There have been a number of posts about people having difficulties with large files and I have just encountered it myself. This actually is a follow up to an earlier post about exporting from Tekla (also part of the Trimble family): Tekla TBP files
The file I have been sent is 64MB and much larger (by a factor of about 10) than files I tend to generate in SU. SU will happily import the drawing and what I see on screen looks expected, but then I just get perpetual beachballing and enquiry reveals the SU is no longer responding. It could be a limitation of my hardware, I guess.
I have uploaded the file to Dropbox. It would be interesting to know if anyone else can open it and, if they can, what hardware they use to do it. Hereās the link: Dropbox - out.skp - Simplify your life
Perhaps I should mention that Teklaās advice for exporting to Sketchup when files are large is to do it in portions. Thing is, I donāt think the drawing in question would be that large if it were made in SU originally as it is full of what are (or should be) components with multiple repetition.
opening in SketchUp (mid 2015 macbook pro, 2,8 Ghz i7 16Gb Ram,AMD Radeon R9 2GB,Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB)
took about 2 minutes.
No Component or Outliner panel.
Switching of profiles handles it smoother.
You are right about the way it imports, every bolt and beam that is geometrically(?) the same imports as a Unique component definition instead of an instance of one definition.
Besides, every component has the same origin, regardless. This causes serious troubles in SketchUp and needs to be taken care off.
Slightly over 1M edges, you could take a shot in exploding them.
By the way, uploading to Trimble Connect also took about 2 minutes and runs fine in the browserā¦
I have been successfully opened, within 20 sec or so. Some fix done after:
I can use the orbit and pan, line, rectangleā¦ without so much lag, however it is not ābutter smoothā.
When I want to āgenerateā the in model components in component tray, SU is not responding for about 10 minutesā¦ and still no responding yet. I think ~16000 component defs are too muchā¦
I donāt have the Tekla model. I might be able to get it although the firm who produced it would have to be happy to share it. I can ask.
I donāt know enough about Tekla to know whether this is a drafting issue or something inevitable. I find it odd if Trimble have not addressed it if it is software based.
I think most people here have faster processors and higher memory video cards than me, so that might explain why my system just hangs.
I have just received a simplified version of the file with bolts, welds, and surface treatments removed. Itās now down to a much more manageable 10.5MB. It still takes a long time to load. Also, everything comes in on a single layer although things are imported as components. The odd thing from a SU POV is that each component seems to be unique even though many are actually identical copies.
I just opened your file. It took 28 seconds. By comparison, it took about 19 seconds to get a new session of SketchUp open from selecting the template. Lots of extensions loading, though. Opening your file in an already open session of SketchUp took about 3 seconds.
After selecting the template, it takes about 19 seconds to get SketchUp open and all the extensions loaded so I can start to model.
No. Just the extensions I have installed all the time.
That may be a PC/Mac thing. On the PC, if SketchUp is open and you just select a different file, you just switch to that file. Thereās no waiting for extensions to load again.
Could it be that the Tekla system is designed to ensure that the position of every component is related back to a single common point? In theory, you could get someone to hold a bolt in the air and wait whilst the rest of the structure is built and it would still align perfectly with holes on the steelwork it is designed to secure. Providing his arm never tires or moves.
I just thought Iād try saving the file and re-opening. Lo and behold, it opened in seconds. And as @MikeWayzovski has pointed out, turning off profiles speeds up navigation. It flies, in fact.
So I think I have a solution. So long as I can put up with the length of time it takes to load the initial exported file, everything should be cushty after that. Thanks all.
At first I thought the height must relate to height above sea level but the site is in Norfolk UK which means even Dutchmen wouldnāt get altitude sickness.
