Hi, I’m having trouble exporting to 2D graphic dwg from sketchup. The file is 23MB and is pretty line heavy but my hiding everything i don’t need for every particular view and even try to export the same scene with different information on so i can stitch it back together in CAD. It’s only exporting 10% of the time and it’s exporting perspective views better than parallel projection. I spent a week making this model, the last two days trying to export all the views i need for plans, sections etc and only have two days left to get all my drawings done for my thesis submission. I am in desperate need of help because the only option I can see now is re starting the drawings from scratch on CAD and losing the full weeks work.
Is there a reason that you are trying to export a file from SketchUp? This is the reason that LayOut exists. I would recommend trying to make a page I. layOut and export that. Even with a huge file, LayOut exports much quicker (and better) than SketchUp
Post your SketchUp file.
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if you dont need 100% accuracy, but are content with 99,99 accuracy, so illustrative work and not proper CAD, you can export from Layout. It’s dead accurate from Sketchup. Layout sadly provides nothing of value to the dwg export apart for some colors.
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You can have each Tag shown in a separate stacked viewport, and from that get sort of a layer structure to your dwg export. That you dont get out of Sketchup.
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The broken line thing is there anyway, all Tag structure and all components are gone, but if you export with “Color by Tag” you get something that to the untrained eye at least looks like a CAD file. Linetypes are exported, so that provides a means of sorting geometry once inside CAD. You can in theory export 12 separate layers from your sketchup model, because that is how many linetypes you can set for your geometry. Colors: you can have as many as you want. You can then select in CAD based on the these categories, and put that selection onto a proper CAD layer.
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If you go down the route of stacked viewports in Layout, make sure to have a reference point visible in every viewport, because stacked viewports show up beside each other in the CAD file, and you need to manually move them all in top of each other. If you export from skethup, you need that reference point shown as geometry as well because sketchup will place the export with a random origo, and you need to adjust that in CAD after export.
Basically the cleanup is just as easy/hard straight out of sketchup. Just pray that the file dont need changes to it, so you only need to do it once.
I have started thinking about maybe exporting 3D dwg instead, and set up section planes for 2D dwg exports in a CAD software that understood workflow and had export/import prioritized. But if I did that I might as well draw the whole thing in that other program 
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04.skp (13.2 MB)
The Full file was too large but this is the upper floors
My sketchup files won’t open in layout for whatever reason. But i have tried exporting as 3D dwg and it’s pretty awful. I have also remade the entire model in hope it would be neater or whatever but no joy.
Your model - 7.5 million edges
Facade 2
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04-f2.dwg (58.8 KB)
Facade 3
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04-f3.dwg (122.9 KB)
Roof top
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04-a2.dwg (135.8 KB)
Section 2
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04-s2.dwg (1.4 MB)
Ok these are probably dwg´s that will go to a construction engineer. They want accuracy, so forget about exporting from Layout altogether, and export from sketchup instead.
Also, make a geometrical easily recognisable point for your origo, like this so you have some defined place to move to dwg origo:
Your model has a lot geometry that I guess dont really add to your planning. If you got those from an imported IFC, maybe find a way to get IFC into your model with ifc-classes to sketchup Tags, so you can delete, or hide, all unnecessary detail.(Nuts and bolts from the engineer)
If you have access to a software that can provide that, you can get your model into a more workable state, not being slow with huge file size.
I import ifc into Vectorworks, make a 3D dwg from there with tags, import that dwg that has tags into SU, and I dont use the SU IFC import. That way I can purge out excess detailing by hiding or deleting all geometry on detail layers/tags, and also delete the pesky color schemes in most ifc files.
Also, it seems your other consultants work with IFC, as they provide 3D equipment. There’s usually some that really needs the dwg, but if you’re lucky, maybe you can ask if ifc is good enough.
A good ifc exporter is Release SketchUp-IFC-Manager 4.3.1 · BIM-Tools/SketchUp-IFC-Manager · GitHub
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Okay thank you, I’m not fully sure if i understand exactly what youre suggesting but ill work my way through it and see how it goes
In order to have a good working experience one needs to not bog down the model with unneeded geometry. If you can zoom in and out like in my video, then you can effectively work with you model. If you cannot, you should simplify. Take away detailing from your own geometry that is not needed, and try to find methods to simplify imports from consultants.
Most important for this is to sort out geometry that you dont need from external files. SU will not help you in any way whatsoever with that, so you need to get creative. I told how I get IFC in with tags. Some on the forum has Ruby scripts that will convert ifc - classes into SU tags.
I deleted all the circular holes, and now my machine can effectively navigate your model. Will those holes show up in plan view 1:100 ? I dont think so, and then I guess you dont need them.
here’s also a plan view, holes gone, origo set to origo of model (manually )
exported with color by tag, so the engineer can understand what’s what.
TIDY_ Timber Frame 22_04.dwg (3.6 MB)
and also my export options.
in order for" Color by Tag "to work, one needs also to to set line color to “color by material”
thats great, ill do that now thank you
is there a quick way of deleteing all the holes?
They are all the same component so deleting them in one component will fix all of them. Just double click each hole like in the GIF and hit delete.
( the video was cut short of actually deleting them… )
I think I’ve made too many of them unique for it to work for me … Thank you for all your help !
There’s an extension called S4U components that can make them instances again.
Try to use the filter in the outliner. If the name is known you can filter and select them there.
I did show you a rather manual way of selecting… if you dont select anything else you can select multiple holes at the same time and delete them together. Doing extra work in order to simplify the model is definitely better than the constant waiting with a slow model. A slow model really limits your ability to use sketchup as a tool to work and refine your design continuously.
