Large file support

[rkulshrestha]

Hi

For Architectural renderings, the Sketchup files grow really large. The reason is KS doesn't support proxy vegetation, so we need to put in real 3D trees into the SU model. Good quality trees add a lot of MB to the model. Decent grass over a 3m x 4m patch raised the file size by around 50MB.

The problem is importing over 250MB files hangs a fairly souped up PC (i&-6700K/16GB).

Any advice?

[guest84672]

This should not be a problem at all. Are you using the plugin? If so, it may just take a long time to transfer.

[TpwUK]

Another tip would be to bring one tree of each species in and one meter of grass etc, then use KeyShots duplicate and array tools to place those where needed. During the beta phase there was some of us who tested duplicates that ran into the billions of tri's and there was no noticeable degradation in performance.

Martin

[guest84672]

That is a good point. Thanks for the tip, Martin.

But I had an example file the other day with lots of trees. And it took for ever to transfer. But eventually it got there.

[rkulshrestha]

Thanks Martin - Let me try that.

[rkulshrestha]

This is a very long workaround. There is no 'snap to' feature to move blocks of grass to connect one patch to the next one quickly. Using the move tool is very slow. We need to be able to drag and drop the components into the right place.
I thought I'd make a 1m x 1m patch of grass, save it separately and the 'add to scene multiple times. Funnily I have scale issues when there should be none.
We need some kind of 'insert object' and maybe even a library of objects for architectural renders where we can add our own models.
As an aside, the Move tool works fine for small objects, but is very slow and imprecise for medium size models.

[TpwUK]

For grass use the Duplicate Array and set number of parts along X and Y, and then set the offset between each part. Moving 100's of turfs would not be time beneficial.

Martin

[guest84672]

Make sure you use the latest plugin for Sketchup. It fixes the scale issue you are seeing.

You can add models to the model directory in the KeyShot Resources. They will then become available through the edit menu. But they will need to be bip files.

Yes - the pattern tool also includes scatter, rotation and distance control. Try that.

Not sure what you mean by the move tool being slaw and imprecise. Make sure you use performance mode when moving larger objects.

[Speedster]

Make sure you use performance mode when moving larger objects

Very important when working with large files.  I often work on models with over a billion polys, and stay in performance mode except for checking things out, and of course for final rendering.  In a weird way you kinda get used to it, and know what to expect with some experience under you belt.  Note that I'm running 32 cores at 4.8 Ghz, but large files can still drag.
Bill G

[richardfunnell]

Turning off object outlines or disabling them for large models can be helpful when working with high poly count models.
Scenes including things like vegetation (high object count) can be slow to select and also move due to the re-drawing of the object outlines.

My suggestion is to set the disabling to "Auto", screenshot attached.

[rkulshrestha]

Nice. Gonna give this a try.
My original issue was loading heavy files, above 250MB. It takes forever.
The solution seems to be working around to place hi polycount models within KS and reduce the SU file size. I still have to figure out what is the effect of adding arrays in KS (for example, or trees), saving it as a bip file, switching to SU (several times) to make corrections and then importing the corrections into the saved BIP without any corruption.