When I try to print a 3D image in layout, it loses a lot of its quality - see attached images of a screenshot from Sketchup and one from Layout of the same thing. I have tried changing to Vector, or HiBrid but the computer freezes up and it takes too long. Any tips?
You can change the display resolution inside Document Setup > Rendering
The idea would be to keep the display resolution low or medium, but the output resolution high (ie. the PDF export would be higher quality than what you see on your screen) so that you can have a faster drafting experience in LO. You could also upgrade to 2024 as there are performance improvements.
Thanks I’ve made the changes. I am also working on Sketchup and Layout 2024. The attached is from the printed pdf. Is this what
you would expect to be the best we can achieve?
Are you printing to paper or exporting to PDF from Layout?
Just that if your model is very “heavy” that could be why your computer is freezing when you try to print/export as vector or hybrid.
It looks OK for a raster rendered viewport to me. What does it look like if you render as Hybrid?
I’m exporting to pdf from layout. The model shouldn’t be heavy as it only has what you can see on the extract.
I’m trying to print it Hybrid but it is taking ages…
Render the viewports as Hybrid before exporting. There’s a lot of linework in your model that need to be vector rendered so it will take some time. I would guess your model could be simplified to reduce the amount of linework that LayOut needs to be considering for rendering.
Thanks. This is what it came out as eventually which is better.
Any tips on how to simplify the model would be appreciated.
Share the .skp file. Not much to tell you by looking at a screenshot.
Q44589_sketchup.skp (715.3 KB)
Q44589_layout.layout (1.1 MB)
Well, the first thing I would do is eliminate the “threaded” studs and simplify the hex nuts.
The nuts don’t need to have internal screw threads. They don’t really even need a hole through them or even the chamfers on the top and bottom. As it is there are almost 3000 edges in just one hex nut. LO has to consider every one of them to determine if it needs to be rendered or not.
In the views you show those nuts and studs are not large enough to show all that detail.
Here I’ve removed the studs and hex nuts from your model and purged unused content. Then I relinked the LayOut file to the updated SketchUp model. Rendering these viewports as Hybrid is almost instantaeous. Even the most detailed viewport is fast.
Exporting to PDF only takes a few seconds, too. This gif also includes the time it takes my computer to open Adobe Reader. If Reader had already been open this would go faster.
If you need to show a detail view of the studs and the nuts, maybe for an exploded view, do that with a separate view and use tags to control the visibility of the objects. Currently you are using Hide instead of tags to control visibility of objects. That’s not good practice. Use Tags instead for that. If you use tags all four of these viewports could be made from a single scene.
Thanks that’s very helpful.