As has happened in the past all of my model references have gone, including my logo. They don’t show the classic grey box with red X unless I’m looking at the thumbnails of the pages in the pages window.
When I go to the references window only very few of my model refs are marked as missing, most of them are still “current”, even though they are not on the page.
When I render models on page I am sometimes able to get one back. When I render models in document it crashes.
This is a very big document, it’s about 125 pages, so I was thinking it might just be too large. There is not a lot of detail on the pages though, they’re just shop drawings so one single component with dimensions per page essentially. Occasionally a detail here and there.
Some additional info:
computer info: mac os ventura 13.5, Intel i9 processor, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB & Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536MB
the LO file and all model refs are in the same folder, but the refs are organized into sub-folders. I have been working on this for months and this is the first time it’s happened so I don’t think that’s it.
I have not moved the LO file, or any associated skp files.
everything is saved locally and has not moved.
once this problem happened I updated sketchup to see if it might resolve.
after updating I was able to render model on page and occasionally this would bring one model back, but after the update if I render models in document it crashes.
I changed skp preferences to use classic graphics as suggested by the popup window but still crashes.
about a year ago (and I don’t know this could be totally normal but it wasn’t happening before) every time I import a model it only shows the little yellow caution triangle in the bottom of the model until I render it. It also does this every time I rescale.
Because there are SO many model refs I don’t want to have to relink them all. I also want to know what the heck is going on so that I can prevent it going forward. I thought it had happened in the past because I moved files around so I have taken extreme caution to ensure I put everything where it will be forever before putting it into layout.
Any other ideas would be super appreciated. Thanks!
I don’t know why it is but, for example, the .skp reference for L-P-E1 doesn’t show up in the References folder in your LayOut file. In fact there Maybe @Barry would have an idea about that.
There’s an incredibly long list of .skp references in Document Setup. Do you reallly have a separate SketchUp file for every part? That seems like a lot of work to me.
I really do have an individual model for each component. There’s an extension for generating shop drawings of each component in a model, which turns each component into a separate .skp file with each face of said component showing so that you can dimension them.
It is a ridiculous amount of work which is why I am quite devastated. There is an updated version of the extension that does it all automatically which I will be using going forward.
When adding the .skp files into the LO I always use “import”.
I don’t know how to access that Ref folder you’re talking about.
Thank you again. I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this.
I looked at that extension when it first came out and quickly figured out it created much more work for me than it saved, especially if I needed to make edits to the main model. Clearly in your case relinking the .skp files would be extremely tedious, too.
That’s good.
The Ref folder is contained in the LayOut folder. You can access it by opening the LayOut file with an unzipping utility. I use 7-zip but of course there are others.
It is strange that nearly all of the inserted .skp references listed in Document Setup>References are not present in the Ref folder in the LayOut file.
You’re welcome. I wish I had a solution for you.
Have you tried opening the backup copy of the LayOut file? Does it have the same issue?
Yes I have to be extremely careful about updating anything when using that extension. But I am excited to try out the new batch feature for both generating shop drawings AND batch insertion into the LO file.
Yes, relinking them individually is not even working for every model actually. When I relink it still just shows that little yellow caution triangle in the bottom right of the model viewport and when I try to render models on page it doesn’t work.
I guess the lack of .skp refs in that folder is probably at least partially why this is happening. It’s weird though because more model refs than what you show in your screenshot are working in the LO file when I relink.
I have tried opening the backup and it’s the same thing.
The whole document was working perfectly on Friday, I exported to PDF, went to open to make one small change and when I re-opened it it looked like this.
Yes that is generated by the extension. I don’t ever make shop drawings until everything is finalized by the engineer. If I do have to make changes I make the changes in my main model and delete every shop drawing .skp file and model ref. from layout effected by the change and just start from scratch with those pieces. Not worth the risk of potentially missing something.
I’m glad that works for you. It’s more work than I want to do. I don’t consider any project finalized until it is built and turned over to the proponent.
It’s way more work than I would like to do as well, I would love to know if there’s a more efficient way of doing it!
Haha, I agree, but to the frame itself there’s not too much that can be changed once we start cutting. On this frame with I don’t even know how many pieces, I’ve had to make 1 change effecting 4 pieces. So really not too bad on that front.
What’s really bad is inserting all of those freaking .skp files!
Without having access to your computer and being there in person it’s hard to diagnose what’s going on… I like Clark a lot, and I have taught folks how to use his extensions (the older version, before the LayOut stuff) - but this stuff just doesn’t work with my workflow, and its tedious.
I don’t think I’d make a file that is that large - I’d consider next time breaking up the LO file - maybe do all the posts in one file, then all the rafters, etc. etc.
I see you are on a Mac - so all this is saved locally? Nothing in DropBox or iCloud?
Do you use FileVault or any sort of encryption on your drive?
Do you use Time Machine? Have you tried restoring the main ‘Barker’ folder from Friday, when it worked? You can choose to keep the current folder and restore a copy.
If you want we could schedule time to do a Zoom / screen share. I’m not sure I would be able to help - but if we share your screen I’d love to see where these files disappeared to. Send me a direct message or email me at my website (you can find it in my forum profile).
I don’t do it this way… generally I don’t do piece drawings and use callouts and show the pieces modeled with joinery in the bents.
When I do generate piece drawings for timber framers I have a different approach that is cleaner / easier to manage for me. But I don’t use Clark’s plugins.
Yes I completely agree that the file could be too large and I promise you I will not be doing that again. The fact that it could be too large had not even crossed my mind. I do have a PDF from Friday, so if I can’t figure it out I’m going to just redo what I need to.
Everything is saved locally and I am super diligent with not moving files around once they’re put into layout.
I don’t use any type of encryption.
I have used time machine before, I was going to try it but I wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t just happen again (I wanted to “fix” whatever is going on). I didn’t know that you could just time machine one single folder so that was my main hesitation, but I’ll give that a go right now.
Go to your Desktop, open the folder and go up to Time Machine, then go back to Friday.
IIRC you should be able to restore the folder, or the files in it.
This is how I do it for plans, but for the shop drawings I don’t really see another way of doing it other than individual pieces. For simple pieces with standard joinery sure, but anything that is slightly more confusing than that I (and the shop guys) find individual drawings to be almost fool proof. Knock on wood but we really rarely have miscuts, or put housings on the wrong side of the line, etc.
I actually am really growing to like the extension, it’s been extremely tedious to add .skp files of each component. But like I was telling Dave there is apparently a new batch feature which I discovered only after putting everything into this layout file which allows you to batch generate and batch insert into layout. Which would be a total game changer, honestly.
Ah shoot, I am an idiot, I don’t have time machine backup set up, this laptop is fairly new to me so I must have used it on my last computer instead. Going to set up asap.
