Hello everyone,
this is my first topic in the forum… 
I’m a architecture student, i’m looking for the best way to create a 3D of a building:
i have to extrude this facade with these particular sunshades.
I’ve imported the lines from AutoCAD, and now i don’t know how to extrude the “black surface” without delete the triangular area of each hole… 
Let me know,
thanks for your help!
Could you share the file you created in AutoCAD? It would be easier to help you than looking at that screen shot.
Keep in mind, if you do extrude that whole surface, you will create a large number of entities which will bloat the file. It might make more sense to use a texture or create a small section as a component that you can copy to fill the space.
yes sure i can…
it’s the file with only the interested facade, to apply at the rest of the library 3D…
tesi prospetto.dwg (205.7 KB)
here a reference to better understand the sunshade:
i know that the file could be very heavy, but i need that filter to see the shadow on the interior wall…
i don’t know how to do!
I just went ahead and made an example by eye-balling your first screen shot.
I just drew a single segment and made it a component. The edge line segments are hidden.
Then I copied it to make an array.
If you use the CAD file, you’ll need to create a large face to put the lines on. An easy way to create all of the openings is to select the face you want to keep by double clicking with the Select tool. This will select the faces and the bounding edges. Hit Edit>Copy to copy it to the clipboard. Then delete all of the geometry of the grid. Next, hit Edit>Paste in Place.
i’ll try!
you could saved me… 
thanks a lot
I had a question about this, @DaveR. I’ve read in numerous places that using Components instead of actually copying the geometries is better. Could you explain why, please? I experimented with this a bit but when a component is copied, the polygon count is doubled as well, so I don’t get how it keeps the file lighter. Can there be any visible difference when using component instances vs simple copies?
The entity count does increase with additional copies of the component but the file size doesn’t increase as dramatically. Try this: Draw a cylinder and make it a component in a new SketchUp file. Save it. Note the file size. Make 100 copies of the component. Save the file again and note the file size. Explode all of the components and save it again. And again note the file size. Here’s what I get.
If it’s done correctly, the method I showed won’t look any different than the single large mass of geometry.
Another benefit of making a component of a small section and copying it as I showed is that you can quickly and easily make modification to the whole by editing one, simple component.
Ok, here’s what I got and my results are drastically different from yours. The difference of my 100 grouped and 100 component cylinder files is just 5KB while your difference is about 6 times smaller.
I used the default 24-sided circle for creating the cylinder.
What else is in your In Model components library? Are there materials in the In Model materials library? How many styles and what styles are they? How big is a blank SKP file? Just open a new one and save it.
Mine is 10Kb
Dave beat me to it…
what else is in your Template your files huge to begin with…
here’s my results from @DaveR 's test…
making the raw into a component adds 2KB to the file…
and 99 more copies adds 13KB…
to explain why…
if you make a 2d rectangle SU needs to store the start and end of every edge, i.e. 8 sets of [r, g, b] positions…
if you move 3 copies SU has to store 8 X 4 = 24 positions…
if the first is a group/component, SU stores 8 for the group/comp and 1 for it’s position, making 9 [r, g, b] positions…
but if you move 3 copies SU has only to store 9 + 3 only 12 positions…
where the advantages real show is if you extrude a 3d shape i.e. 4 cubes is 80 sets but 4 grouped cubes is only 24 sets
BUT: if you export both to another format or renderer, the two new files will most likely be identical in size…
john
Oops! I think I’m in trouble. No components, no materials, just one style used and a blank Sketchup file is 1.4 MB. 
I use a lot of plugins + rendering engine. Can that be an issue?
add the blank skp, and I’ll look inside…
john
Here we go. Thanks for helping guys. @DaveR I forgot to mention that I also used 24 sided circles. @john_drivenupthewall Thanks for further explanations. I had to reread it a couple of times to understand but I think I get it.
Blank File.skp (1.4 MB)
I turned off Endpoints and updated the style (it was showing as modified when I opened it anyway) and that reduced the file size to 179Kb. Not sure why it’s still so large compared to mine.
Do endpoints contribute to the file size? As I understand 179Kb is still too large for a blank file?
I wouldn’t think they would add much to the file size but if I remember correctly, they are generated by a png file in much the same way sketchy line styles are made.
you use Vray…
entering
model = Sketchup.active_model
attrdicts = model.attribute_dictionaries
# Iterates through all dictionaries and prints name ans number of keys.
attrdicts.each { | dict | p [dict.name,dict.size] }
returns…
["GeoReference", 7]
["temp", 1]
["Something...Check the previous project to see the value we used", 2]
["GSU_ContributorsInfo", 2]
entering
attrdicts.to_a[2].to_a.flatten.join.size # this one is vRay
returns
that’s being carried around with every skp…
EDITED for easy copy pasting…
Very good, John. I use Kerkythea and it doesn’t load up the SketchUp file.
Carried around with every skp? Oh boy! Do you know if it’s a normal behaviour or I messed something up? By the way, thanks again for looking into this all you two!
Vray adds it to every file if it’s installed…
I got your file down to 9KB by removing it, updating Sytles [ endpoints OFF] then , updating Sytles [ endpoints back ON]
after running the first code, this one I call bye-bye_Vray…
attrdicts.delete(attrdicts.to_a[2].name)
john