Sketchup I set up a sort of assembly line: I modeled the splines at the origin, copied those a short distance next to the splines and started lofting there. Copied the result a short distance next to it and mirrored the loft and welded into a volume. Copied all the volumes next to it and did the booleans there, copied the end result next to it and did the final cleanup there. By doing so, you can easily switch back to the original shapes without destroying any of them.
• use ThomThom's SolidInspector for checking the Booleans.Use Tig's Weld for welding the mirrored parts together.
• the Booleans will likely fail once the objects get a bit more complex. I ended up moving only those surfaces the booleans would affect above the model and do an 'Intersect With Selected' using the objects you want to add / subtract. After that, copy these lines into the surfaces and do some manual work. Move the modified surfaces back below and weld it into the object.
• export using SketchUp's stl import/export plugin. Check your stl file in HeeksCad or CadExchanger. Saving the stl again it in these programs often makes the file size smaller without loosing any details.

I think I have covered most of it. First time I saw the 3d printed object after looking at it at a screen for a day is a strange but nice experience I must say.

Max

In short: why does Layout convert inserted jpg's to png within a layout file?

In the Sketchup docs http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/95640 I read: "use compressed image file formats such as JPEG and PNG".

I noticed though, if I insert 2 jpgs, 2.64Mb + 1.79Mb the layout file jumps from 6Mb to 59.89Mb. If I rename the layout extension to zip and look inside I see two png files of 18.24Mb and 30.37Mb.

What can I do to get a more smaller file size (besides converting the jps to really low resolution)?

@3dgraffiti said:

Stats:
edges 4630869
faces 2048718
component instances 121074
groups 58621
component definitions 150

I think there is your problem: the outliner has to sort through 121.074 components + 58.621 groups. I can't imagine it has been build /optimized for those high numbers. No idea what to limit is though...

@ppoublan said:

Hi Max,Could you post tree sample (skp) here in order to try to debug ? I was not able to reproduce the problem. Will do more tests.

Hi Pascal, Just installed and tried the new plugin. Tried a few trees and can't reproduce the problem as well...Strange.. Will try more after I'm back from a trip abroad.

Max

@3dgraffiti said:

Hello,

I am having major problems with Outliner. My model is around 50MB but does not seem to strain my workstation (most of the file size is from textures, not geometry). That is until I open Outliner.

• it takes approx. 2 minutes to open the Outliner window.
• if I hide or unhide a component thru Outliner, it takes nearly 4 minutes to perform the function.
• moving components within the component tree also takes a lot of time.
• it takes nearly 5 minutes to close the Outliner window.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I organize almost exclusively with components and would really be efficient if Outliner worked smoothly!

thank you,

John

My guess is: you have too much groups and components (nested). This can happen quickly with tree-components where <leaf> components are nested in <branch> which are nested in.. etc If thats the case, you could try to explode several components to bring the total count down very quickly.

Second guess is: a plugin is having a fight with it (no idea which though).

Could you share a screendump of the <model info - statistics> ?

@ninomayda said:

..Fix will be published in upcoming releases...

I hope it can be released 'soon' because its kinda annoying to have to (temporary) overlay white fixes if you want to render in vector mode.