After importing a DWG, I can not see my model

[john_mcclenahan]

@DaveR

You really should strip them down to lighten the load.

@dpatane0

Do i just explode the item all the way? Then group it?

No, that just replicates all the excessive detail.

You probably need either to find a low poly model of a similar object, or redraw on top of the one you have, using fewer segments in arcs, replacing finely draw detail with one or more images, reducing the size of any over-large textures in an image editor, and various other techniques suggested elsewhere.

Then delete the original over complex component and Purge the model to get rid of the component definition.

Here’s a thread I started a few years ago. Some of this may help you understand how to reduce the size and over-detailed parts of your model.

Simplifying 3Dwarehouse models for use as entourage

Continuing the discussion from No idea how to create this mop head. any suggestions?: I was thinking it might be helpful to do just that, and get some feedback. Some of the results demonstrate DRASTIC reductions in edge and face counts, but more modest reductions in file size, depending on the size of textures used and what proportion of the file size they account for. Example: [image] Bookcase and desk - original and simple.skp.zip (1.3 MB) Original: ~7500 edges, ~3000 faces, 2 groups, …

FWIW, Dave’s link no longer works (says the file is deleted) and when I download and view your original, using Camera/Perspective and Zoom Extents all I get after several minutes is a blank white Sketchup workplace screen.

[Anssi]

@john_mcclenahan

using Camera/Perspective and Zoom Extents all I get after several minutes is a blank white Sketchup workplace screen

It’s because the camera is at the other side of the galaxy. Select All followed by Zoom to selection worked for me.
I haven’t found yet where about 95% of the file size is lurking. Even with the upholstery in the furniture, almost 150 MB is huge for this.
Edit: simple Purging stripped 109MB, 73% out of the file size.

[john_mcclenahan]

@Anssi

Select All followed by Zoom to selection worked for me.

That I didn’t try. Though I did pick just one item in Outliner and try Zoom Selection on that. Didn’t work, though.

Maybe it’s the texts at infinity which threw my copy of the model?

[john_mcclenahan]

Finally got it visible. But needed a lot more fiddling than I liked or expected.

Purging and saving got the file size down from 146MB to 98MB - one third reduction.

Once I got it visible, I used Steve Baumgartner’s extension Statistics Probe (from Sketchucation plugin store) to check the model and find the elements contributing most edges to the model.

The first ‘hit’ is the At Ease Counter Stool - of which there are 3 in the model. 118K edges for three stools!

Next up is 4 copies of 30" Bar stools totalling 95K edges

And an Office chair - one copy, another 90K+ edges

The Model Info/Statistics window shows only 602,000 edges in the whole model (including components and subcomponents), and these three components and their copies alone contribute over half of that.

Whereas Steve’s statistics match what I see in the Component Browser Statistics for the three components so far looked at.

Anyway, datane0, that will give you an idea of where to start simplifying your furniture components.

Here’s what I see in Monochrome Face Style for the At Ease Counter Stool, with hidden geometry made visible.

A lot of inconsistently reversed faces, and FAR too many segments in the curves of the cushions. That’s where the majority of totally over-detailed edges are coming from.

Badly drawn, too, with the component origin at no particular place in the stool, and no use of subcomponents.

Given the file size, I suspect that the textures too are larger or much larger than needed.

As an experiment, I deleted all the materials, then purged again, without doing anything else to reduce the edge count, and re-saved the model.

That further reduces the file size, but still only to 84MB.

[slbaumgartner]

A lot of it may be from texture images. There are 12 of them that are around a mega-pixel each.

[john_mcclenahan]

Yes, Steve - I was editing my previous post when you replied, and I see a roughly equivalent result.

Yet another of the many, many examples of poor modelling in the 3D Warehouse.

Advice, often repeated, for the OP - look for low poly count and low file size models in the 3D Warehouse, download each into a separate SU model file, and examine them before including in your main model.

If you are using a particular manufacturer’s Product, check that too. It may look like what you want to use, but many of them too are just converted from the product manufacturing CAD models, again with FAR more detail than is needed for the visual appearance you want in your main model.

PS. A closer look at the At Ease stool.

Upper frame top - rounded top not even properly joined to the side, and reversed, with FAR too many segments:

After removing the cushions (difficult without wrecking other parts of the model, because there’s no use of sub components) I see otherwise irrelevant details of the webbing. You can’t even SEE most of it with the cushions present, from any viewing angle you’d be likely to want to use for the whole model.

I haven’t time or inclination to fix this model. As DaveR often says, it’s easier to draw it again, using the same dimensions, and sometimes copying parts or even just faces from the old model (then pushpull).

If I were to do so, rather than (probably quicker) find a better one on 3D Warehouse, I’d make it with components like a real stool with cushions, and copy and/or mirror left and right back and front legs, and crosspieces.

Each piece made into a solid (in SU terms). Cushions redrawn with maybe 8 segments per semicircular arc, using FollowMe round a rectangle a little over 16" square and about 3 1/2" thick. (The originals are no particular size, and not square.)

The result would be visually virtually indistinguishable, and a fraction of the file size and edge count.

PPS. And something else I’ve just noticed in the stool component. 24 different tags, IGES0-23, applied to edges and faces.

Where did those come from? I’d delete all those tags, and reassign Untagged to all the edges and faces in the stool.

[dpatane0]

Wow I had no idea!! Thank you!! Just about all the furniture was downloaded from 3d warehouse and not adjusted at all… I was wondering why the file was so large with so little in there.

[john_mcclenahan]

A bit of an eye-opener for you, then?

Always worth checking a downloaded model. Here are a few things to look for (not an exhaustive list, just what occurs to me as I write).

• is the model the right size for the real world you are modelling (some have dimensions WILDLY out of scale - furniture many km tall for example)? Or maybe they’ve been imported at the wrong scale at some point.
• is the file size and edge count small enough to use in the bigger model you are creating, without bloating it? This is even more important if you are using many copies of the imported component
• use View/Face style/Monochrome to check for reversed faces, and fix if necessary (white faces out)
• does the model sensibly use subcomponents or groups?
• are the subcomponents or groups seen by SU as solid? If they are, they are more likely to have been cleanly modelled. It’s not a requirement, unless you are trying to 3D print the item, but is an indication of good practice when modelling (for example) furniture
• does showing hidden geometry show too many tiny faces?
• are any of the edges or faces tagged with a non-default tag? If so, reset them to Untagged (or Layer0 in versions of SU before 2020). Re-tag only components or groups, unless you REALLY know what you are doing, and why.
• are there a reasonable number of textures, and are they the minimum needed size?