I’m trying to decide if I should ask my employer to pay for SketchUp Pro. I am a graphic designer and illustrator - that should set the stage for what my expectations are. The gaggy image quality that results from exporting any of the 2D file formats at sizes up to 9999px wide is a real disappointment. Its even worse than screen image quality,
Can someone show me a close-up detail image similar to this of a file output from SketchUp Pro that is better? Perhaps the PDF option?
I need to be able to print these files up to 8’ wide. I’ve read all the stale advice about resizing in Photoshop. Trust me, I’ve been working in Photo Shop since the very fist version back in 1988 and I’ve scaled and resized about every kind of file there is. I know all about getting away with lower resolution files for trade show size graphics but in this case, a little, blurry or a little gaggy ain’t gunna cut it.
I really love working in SketchUp so someone please tell me that better results can be found by purchasing SketchUp Pro and/or by using some plug in.
Due to the proprietary nature of the illustration I can only share a small portion of the full image. This portion will still need to be printed at least 48" wide.
These drawings are not intended to be used for manufacturing. They are marketing tools used to assist our sales people at trade shows when they are talking about services and solutions we provide. We have even toyed with the possibility of printing these on laminated panels so that people can write on them with dry erase markers to illustrate where they are having problems with their existing aluminium melting systems. That’s why we need really clean lines. The end user will be getting their noses right up against the drawings.
9999 pixels is a bit coarse for a 48 inches wide image, and the rather crappy antialiasing in Sketchup might make it a bit worse.
For the kind of technical illustration style you perhaps are after, a 2D vector image might be more practical. See attached a sample PDF exported from the LayOut application from the file you posted. I placed the default view on an ARCH E sized paper (48 inches wide) and used “Vector” rendering with 0.5 point base line width. Vector rendering cannot reproduce raster based effects (textures, shadows etc.) but it scales much better than raster.
Home Run Anssi - you hit that one out of the park!!!
This is exactly what I was looking for - PROOF that SketchUp can do what I need it to.
Yes I am “now” planning to purchase the Pro version since I can finally see that it will actually do what I need it to. I’m going to run a test print of this on our large format printer now to confirm the image quality.
Thanks very much!
My suggestion to the SketchUp marketing team would be to provide a little more evidence like this so Graphic Designers and Illustrators like me can understand that SketchUp Pro WILL produce high resolution, large format graphics.
“Graphic Designers and Illustrators” typically know the difference between raster data and vectors. If a raster export is required because of textures, shadows etc. upscaling by PhotoZoom Pro using the S-Spline technology might by a workaround (trial avail.).
