My problem is maybe two.

1. I can use the scrapbook as long as I just want arrows and colors. Everything else causes the program to crash. For example: If I choose "signs", the program either shuts down or the preview box is just white. If I, on the other hand, want to draw up some arrows there are no problems at all.

2. Draw tools. I can draw the rectangle but everything else causes an error. I have noticed one thing though. If I draw lines, circles , triangles and so forth, the program crashes but a saved copy is made. When I open Layout again this saved copy shows as a preview and the programs asks if I want to open it. In this preview I can se all of the lines, circles and trianlges but when the file opens, none of it shows.

Very greatfull for thoughts and answers

I use Sketchup 2016 version

@unknownuser said:

This is pretty much the case with SU vs. any program I've worked with. SU file sizes are always much larger (and the save times are much slower which compounds the problem). I just trying to bring in a very high poly flower/vase combo yesterday. The 3ds Max file is 26mb (pretty big for a flower but manageable). After I was finally able to bring it into SU as a .dae file and reduced the texture size the SU file (containing ONLY the flower/vase) is 244 mb. Obviously that won't be going into my scene any time soon - you can imagine the save times.

-Brodie

I agree in all that you are saying. A small file that takes a second or two to open in Autocad, takes more than a minute to load in SU. Imagine that this file is only max 5% of the finished drawing. This might give me a load time of 20 minutes.

@mitcorb said:

Hi, macka59n:
Obviously, the two programs do not see the geometry in the same way. For example, a circle or arc in Autocad is truly a curve with constant radius. Sketchup has to create the geometry as a sequence of straight line segments, where the vertices lie on the true circumference. (actually, the display engine in autocad uses a similar technique if you zoom real tight on curve geometry, but you cannot click on these segments as entities)
Another thing is that Autocad can tolerate significant file sizes before bogging down, which may be in the way the data is stored.
To minimize the problem, you obviously need to simplify the file you import. Multiple coincident lines in multiple layers are redundant data in Sketchup.
But you did not indicate if your Autocad file is 2D or 3D.

All of my cad files are in 3d and I´ve tried to simplify them as much as possible. I guess that large file sizes and SU goes hand in hand.

I have an Autocad file that has a size of 2 mb. If I import this into SU it creates a Skp file that is 10 mb. Is it supposed to be like this? If yes, can anyone explain why?

In this particular project I have 19 cadfiles (around 40 mb) and when I import these into SU, the total filesize is around 200 mb

@tig said:

Can you perhaps attach a zipped version of the DWG file to a PM to one or two of us so we can try it out... If it's confidential you can be assured we'll kept it so... Please give some info on the DWG's R-version, original units etc...

I have tried to send you the file requested but there seems to be something wrong with the website. I can´t attach any files. "Connecting" is the message I get and it has been connecting for 10 minutes now. I have to try again later and I have no problems for you to look at it

@mitcorb said:

I am hoping that you made a copy first before you did the transfer. If not, in Windows, you can retrieve a previous state in the Autocad file by finding where Autocad stores your .bak files on your local hard drive. I believe it is "Temp" under the username. I keep a shortcut to Temp on my desktop for these occasions. After locating the bak file with the appropriate date/time prior to the incident, you can "save as" to desktop, rename the file to a dwg, "save as" to your project folder, and either permit to overwrite the residing file, or save with a unique similar name. This assumes you have not fiddled with the autosave feature in Autocad.

Thank You Mitcorb
Your first suggestion actually solved some of the problems. I tried to explode once again and now it´s working. The problem now is that after exploding the drawing in autocad the number of imported files into Su have increased from maybe 40 to 400. This results in a LONG download time. I would like to have a "implode"button to narrow everything down. There might be another way to solve this but for now I don´t know how

And yes, I have backups but thanks for the tips

@mitcorb said:

That Autocad plugin may support the hardware file type just fine, but must be preserving the original file type in some sort of cocoon. When you import to Sketchup, the cocoon apparently is stripped off. Perhaps there is a way to explode those in a copy of your CAD file and import this to Sketchup? I have to tell you, I am just theorizing here. This may not describe the real issue.

After failing with exploding the file in autocad I tried to delete all layers in the drawing. When doing this everything in the Cad file is imported, but it´s imported as one unit. It has no layers, no groups or components.

@mitcorb said:

That Autocad plugin may support the hardware file type just fine, but must be preserving the original file type in some sort of cocoon. When you import to Sketchup, the cocoon apparently is stripped off. Perhaps there is a way to explode those in a copy of your CAD file and import this to Sketchup? I have to tell you, I am just theorizing here. This may not describe the real issue.

I tried to explode the existing cad file but no luck. I still have the same problem as described above.

I have a software called Dynalog in wich I make kitchen cabinets with Blum drawers-, hinges and so on.. I export the files into AutoCad with the help of a plugin. When opened in Autocad everything is there, the cabinet and all the hardware (drawers, hinges). I save the file on my desktop, open skethup pro and import it. My problem is as follows: all the data concerning the wood parts (cabinet, drawer bottom and backs) are there but all hardware data (drawer sides, slides, hinges....) are missing. Am I doing anything wrong or is it so that it´s some sort of a compability problem.

Tankful for tips and help