My first post here, If I can provide any more useful information that would be relevant to this situation, please let me know! My system is running Windows inside of a hefty virtual machine. 8 Gb of ram, 500 Gb space, 4 cores allocated to it’s use. This is on a machine running Linux with an Nvidia GTX 1050 notebook.
So I’m attempting to copy over line art from certain pieces, and I’ve gotten to the point where I can successfully create a very detailed result using LuBan 3D software. The DXF file that I import from LuBan to sketchup contains around 127,300 lines, with no faces. The next task in my process is making faces out of all of these detailed shapes in the line art.
Sketchup has proven to be very unstable when it comes to working on these detailed models in my case. I’m assuming that it’s just dealing with too many lines when I try to make faces, because within a second of making a single line on the model, my program crashes. There is no wait period like it’s working to get it done. It just crashes right away. This happens both when I try to make the entire thing into faces at once, as welll as trying to chop off smaller portions and make faces out of those.
So my question is, is there any way to more efficiently deal with the process I’m trying to undertake without losing any of the detail in the line art? I’d like to keep the amount of detail I have if at all possible, but I am not sure how to go about making it more stable or efficient as I’m a decently basic sketchup user. Perhaps there are extensions that might help with this? I appreciate any help that you can offer! Thank you for your time and responses!
If you can provide the DXF file, or the resulting SKP file after importing the DXF, or even just a screen-shot showing what the line art looks like, some other users will probably take a closer look. 127K edges is not a huge model. I don’t know what are the effects of running SketchUp in a virtual machine.
Does the line art form one face, or is it a 3D mesh? As I recall, SketchUp has a limit on the number of edges that can form one face, something like 10000 edges per face. If that limit is being exceeded, it may be causing the crash. You can submit the Bugsplat (assuming one appears upon the crash), along with your email address or name, to allow a SketchUp team member to look at it.
Edited to add instructions for posting a file: just drag it onto the forum’s editor area when composing a new reply, or use the icon button that is an up-pointing arrow.
Here is the DXF file that I’m importing into sketchup!
I’m not exactly sure how to respond to your question, as I’m still learning the language of 3d modeling. What I’m attempting to do is take all of the individual shapes in the file and make each one of those shapes into a face in order to extrude the model into 3d art that I can then 3d print. I hope this response answers the question about whether it’s a 3d mesh or a single face that I’m trying to work with.
Thanks for the advice! I had not known that the limit to make a face out of edges was 10,000 lines, that’s very helpful to know. I believe I’m easily going over that limit then. I have sent off a bug splat with minimal detail because I wasn’t exactly sure what was the cause of the crashes. Sounds like it is probably attempting to make a face with more than 10,000 edges though.
For starters, I was able to import and add faces. I used a plugin “add faces to selected edges”. No problem so far, but I only tested a small area.
I wonder, can you simplify the outlines more in another software? All the little jagged edges probably don’t do anything for the final result. You also have some tiny isolated spots you could get rid of, I’m sure.
Then you can also scale the whole geometry way up to make sure that there are no edges too short for SU to deal with properly. I’ll see what further I can do but let others chime in. This will be a LOT of work, depending on what you want to do with it.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post! I am able to create faces in the smaller areas like that. I am unfortunately having issues around the issue with larger areas like the face of the ram in the top left part of model. Connecting a line from right below the nose ring, to the part of the jaw right next to the mouth results in a crash for me. The picture shows the area where I’m trying unsuccessfully to create a face.
You’d be correct in assuming that all the jagged lines do not help my issue. This image was created from traditional art on paper, so instead of taking a clean pixelated image, my software is having issues determining where to place the lines, since ink bleeding onto paper is not a good, hard distinction between line, and paper. I have just recently figured out how to successfully extract this line art in a detailed manner, and I’m not sure how to go about simplifying it without breaking down the general shape of the drawing itself, but it is definitely an avenue to pursue.
I did not think about scaling it up to make sure that no line was to small to work with, I’ll have to give that a try as well. Thank you for your help!! My end goal is to be able to 3d print an extruded mode of this piece and painting it. I’ve done this quite successfully with other, simpler models, but I’m looking at getting more intricate and complicated as I improve my skills with modeling. Thanks for your input.
Wow jean_Lemire_1! You managed to create a single shape and make the entire 2d surface into a face! I have to admit though I’ve never seen this style of face before, As I don’t take advantage of many Sketchup features like I should. Are the yellow faces here some kind of special tool? May I ask how you were able to create these extrudable faces without the program crashing on you? Appreciate any response, thank you!
I added a large rectangle to encompass all of the figure.
All faces closed but many regions perimeters were shown as profiles. To make then part of the large face, I redrew one edge on all those who showed as profiles. This took me about an hour.
I know that there are some plugins that can do that but I was afraid that SU may crash since there are thousands of edges.
Well i appreciate the time you’ve put into this! I did have to go through the process of turning the profiles into closed faces in all of my other models. That has been the process I was going through with my previous models. Thank you for your time and effort Jean, it is much appreciated.
