Solar farm model extreme slow - only 7,6MB

Hello
Maybe you can help.
I am working on a “small” model of Solar cells but the model is veeeeery slow and every time i open a group or select a component the system is slow.
The only reason for the delays that I can think of is, that I have a lot of the components in the model! Is this the reason or are there things I can optimize to avoid lag.
For placing the solar panels I have used Place Maker.
I have copied different parts of the model to new files with copy-paste, but nothing helps.

I have a job making more visualizations on a bigger scale, so all advice is very welcome - I will really appreciate it!!

I have inserted a link to the model on my drive.
Solar farm

Thanks,
Mikkel

Check if Profile edges or shadows are enabled in the current style. Rendering those visual effects typically slows things down a lot.

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Hi TDahl
Thanks, that is off! :slight_smile: I have followed all the tutorials on increasing speed, but I havn’t solved it.
Thanks

Try minimizing the outliner - if the outliner is open with a lot of components it can slow down trying to dynamically update it.

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Hi Justin
First, let me say that I am a subscriber and have wathche a lot of your videos in my aim to get better - but also in solving my challenge.
The outliner has not been open and looking at it, it is minimized.
Thanks, but still no solution :slight_smile:

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Well even with a small file size, if you check ‘Statistics’ under ‘Model Info’…you have a very high number of polygons (edges and faces) in the model. +326 million is a lot. SketchUp is a surface modeler and performance tends to slow down as the polygon count climbs.

Here is the geometry count per solar panel…not high but when multiplied that many times it adds up fast!

One thought is to ask yourself if your project requires so much geometry per solar panel when it seems to me to be more about the array across the site that’s important. You can start by switching to an image for the solar cells. Here is the geometry on one panel when switched to using an image:

And here it is when swapped out with your previous version in the full site file. Still high at 168 mil polygons but you can next look at the support structures of the panels and see if you can reduce that as well. Using an extensions like Skimp, Transmutr or Artisan all have geometry reduction capabilities…my recommendation is to just save one component out to an external file…re-draw the supports with less polygons…and reload into overall model.

Lastly, you can ‘break’ the large array filed into smaller pieces by grouping and assigning to Tags. That way, while working, you can say toggle the supports or the panels on or off or even toggle areas such as ‘South’, ‘North Side’, etc on and off so that you’re only processing parts of the model at any given time.

If all else fails, turn edges and profiles off completely and that should help as well.

Good luck.

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Hi Eric-S
That was a huge help and hadn’t realised how many edges there were. I realise that I didn’t have nested components checked on which gives a different look!!! :slight_smile:

I have Transmutr and will give that a try as well as creating much more simpler geometry.

Thank you so much for putting in the time! I really appreciate it and I am much more relaxed looking forward to the upcoming project!

Thank you,
Mikkel

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