Addon for simplyfing/reducing lines, any other help to save time

Hello everybody,

I am importing many of models created by moving objects in another environment, for sure not accurate way. The models constructed as a result are messy, full of unwanted lines and geometry. Anyway they are necessary for me to get exact dimensions of main shapes of the object. I am quite a beginner, searching the easiest way how to reduce that added geometry. I hope that the picture here is enough describing the problem. My tries to reduce geometry simply by deleting lines end by messing up the whole thing, which happens sooner if the geometry is more complex. In fact the models themselves are quite simple. What i need, is, to be able to define basic geometry from inside and outside by clicking the main points, e. g. to define a cube by clicking 4 times inside and 4 times outside. This way I could reconstruct the original idea. I do not know if this is possible to do and if so, how. Any other help very appreciated, suggested addons or techniques, some simple tutorial. I can provide model itself for demonstration things on it as well. Sorry if my English is not perfect as I am not native speaker.

The extension CleanUp³ may help.

Please do.
That would help us understand and make better suggestions.

Thank you for this hint, and for your interest too. Very appreciated. If you are interested in model itself, I am sending as an attachement too. The plugin you suggested I already have. It helps a lot but not in this case. It cleans it well but the model itself may be ok but full of geometry which is not neccessary. The file included is some interior for some game. Anyway, I think it is clear how it should look. What I need is to get rid of those lines I do not need .jacky2.skp (25.9 KB)

Much of problem is off-axes and non-coplanar geometry.
Only tedious, time-consuming editing can fix those defects; CleanUp³ cannot.

Generally it is better and faster to model new than to fix the old.
I think that is true in this case.

To avoid propagating existing errors, it’s best not to Inference to or create guides from the bad geometry.
Simply use the Tape Measure tool, Entity Info or the Dimension tool to inspect the old in creating the new.
Learn to use Inference Locking to insure the new geometry is on-axes.

Well, that is what I just started to do: measuring and dissasembling into smaller parts, creating a new one model. Thank you for ensuring me that it is the best method. Was hoping for something easier and especially for something faster. Anyway, your advice is very appreciated and I will also use that inference locking when it can be used. Glad for that response was so fast too, good to meet you here. Have a good day! J… :sunny:

Jan1: your model is simple( only five major entities) but you have not used any components. Luckily you can select most of the geometry of each of those and make it a component, and use the push tool to make a valid item and assign to a layer. My guess is it should take a short time to make the components and then you can quickly reassemble and re-align in short time also

Thank you mac7595. You are right too. Anyway I used groups instead of components, so I hope it does not matter. I do not need to store components for another use, just for this simple object. Also I do not understand why layers should be used at all. This is what I did and now I will try to reassemble it again. :wink:

Groups and components isolated the geometry so they do not stick together, layers control visibility of those so it makes much easier to work on model. You should also use the outliner, you can use that to select the geometry and even move tree hierarchy click on component 1 it in the attached file. You can select and go into edit mode while hiding rest of items => makes much easier to work onjacky2_mac1.skp (35.2 KB) Also keeping the entity info dialog open helps.

Thanks to both of you I finaly got some result after longer time. Still not sure if there is no useless geometry there as this is for me very important. My intent is to build as much low poly item as possible. I found in some coment that Sketchup is not designed for this kind of work but for me it is a very friendly application I like to learn. For the smallest resulting .dae I am using conversion through 3DWings (export object .obj - import - select - combine - export .dae). Anyway I did not find yet how to make a resulting geometry squared, not triangulated (for UV mapping) Appreciating the supportive people here. Sending my result for the case you maight like to see that simple object, to decide if there is no useless geometry kept. Have a good time! Jacky-021a.skp (30.8 KB)

Where I would expect to see some edges they are not there. However, arguably one could conceivably build the model with simple planes, but is that the lowest poly approach possible? I don’t know. You can use the model info, statistics drop down and that will show the edges, faces etc in the model. You would then need to make model a different way and make a similar comparison. This is a very simple model and as you start building more complex items I think you will start to encounter many problems because of the inherent “sticky” nature of SU primitive geo. The partial approach I posted above shows less faces and edges than your’s but of course I did not complete it. I my do that later but not today.
You approach to dae and then back I question. There are a number of options ( right lower corner select box) when you export dae from SU I guess you have not checked and I have found in past can make the model non 2 manifold. As of SU8 google claimed at that time 95% compliant to dae for their export but I have not check lately.
IMHO think you should use components for making your model so geometry is isolated, if you what to combine later then it can just be exploded in total.