Hey SU Community.
Anyone else experiencing crazy slow imports of items from the 3D Warehouse lately?
I upgraded to the latest version of SU/Pro this past week and the timing of the slow imports seems to align. And by slow I mean a minute or more. With the latest attempt to import a component, the beach ball was spinning so long I had to simply force quit the program. This is not normal for my machine, nor my daily use of SU.
Any advice is welcome.
Thanks so much!
Is it possible for 3D Warehouse to be OFFLINE?
Are you asking if the 3D Warehouse is down? It doesn’t seem to be. At least not for me.
what sort of components are you trying to download? How large is your sketchUp model file? Are you downloading components directly into your project file? You shouldn’t do that anyway.
We do know of an issue where downloading a model on Mac can take several minutes. There was a change made in SketchUp 2022 that I hoped would help, but if you’re saying you are on the latest version, then it hasn’t helped.
When you do the download you’re given a choice of whether to include the model in the current file. If you choose No, the model will download as its own file, very quickly. You can then open that file and look to see if it needs any cleaning up, or if it includes things you don’t need. Copy what you need into your main model.
Thank you for chiming in.
Yes, I was asking if 3DWarehouse was down/offline due to the excessively long time its taking to load components in to my model (a common practice for the way I use SU). I’ve not had this issue before and the only change was upgrading to the new SU version this week.
The SU drawing file is 50.6 MB. It’s a comprehensive model of a house with all the interior details modeled (doors, cabinets, fixtures, etc) . I always strive to use smaller file sized components (less than 1 or 2MB) from 3DWarehouse to keep the overall file size down.
And forgive me for not being clear on this, but why would/should I not load components directly in to my model? What’s the other avenue for populating the model with those types of elements?
Thanks again for chiming in.
So as you’ve likely seen, Colin acknowledges an issue on Mac,
Often components you would get from the 3D Warehouse are overly detailed for use as entourage. The general wisdom is to download components into a separate file to check them for suitability and to clean them up to reduce file size so they don’t unnecessarily bloat your project file. It’s not uncommon to find unneeded detail in components from the 3D Warehouse that do nothing but overload your project file.
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Wow. Colin. This is news to me, and extremely helpful. Thanks SO much for your reply.
You are correct - I do work on a Mac and it’s relatively new (MacBook PRO 2019 / 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 / 16 GB RAM / AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB).
SU is the crux of my interior design process and the 3DWarehouse is equally important; the fact that it’s freezing and causing me to have to force quit the software is a critical issue, as it’s stopping my work in its tracks. I will, of course, use the method you mentioned in which I download the component separately but, given that I typically download a bathroom’s worth of fixtures, for example, in a matter of minutes, the separate download and file opening will add considerable time to the process. Hopefully it will just be a temporary workaround.
The other respondent said NOT to load components from the 3DW directly in to my model. Why would that be? It’s how I’ve always worked.
Again Colin, thank you. Super helpful.
Thanks for this. Hadn’t thought it if that way but, yes, I have had to cleanup component files before.
I appreciate and benefit from the fact that manufacturers such as Kohler and Brizo populate the Warehouse with their proprietary components making them very pure and clean. My use of SU is for interior design, so those components are part of my workflow. Direct downloading has largely been successful (and efficient) for me.
Thanks again.
Other things to know though are that I can take a customers file that is showing the problem, try to download any size model I like, and it’s quick for me. For the same model on the customer’s machine, downloading even a small component can take many minutes.
Also, in some cases the main model saved as 2019, and opened in 2019, will download from 3D Warehouse quickly. So, the network is ok, and the model is ok, but still downloading into 2020 or 2021 can take a long time.
One theory I have is that the customers who see the issue may have a large set of custom components, and that inserting a new component has to go through a process of making sure that it’s unique. Also, if any custom components are on network drives that could make it slow too.
It may not be only a Mac issue, I had one case where it took a Windows user 10 minutes from clicking on a template, to seeing the new document. In his case he had a lot of components that were directly linked from a network drive.
I’ve spent about two years so far trying to figure out the issue.
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Unfortunately many of the components aren’t pure and clean. Here’s a randomly selected BBQ grill that someone might include in an outdoor kitchen area on a patio.
Look at the detail that the client would never see nor would anyone need to see unless they were trying to reverse engineer the thing. The file size as it comes from the 3D Warehouse is 60 Mb. As entourage it turns into more liability than asset.
That’s good but I’d bet a 12 pack that most of the components you’ve gotten from the 3D Warehouse could benefit from some cleanup.
Also remember you should be purging unused stuff from your model regularly. If you try a couch, for example, and decide you don’t like it, just deleting it from the model space doesn’t remove the component from your model. It’s like you took the couch out of the living room and left it in the garage.
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Again, Thanks Dave. I would never use a component with that large of a file size… always staying below 1-2MB is my process and low poly is the name of my game. I also practice purging… an oldie and goodie habit from AutoCAD days.
While you may be right about some components in my model, I don’t know that it earns you a 12-pack… perhaps just a 6-pack.
I look for those bulky components and avoid them. Largely I choose from the manufacturer-made components in the Products tab on 3DW.
Again,
Thank you.
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LOL!
That’s good. Not typical of the majority of interior designers that I work with. They could take lessons from you. 
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Many of those can be the worst offenders as they often upload models made in other software.
So be careful, size doesn’t always denote problems.
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Hey Colin,
With this method of bringing in components, are you suggesting a simply copy-clip from the singular component file to the larger SU model? Or use the import command?
In a problem file, copy and paste, or import, could also be slow. The advantage of opening the dedicated file, and copy and paste the parts you need, is that you won’t be copying across anything that is not needed. The file may still have unused components and materials, hopefully the copy and paste will be less demanding than an import would be.
I think you’re using a great practice, but even that threshold is way to big for my practice. For example, the components I load into the warehouse are, IMO, perfect for your application. Low poly, lightweight, etc. If I ever got close to 1MB, I’d consider them a failure. Many of my older items are now “bloated” by my own current standard or otherwise flawed, but this sink is a good example of mixing needed details with very little digital data (382k).
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Thanks for this @OldManPatterson1979 . I appreciate it. Good information! I’ll keep an eye out for your components, for sure!!