Sketchup Tips and Tricks

Posted at June 2, 2009
Optimize Your Sketchup Model
1.
Erase Unseen geometry – Create architectural models which are a hollow shell, without any internal lines or faces. Try and get rid of excess lines and faces in the architectural elements in the model.
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2.
Simplify Curves – Curves are constructed from line segments in SketchUp 3D Models. The simpler, smoothed version is very helpful in keeping low file sizes when generating large sized models.
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3.
Think Low-Poly – Save Time and money by using “just enough” detail. Use 2D faces or transparent textures (.png format) when possible instaed of complex 3D objects. The two imagesappear to be 3 dimesional but they are actually flat faces with no depth.
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4.
Use Components – Make repeated objects into components for simplified usage. Not only does it make your model accurate and smoother it makes changing a hell lot easier. Also, keep your components optimized and downsized and keep the information and faces extra simple, any excess will be repeated!!
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5.
Surface Overlapping – If you see flickering faces in your model, it means there are two or more faces on top on one another, a good sign of excessive geometry. So kindly be aware of faces on top of one another and delete them.
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6.
Proper Face Orientation – Each face in Sketchup has two sides, ensure you have the right face on the outside. Texturing on both sides adds to the file size. For correcting this error, select the face and right click and select on reverse faces from the menu.
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7.
Purge! Purge! Purge! – Purge your model frequently to clean from unused textures, lines, components which add to file size. For purging your file click on Windows Tab at the top – Model Info – Statistics.
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8.
Image Sizes – Images used for textures need not be high resolution to show the right amount of detail. Ensure smaller size to keep your sketchup file size to a smaller amount and ensure smooth running of the software.
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9.
Textures – Always tweak, crop and adjust the quality of the textures to keep the overall file size down. This can be done by reducing the size of the image, cropping unnecessary areas in the image file, tweaking by positioning, rotating, resizing in the sketchup menu.
Keys to Success

  • Do not model all the details.
  • Represent only the important aspects.
  • Let texture images show most of the details.
  • Low Poly count is crucial.
  • Maintain accuracy.

Bottom Line:  Simplicity is the Key.
3d design

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