I’m working on a SFR that has a SketchUp file size of 19.8mb and Layout file size of 20.1mb. Layout file has 1 SketchUp model referenced and 10 drawing sheets at 17x11 page size.
Have you considered breaking up your layout file into 2-3 smaller layout files. Site Plan as 1 files, demolition / floor plans as 1 file, lighting / power plans as 1 file, etc…?
As for creating .pdf files, I always “Print to PDF” instead of exporting…
Sounds like you have an issue larger than Layout.
What hardware do you have, I´ve made huge projects with layout and sketchup on my M1 max macbook and the performance is ok, not the fastest in the world but lets me work without any issues, I have a 2013 macbook pro, it was my only machine for years, I made my bachelors and master final projects with it and it handled those huge files like a champ, of course I had to optimize the file and develop a workflow that doesn´t overwhelm the software. Most of the cases I´ve seen Layout behave extremely laggy and imposible to work with are due to poor management of the softwares, not saying your file is like that, I´d had to see it to evaluate it, but im sure it could be improved.
I have the same issues and also work in the Live Events Industry. The Vector function is the most important option when putting together technical drawings and I have always found it to be unusable. Anytime you bring up this issue you are told to simplify your model. What is the point of selling a product as a Pro license if it can’t handle professional work or output? I never had this issue working with Vectorworks or AutoCAD and since I have the option to switch back to AutoCAD or 3DStudio Max at work I’m considering making the jump to 3DS.
1 Like
I agree with you but I have always found it to be most usable.
And indeed every time
And yes, only a few weeks ago someone shared a file and they had a bunch of – what was it ? 1:400 or so viewports – and each viewport had many, many SketchUp groups and components that each had insane poly counts that would be resolving at 1:400 all into tiny millimetre representations.
Better SketchUp scene/tag organisation so that in Layout, viewports are not trying to resolve detail that is not necessary.
I’ve been there.
BTW – I do professional work 
What I’m saying is that I used Vectorworks professionally for years and did not have the same problems I have with Layout. Since I’ve been using Sketchup for more than a decade, the interface has never been noticeably improved. If I have to dumb down my model in order for Layout to function properly, then this should be added as a function of sketchup. For instance. Vectorworks has a built in Plan view that is 2D and is saved into each 3D object. You can simplify this view to any degree inside the model without simplifying your 3D model. When you add your viewport in paperspace you can select plan view vs. top view and the viewport is then reading the 2D info imbedded in the 3D object. I currently design large expos and trade shows primarily. Our corporate clients require high definition renders of their assets, so I would rather not have a high poly model for renders and a second low poly model for drafting. I use Xref to organize each small zone into it’s own model and only have 1 large model of the floor plan to render a birdseye view at the end. But whether I am building a layout deck for a small exhibit or a large floor plan, the Vector function is completely useless and always has been. I’ve used Mac, I’ve used PC, I’ve used desktops and laptops and found little performance improvement. I’ve had to change my presentation style to accomodate work arounds for Sketchup and Layout but I am quickly getting to the point that I think I will need to abandon Sketchup as the output is unreliable. Especially on a tight schedule. I already us AutoCAD exclusively for floor plans since Layout has been so unreliable for me.
I have had this same issue. After days of frustration I turned all of the viewports back to raster (no vector at all) and the file was able to print again.
Does Vectorworks do this automatically for you – do you set a threshold setting and voilà, the 2D view is simplified?
How is this set — how automatic or manual is this?
Just asking because — surely ? — if you organise your SketchUp scene with proxies and use tags to turn off certain groups and components — is than not similar to what Vectorworks does or is Vectorworks really clever?
Does Vectorworks deal with high poly count objects differently to SketchUp?
I haven’t used VectorWorks so I can’t comment on its performance, but I used ACAD for 24 years and will never use it again. I can produce much more detailed work far faster in SU and LO than I ever could in ACAD.
Definitely have a look at your workflow. SU and LO require a different approach as does most software. All software will have their shortcomings for sure, but never negate the user input. Nine times out of 10, major issues people have with speed and crashing stem from approaching their work the same way they did with another software.
Vectorworks will flatten your top view of section view into a 2D vector. It’s a function of the program. AutoCAD also has a flatten function that will compress any view into a flattened, simplified view if the object was built in AutoCAD. It unfortunately doesn’t seem to work on imported Sketchup models.
I see what you mean about using the tags to create 2D views of objects and embed them into the component - that may help quite a bit. It does mean doing double work on an object, but components like furniture, chairs, tables will only need to be done once and that might help considerably. We use a lot of pipe and drape also, so having a 2D object embedded in the 3D component on it’s own tag should go a long way.
Vectorworks handles objects as solids, so I think it is fundamentally different than Sketchup at it’s base level. I like the ease of modeling in Sketchup and the community interaction of the warehouse. I also like the Enscape plug in that I usually use for rendering. I can get a good quality (not photographic, but good enough for corporate approvals). It’s the ablility to communicate these models using Layout that is my biggest hang up. I do my best to ‘work cleanly’ inside Sketchup so I can isolate objects and often have multiple small files per project to keep file size down. When I X ref these smaller files into one large floorplan / birdseye view model, that slows things way down, but Sketchup itself is usually predictable in that way. I would love to be able to use Layout for floor plans, but I would need them to be rendered as Vectors and I’ve never been able to get that function to work.
If I need a 400,000 sqft floor plan rendered as a vector in a viewport, it does me no good to tell me the file is too large or to simplify. That’s the size of the project. It also doesn’t appear to be a limitation of my processing speed or storage as these are never even remotely maxed out when I’m running into problems.
But is this reversible?
The advantage of the the linked viewports that you can make edits in SketchUp and update the viewport.
Of course you can explode a Layout viewport but that breaks the link SketchUp.
It is not supposed to work with 3D polyfaces. But why would you want to do that? If you need a 2D DWG from a SketchUp model, you export one.