I’m learning sketchup, and have been working with the web version to create a rendering of a house. I’ve worked for weeks on the drawing and it seems to save automatically, I click save regularly but it’s always saving. I have downloaded several components with great success but just now, I downloaded a bed and it seemed to make the whole drawing disappear. At first I thought maybe it had just downloaded in a huge scale, so I tried zooming in, but that doesn’t seem to be it. I clicked the back arrows several times to undo the action but nothing is happening. I’ve panned around and looked everywhere but can’t find my house. Suddenly the program froze and then my browser closed. When I opened it again, the drawing is in the same state but not the back arrows are grey, meaning I can’t go back again to undo.
What is happening? Why did the drawing disappear from the addition of a bed? And more importantly, how can I get it back? How can I retrieve an earlier version and moving forward, how can I resave drawings into separate versions? I tried to save the ‘empty’ house before I started adding furniture but couldn’t figure that out, it’s only being held online and not saved back to my computer as I don’t yet have a licence, just the free version while I’m testing it out.
Surely I should be able to still go back? How can an entire project be deleted just like that?
I would suggest that you save the file to your computer and upload it here (or to Drop Box if it’s larger than 3Mb) so we can see exactly what you’ve got.
If you were to install the desktop version of SketchUp, you could use Outliner to locate the bed component and delete it. Then use Zoom Extents to return to your model.
Thanks for getting back to me! As it’s a free version it can’t be downloaded or opened on a computer, you have to do all your actions within the website. I’ve never used a web-based program before and I’m finding it all super difficult. I’m just looking to see if somehow I’m wrong about this and if so I’ll upload it to my dropbox, but so far I can’t find a way to save out of the program itself!
Here is a screenshot of what my drawing looks like now and the bed I downloaded, maybe there’s a clue in here somewhere? I saw a previous topic on this problem that resolved, it was a geolocation in the end, but unfortunately as I’m a novice, I don’t know what any of that means. I don’t even know what outliner is! I’m googling like crazy and trying to get up to speed but I’m an absolute beginner! Thanks again for helping!
Well, actually, it can be downloaded to your computer. Click on the file folder icon and choose Download. And it can be opened on your computer if you install a desktop version.
From your screen shot, the first thing I would do is delete the guidelines and see if you can use Zoom Extents to get back to the model.
Delete the bed component and your problem should be fixed. This is a poster child reason for never inserting 3D Warehouse components directly into your model. Always open them in a separate file and check them out. Repair if necessary or find a different one before adding it to your model.
Thank you so much! In order to have a desktop version you have to pay for a licence and I can’t right now, so I’m stuck doing thngs onlone until then. I used the free trial last year when I first tried to learn, and it was incredibly much easier on a computer, the tools are more visible, it doesn’t drag and buffer, so much better but I’m working with what I have for the moment.
That bed is huge. I kind of realised it when it came in, and tried to scale it but it would not. I’m not sure how to download a component in any other way but I’m about to google like mad again. Basically as soon as you touch the selection it downloads automatically.
SketchUp 2017 Make is a desktop version and still available. Of course if you are using SketchUp for more than a hobby, you need to be using SketchUp Pro or SketchUp Shop. The free versions are not licensed for commercial work.
That probably has most to do with your computer’s GPU.
The huge size is the fault of the component’s author. If you have to use that bed, open it in a separate session of SketchUp and adjust the size. Then save it either locally or to your Trimble Connect account and import it into your main model.
Probably the easiest way to resize it is to open the component for editing and measure the width of it between end points using the Tape Measure tool. Click on both end points. The Measurements window will tell you what it measures. Type what you want it to be and hit Enter.
Thanks!! That’s all really useful! I’m going to try all those suggestions at least just to learn how to do that, but I think the easiest thing is to choose another bed that’s not made for giants. It was my second choice, the first one actually downloaded another ‘person’ and not the bed. None of the other components did that, they popped in neatly in the right scale and in the right place. I guess I’m just having bad luck with beds.
On that note, is there a way via the desktop version to ‘check out’ the component before you click it? I’ve hovered over and looked since I saw your earlier screenshot of the size, but I can’t find that view. Once you touch it it just downloads directly into your drawing and command click doesn’t change things. Or is the workaround to start a new project, download it, adjust if necessary and then copy and paste into the other one?
Yes. I would suggest looking for one from another author, too. Gigi60 seems to be into beds for giants.
If it was another bed by GIGI60, she also seems to leave the character component in her models. If you zoom so you can see the bed, the character isn’t visible.
In general, it’s just sloppy modeling. Both of the beds I downloaded from this author also have many problems with geometry besides size. Not worth taking the time to fix and make usable when there are thousands of other beds to choose from.
Not really. Just have a second SketchUp session running for components from the Warehouse.
That’s from an old plugin which unfortunately the author has withdrawn from circulation. Only the desktop versions of SketchUp currently have the facility to use plugins and extensions anyway.
As before, start another model to download and check components. You can’t copy and paste between sessions in the Web-based versions of SketchUp so if you need to modify the downloaded component, you would then need to save it somewhere so you can insert it into your project model. With the desktop versions of SketchUp you can copy and paste between sessions.
Thanks for all that, Dave. I think the lesson in this is that I need to suck it up and pay for a licence. Always was in the cards, but I’m also learning Vectorworks and I can’t afford both at the same time so I need to wait until another invoice comes in. Everything I have drawn up so far has been purely conceptual and ‘invented’, so I’ve previously glossed over things I didn’t know how to do when I met an obstacle. I’m looking at buying a weird house, but it needs work and is an awkward layout, so I thought this might be an excellent opportunity to duplicate ‘real’ things so I’m forced to learn how to do ‘exact’ actions instead of changing my idea/design to fit my skill set level…
As you learn to use SketchUp, you’ll find that drawing your real world objects can be easy enough and you’ll get more of what you want rather than having to settle for what others did that was close but no cigar.
yeah every day I get past another hurdle! I downloaded a pro trial last year and it’s the way to go…mainly as I can change the overall style to my finished drawing and make it look cooler. I’m not a fan of green grass and blue sky…I just downloaded 2017 and I’m just figuring out how to save my web drawing to my computer now so I can open it up on my desktop and continue working from there. You’ve been a massive help Dave!