I’m working on a fairly large architectural project in SketchUp (Pro 2024) and running into some performance issues as the model becomes more complex. I’ve already purged unused components, materials, and tried to keep geometry grouped properly. However, I’m still experiencing lag—especially when orbiting or using section cuts.
Here’s a quick overview of the model setup:
File size is ~180MB
Roughly 12 scenes set up for various views
A mix of imported components (furniture, trees, etc.) from 3D Warehouse
Working on a Windows 11 machine with 32GB RAM and an RTX 4070 GPU
I’m wondering if anyone can share tried-and-tested strategies or workflows for optimizing SketchUp models of this scale. Specifically:
Are there particular modeling habits that help maintain performance over time?
Any recommendations for extensions or tools that help audit or simplify models?
Should I avoid certain types of geometry or nesting depth in components?
What’s your approach to balancing visual detail with performance, especially when planning to render with V-Ray later?
Also, would using Tags more aggressively help, or is it better to split large models across multiple files?
Any input or insight would be greatly appreciated—just trying to make sure I’m not overlooking something basic or missing out on best practices of power bi course in bangalore and others have learned the hard way.
Are you working in a fast style? Profiles off? Shadows off, etc.?
Are you working with textures off and in monochrome or shaded (no textures)?
Do you use scenes and tags to isolate geometry critical to the design and leave entourage (furniture, people, fixtures, appliances, etc) off when working?
Do you have excessively large textures?
Have you been selective with your 3d warehouse imports? I’ve seen client files where the details in a toilet or kitchen appliance had more geometry than the entire building I was working on…
Extensions:
CleanUp3
Material Resizer
Material Replacer
Default Tag Geometry
As for VRay - I often model for production - CDs, shop drawings, CNC and also for rendering. I have separate models. Interiors need a different attention to detail than exteriors, which both need different level of detail to construction docs.
I bring in entourage, trees, cars, etc. from ChaosCosmos - the items I bring in are proxies, so the geometry is simplified for modeling / arranging views and lighting - but they get rendered properly.
An old SketchUp saying goes: Geometry is everything.
It is still true. Fast graphics cards speed up the processing of raster-based features like shadows and textures, but all the faces and edges in the model must pass through the single CPU core 3D modelling applications use.
To see the edge and face count in your model look at the Model Info>Statistics window and check the “Show nested components” box. When the counts run in millions the model will slow down.
To find what objects in your model cause the biggest bloat you can use an extension like CG Impact Report or SB Statistics Probe.
I bet that if you delete all the models from the 3DWH on your model, it will weight less than half of its actual size. Most of the models from the 3DWH are unnecessarily heavy, I prefer to use proxys if I’m going to render or low poly models made by myself through the years. My biggest project so far has been a 10000m2 hardware store with administrative buildings and showrooms, it was like 70mb with assets, materials and a a lot of scenes as well, I didn’t use the 3DWH at all.