Hi Dave - I think I may have found someone else who is talking about this issue from a programmer’s point of view.
Here’s an excerpt: (by the way - the bolding is from the OP)
Between two Sketchup instances, however, you cannot move geometry. So natively, you have to copy via memory.
And this often takes many minutes . One minute. Two minutes. Five. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty minutes, indeed. And counting. So, why is this?
Apparently, Sketchup forces lots of internal consistency checks when copying to memory. When creating new containers. When doing many other things. These checks are incredibly slow. From a programming point of view, Sketchup’s behaviour is most likely very badly optimized . There is either something sloppy about the internal database structure, or about how it is being processed, or about both.
We know this because other 3D modellers are much, much faster doing similar tasks. Both copying between instances and doing other editing of non-trivial geometry. Sketchup can do OK in terms of showing complex geometry. It’s editing that grinds it to a halt.
While we’re staring at Sketchup’s blank and irresponsive screen after a sizeable copy, no processor core is even near maxing out. So this process may be memory-bound. Its slowness does not matter when working with three cubes, for it escapes notice. As it did around twenty years ago.
However, when working with contemporary, real-life models, i.e. complex geometry, like you and I do, the recurring waiting times is a real pain .
All this would be bearable if it were not for the fact that other 3D modelers do perfectly fine without all this waiting time. Which proves this is unnecessary:
…
Can you comment from your perspective on the idea that the way Sketchup performs internal consistency checks can impact those of us who work on larger scale models?
Aiden