This is going to be a TLDR for most people…
The OS makes no difference.
A 2016 .skp file is a 2016 .skp file.
Who cares about the file format itself… This is about the resulting operations from manipulating the not-perfect geometry.
I assure you that the compiled code that performs the mathematical operations in the Windows version is not identical to the compiled code in the Mac version. It may begin with the same cross platform source code, but the resulting compiled code will have operational differences, and the Open GL implementations will be different which really affects the UI.
Tricky, but doable
Tricky? No it’s not, and I don’t really understand how you’re making it difficult… Just click on the center of a face to select it. That’s how you’ll select a face with all bounding edges (“incorrect” or not). One click, cut, paste. Second click, cut, paste. Third click, cut, paste. Fourth click, cut, paste. Done.
…it’s far better and faster to erase bad geometry and redraw
You can’t always do this. You might begin by evaluating imported geometry, and when SketchUp can’t accurately do that, and then it subsequently generates poor/bad geometry during your repair process, it turns into a cascading waste of time.
You’re dancing around the primary issue here in a defend-the-quirks nature, but I agree fundamentally on SketchUp not being super accurate and having to work within it’s limits. I have never expected it to be super accurate. But I am well within reason to expect it to behave consistently and not lead me astray. I don’t want to spend time working around its quirks. I should be able to rely on tools and get real work done. SketchUp should be capable of handling 0.001 accuracy on a model on the scale of a few inches with no problems. You can’t really argue this. How could you possibly do architectural work to even 1/8" then?
So my first issue is, SketchUp incorrectly displays the internal state of the model. The color-by-axis is just inaccurate, and they really should address this because it’s just incorrect behavior. Not hard to fix - it just takes prioritization.My second issue is, SketchUp can generate seemingly extraneous geometry that confuses things. The example I showed is exactly the kind of mistakes that can creep into a model. Four-sided poly that should be possible according to what’s being displayed, but can’t be generated. Then when you try and build 3-sided polys to work around it, you get twisted and invalid geometry that shouldn’t be possible. I’ve attached the single borked face alone in a skp file, so I’m curious what you think this is…
what_is_this.skp (17.8 KB)
If it weren’t for Vertex Tools plugin and the ability to window around vertices and pull them together into one vertex, I’d completely lose my mind. At least Vertex Tools lets me get to water-tight triangles when SketchUp can’t close up things properly.
