Our firm is deploying SketchUp fairly widely through the office. We have reasonably fast PCs (generally P4s running at anywhere from 1.4Ghz to 3.4Ghz) with anywhere from 256 to 512 GB of memory. These are decent machines for most of our 2-D cad work, but SketchUp tends to bring some of these machines to their knees when we create reasonably complex models. We've been to the SketchUp website and know what they recommend ... we're way above their minimum requirements, but not always up to their recommended requirements.
My questions: with SketchUp, what's most important ... processor speed, amount of RAM or the video card ... those of you who use this software, what do you think is the optimal configuration ?
5 -- so, your saying a PC with a 1.6 GHz processor and 768 Mb of RAM is going to perform better with SketchUp than a unit with a 3.0 GHz processor and only 256 MB of RAM ?
file:
the combonation of a good processor (a Pentium NOT Celeron) anywhere between 1.73 and 2.13 would be fine. Obviously moving up any higher would be fine as well. HT technology allows for multitasking to work well
RAM is crucial and can be bought at crucial.com for great prices. 512-1 gig and up is great
a good video card will also allow for quicker renderings
also, the hard drive is important as well-7200 will write info faster
all this to say that I have mentioned the basic components of a computer and the more powerful of these components the better.
I run a Mac and have sketchup as well as other programs and it runs great. I have a Powerbook G4 1.67 ghz, 1.5 gigs or ram, radeon 9700 video card and a regular hard drive...I may upgrade to a 7200 someday, but now I don't really need it.
file:
the combonation of a good processor (a Pentium NOT Celeron) anywhere between 1.73 and 2.13 would be fine. Obviously moving up any higher would be fine as well. HT technology allows for multitasking to work well
RAM is crucial and can be bought at crucial.com for great prices. 512-1 gig and up is great
a good video card will also allow for quicker renderings
also, the hard drive is important as well-7200 will write info faster
all this to say that I have mentioned the basic components of a computer and the more powerful of these components the better.
I run a Mac and have sketchup as well as other programs and it runs great. I have a Powerbook G4 1.67 ghz, 1.5 gigs or ram, radeon 9700 video card and a regular hard drive...I may upgrade to a 7200 someday, but now I don't really need it.
Hmm, I think some of you might be wrong. I would say ram isnt all that important, it's the video card and processor that are. Lots of video memory will help that model spin nicely on screen, good processor will render quickly.
I also think there is a nice section in the help file on how to determine what you need. Basically, if it helps to decrease the size of your window, you need better graphics card.
You have to figure, that the recommendation for Windows XP alone is 128 MB of RAM (64 req), on the 256, half of your memory is devoted/stolen by Windows. To make up the rest, you are using your HDD as 'fake RAM' which is mad slow.
As opposed to more ram the most important thing with sketchup is either to use components or to group as many of the objects that you are not using at the time. The less items there are on the screen, the less memory is needed.
Obviously your workflow greatly determines how well your machine handels geometry but also realize that RAM and Processsor go hand in hand. You will be fine with a 3.0 Ghz Processor (HT or Dual Core if possible) and say a 1 Gig of RAM to be on the safe side, but because you will not be rendering in the true sense of the word, any higher in these areas is a waste. Spend the money on a good video card. Besides, a "rendering" with textures, transparancy, and shadows will only take a few minutes to process. However if you plan on using real rendering software then you will need something more substantial.
Anyone used Sketchup on one of the new dual core laptops? I'm looking at the e1705, specifically. Kind of ticked off because two days ago they sold it with the nVidia GeForce 7800 and they just stopped offering that in favor of the ATI radeon 1400. I've heard that sketchup has had problems with hardware acceleration with the ATI cards, so I hesitate to jump in. Any ideas?
my friend used a dual processor, andall the high end stuff...it crashed on him...i think its the graphic engine that is built in sketchup that has to be fixed.. the more components..the worse
The SketchUp people recomend nVida cards since they are much better with openGL. (SU only uses openGL). Most of the integrated cards found on most laptops don't have openGL hardware accel. and generally are sluggish and have a hard time recognizing some geometery.
I'm currently debating whether I should devote the time to learning and deploying Sketchup in my office- I was wondering if any of you could describe how you use it and what kind of projects it works best on. Does it interface with AutoCAD (i.e. can you go back and forth between programs)? I know you're not going to get pristine renderings out of it- do most of you import it into another rendering program if you're trying to get polished presentation work? Thanks. Sorrry to get off topic.
my prof, president of aia houston had a juried me on a design charette...and i used sketchup w/ my group. its good for schematic, quick put-together modeling tool. i've used it for final projects too. u can always make the model in sketch up and import to 3dmax for material. u can import CADfiles (plans to extrude) u can go back/forth, but i had bad experience w/ it, i didn't use the program efficiently so it kept crashing. thats my opinion...from working on this stuff in studio for a 1.5 yrs
there are good videos on their website and it is extemely easy to pick up and learn, there are also quite a few plugins out there. Owned by google now, and you can import it into google earth which is cool. Running it on my dual 2.7GHz PowerMac G5 with 4.5 gigs of ram and GeForce 6800 Ultra and i haven't mangaged to slow it down at all yet. doesn't import well into formz from my experience.
SKETCH-UP: What's the best hardware configuration ?
Our firm is deploying SketchUp fairly widely through the office. We have reasonably fast PCs (generally P4s running at anywhere from 1.4Ghz to 3.4Ghz) with anywhere from 256 to 512 GB of memory. These are decent machines for most of our 2-D cad work, but SketchUp tends to bring some of these machines to their knees when we create reasonably complex models. We've been to the SketchUp website and know what they recommend ... we're way above their minimum requirements, but not always up to their recommended requirements.
My questions: with SketchUp, what's most important ... processor speed, amount of RAM or the video card ... those of you who use this software, what do you think is the optimal configuration ?
it's all about the ram, baby. more the better.
5 -- so, your saying a PC with a 1.6 GHz processor and 768 Mb of RAM is going to perform better with SketchUp than a unit with a 3.0 GHz processor and only 256 MB of RAM ?
file:
the combonation of a good processor (a Pentium NOT Celeron) anywhere between 1.73 and 2.13 would be fine. Obviously moving up any higher would be fine as well. HT technology allows for multitasking to work well
RAM is crucial and can be bought at crucial.com for great prices. 512-1 gig and up is great
a good video card will also allow for quicker renderings
also, the hard drive is important as well-7200 will write info faster
all this to say that I have mentioned the basic components of a computer and the more powerful of these components the better.
I run a Mac and have sketchup as well as other programs and it runs great. I have a Powerbook G4 1.67 ghz, 1.5 gigs or ram, radeon 9700 video card and a regular hard drive...I may upgrade to a 7200 someday, but now I don't really need it.
file:
the combonation of a good processor (a Pentium NOT Celeron) anywhere between 1.73 and 2.13 would be fine. Obviously moving up any higher would be fine as well. HT technology allows for multitasking to work well
RAM is crucial and can be bought at crucial.com for great prices. 512-1 gig and up is great
a good video card will also allow for quicker renderings
also, the hard drive is important as well-7200 will write info faster
all this to say that I have mentioned the basic components of a computer and the more powerful of these components the better.
I run a Mac and have sketchup as well as other programs and it runs great. I have a Powerbook G4 1.67 ghz, 1.5 gigs or ram, radeon 9700 video card and a regular hard drive...I may upgrade to a 7200 someday, but now I don't really need it.
I appologize for making my post twice.
Be aware that Sketchup has some problem with ATI graphics cards...
Hmm, I think some of you might be wrong. I would say ram isnt all that important, it's the video card and processor that are. Lots of video memory will help that model spin nicely on screen, good processor will render quickly.
I also think there is a nice section in the help file on how to determine what you need. Basically, if it helps to decrease the size of your window, you need better graphics card.
Correct me if i'm wrong...
my recollection is that using components as much as possible in S'up is the single best strategy to keep performance acceptable.
Yay! second jeffe.
You have to figure, that the recommendation for Windows XP alone is 128 MB of RAM (64 req), on the 256, half of your memory is devoted/stolen by Windows. To make up the rest, you are using your HDD as 'fake RAM' which is mad slow.
As opposed to more ram the most important thing with sketchup is either to use components or to group as many of the objects that you are not using at the time. The less items there are on the screen, the less memory is needed.
Obviously your workflow greatly determines how well your machine handels geometry but also realize that RAM and Processsor go hand in hand. You will be fine with a 3.0 Ghz Processor (HT or Dual Core if possible) and say a 1 Gig of RAM to be on the safe side, but because you will not be rendering in the true sense of the word, any higher in these areas is a waste. Spend the money on a good video card. Besides, a "rendering" with textures, transparancy, and shadows will only take a few minutes to process. However if you plan on using real rendering software then you will need something more substantial.
Anyone used Sketchup on one of the new dual core laptops? I'm looking at the e1705, specifically. Kind of ticked off because two days ago they sold it with the nVidia GeForce 7800 and they just stopped offering that in favor of the ATI radeon 1400. I've heard that sketchup has had problems with hardware acceleration with the ATI cards, so I hesitate to jump in. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Marc
my friend used a dual processor, andall the high end stuff...it crashed on him...i think its the graphic engine that is built in sketchup that has to be fixed.. the more components..the worse
The SketchUp people recomend nVida cards since they are much better with openGL. (SU only uses openGL). Most of the integrated cards found on most laptops don't have openGL hardware accel. and generally are sluggish and have a hard time recognizing some geometery.
I'm currently debating whether I should devote the time to learning and deploying Sketchup in my office- I was wondering if any of you could describe how you use it and what kind of projects it works best on. Does it interface with AutoCAD (i.e. can you go back and forth between programs)? I know you're not going to get pristine renderings out of it- do most of you import it into another rendering program if you're trying to get polished presentation work? Thanks. Sorrry to get off topic.
my prof, president of aia houston had a juried me on a design charette...and i used sketchup w/ my group. its good for schematic, quick put-together modeling tool. i've used it for final projects too. u can always make the model in sketch up and import to 3dmax for material. u can import CADfiles (plans to extrude) u can go back/forth, but i had bad experience w/ it, i didn't use the program efficiently so it kept crashing. thats my opinion...from working on this stuff in studio for a 1.5 yrs
there are good videos on their website and it is extemely easy to pick up and learn, there are also quite a few plugins out there. Owned by google now, and you can import it into google earth which is cool. Running it on my dual 2.7GHz PowerMac G5 with 4.5 gigs of ram and GeForce 6800 Ultra and i haven't mangaged to slow it down at all yet. doesn't import well into formz from my experience.
... but good for doing a final render in formz
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