SU / LO multiple viewports vs single Viewport : user experiences?

[gsharp]

I have been playing around with Door schedules in LO / SU and setting up templates for future documents. (ie, drawing that have a lot of repetitive and similar objects ) In this process I was curious which viewport method is more efficient … setting up multiple scenes (one of each door) in SU and replicating individual viewports in LO or organising the sheet in SU using a 2d template, (positioning the doors to match) and then only having one viewport in LO…

I don’t have a preferred method… just curious how everyone handles the process… all feedback welcomed…

1. SU view showing 4 doors in one file positioned to match a 2d outline of an A3 template scaled to match 1:25

2. LO view of the 4 doors, the viewport matching the A3 sheet
   

   

3. I am also adding the door dimensions and text in SU, rather than Layout (not my usual practice in SU/LO) but historically I always prefer the text and dimension data being integral to the model as much as possible … not in the presentation software…

Now this is only 1 vs 4 viewports on an A3 document… scale it up to A1 and it would be more like 1vs 16 viewports… so curious if there is a performance advantage… ?

[bmike]

Would be interesting to know if LayOut likes grazing (lots of little bites) or likes sitting for fewer big meals when rendering / processing the views.

[JQL]

I also don’t have a prefered method, I’ve been always changing my workflow, depending on projects. Usually my window and door schedules have a lot of details attached and those details are about the connection between them and slabs or walls.

In those cases I require the details to be drawn in the model themselves and, of course, I have to setup all sorts of scenes and different viewports.

Here’s a door example:

Here’s a couple of windows examples:

I suppose this is what happens with this kind of projects and with architects like me that don’t want to leave the decision to how these details should be setup on site, to the contractor or supplier. I suppose there is some kind of OSD here…

Even with interior doors, they connect to fixed panels and closets so their drawings are difficult to setup as if they were isolated objects:

In this case, the best model to get drawings from, really is the master model.

However, in cases where we can isolate doors and windows or even cabinets from surrounding elements, what we do is to lay them all down in a model side by side - it could be on the original model or as xrefs on an external model - and create a single scene on paper for all of them.

We used to create all texts and dimensions in Layout, but we are considering moving away from that now and include all those elements in Skechup. The idea is to deal the least amount of time possible in Layout, as the interaction between Layout and Sketchup slows down the process a lot.

The only issue we have with that process is the inability to add titleblocks (which we could actually circumvent, of course) and also the inability to export texts, labels and dimensions, from Sketchup to DWG/PDF as true texts and dimensions.

We are starting to ignore those text issues, as that’s what we are most willing to sacrifice in order to get things done fast and consistently without being harrassed by the time lost between apps and reloads.

[JQL]

It prefers a render a single view than many. The complexity of rendering the object itself increases, but it doesn’t have to finish, jump to another view, and start rendering it. This process is marginal, but in the end it adds up. You see it flashing when doing it. The thing is that if you have enough Vram, and I suppose for most projects you do, the least viewports the faster.

[gsharp]

Thanks for that insight… I agree its preferable to have the dimensions, symbols and textual data in the model not in the presentation of the model but with have to live with SU / LO split personality… your construction documents are always so impressive (shades of “Memphis Style”) graphics movement in them… I assume these are A1 size sheets ?.. I might try setting up an A1 door schedule and benchmark its performance… of course many factors determine overall efficiency… not just rendering / processor speed…

[JQL]

You already know what factors improve LO rendering speed: mostly have to do with as simple models as possible.

For me, what’s hard, is that I also prefer having a single model than having a lot of different models bound together with Xrefs as that’s harder to maintain.

However, for object schedules, I don’t mind that too much. I’d recommend having a xref manager for dealing with them though.

FredoXref and Eneroth’s Reference Manager, would be my bets.