# Another challenge ?



## LarryS. (19 Apr 2008)

DaveR,

Will you be posting another challenge this week ? I find them very good ways to learn 


Paul (aka Mighty_Genghis)


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## SketchUp Guru (19 Apr 2008)

Alright. Let me see what I can come up with.


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

Here you go. Draw the above but keep the file size under 35Kb.


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

29.7 KB


I take it this is about using components to keep the file size down?


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

Not bad. I got 26.3Kb.


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

Anyone else?


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## wizer (20 Apr 2008)

Wouldn't know where to start. I'm already wrestling with SU on another project.


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

WiZeR, check your e-mail.


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## John McM (20 Apr 2008)

Nope, I'm stuck


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## RobertMP (20 Apr 2008)

just realised i have not installed sketchup yet since upgrading the computer :lol:


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## LarryS. (20 Apr 2008)

Dave R":3o5bs16e said:


> Anyone else?



Dave,

A clue is required (I don't know where to start on this one !)

thanks


paul


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Dave R":3aogz4rq said:


> Not bad. I got 26.3Kb.



Well Dave, I've been trying to beat your file size, but I can't.


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## wizer (20 Apr 2008)

to be honest 3kb difference could just be defragmentation


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

Simon, would you like to explain?


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Dave R":1cafzwz8 said:


> Simon, would you like to explain?



I thought I might be able to skim 4Kb off the file size by making it out of different components. I failed miserably. Never mind.


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## SketchUp Guru (20 Apr 2008)

That's alright. But would you like to explain to the rest how you got the file size as small as you did?


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Oh I see Dave, sorry...  

I'll have a go. Watch this space!


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## LarryS. (20 Apr 2008)

come on guys, give me a crumb ! got no clue where to start


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

file size (Kb)?, are we talking .skp or .Jpg???

and i know its not quite right, but heres my attempt  






hey , at least i`m trying..... :lol: :lol: ( some people say "very")


Paul, mines no where near perfect but I think the single square is a starting point I just need to get rid of all those "in yer face " lines.. :lol:


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Instead of giving the whole thing away. Why don't I just give a hint to get people started.

Components, components, components!

This is the only component I made.


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## motownmartin (20 Apr 2008)

Very clever :wink:


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

Simon , snap ....but how do you get rid of those lines without deleting the componenet?


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Neil, its the skp file that needs to be less than 35kB. Thats good, but what about the dividing lines?

Sorry, we posted at the same time. Instead of deleting them, try hiding. Use the eraser but hold down shift. Of course, you need to find a way of preventing the lines being hidden on the outer components. [cough]make unique[/cough]


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

cheers Simon, and as it is its only 20.1Kb......

better?


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## LarryS. (20 Apr 2008)

35kb, this challenge tought me about the 'hide' ability in the eraser (which I never knew about before). Like I said before dave, this is a great way of learning !


Paul


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

hey Paul,
your cheating mate, you only have a grid of 4 x 8, the original is 6 x 8........... :lol: :lol: :lol:


what a learning curve, trouble is i`m hitting it about 180 mph... :lol:


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## LarryS. (20 Apr 2008)

NeilO":2pnoo6ym said:


> hey Paul,
> your cheating mate, you only have a grid of 4 x 8, the original is 6 x 8........... :lol: :lol: :lol:



oops, that made it jump to 41k, how are you guys managing to make it smaller ? mines a simple single component (like dave suggested) which is multiplied, how do you simplify that more ?


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## Slim (20 Apr 2008)

Better, but it looks like you have hidden the lines on the outer edges as well. If you make a copy of a component, right click on it and press 'make unique', you will have a copy that is not related to the others. So it will not be affected when you hide a line on one of the other components. You can then copy theis new component around the outside and not hide the line on the oustide edge.

I also made a third unique copy, to do the four corners.

I hope that made sense.

This shows the componets that are related to each other. In other words the different coloured components are unique from each other. The red components on each side are just rotated so the line that is not hidden faces the outside.


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## motownmartin (20 Apr 2008)

Blimey, i've got a headache and am going to bed :?


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

Paul, I dont understand how SU does its thing, but my square is 30mm x 30mm ( there was no given dimensions, so im not strictly cheating :lol: )does a larger square make the file bigger?


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## NeilO (20 Apr 2008)

crystal Simon, I think....but like Paul I`m hitting the pillow, I`ll try to do it again tomorrow , properly... :lol:





Sorry, but it started to bug me.. :lol: 

here it is @27kb dead


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## SketchUp Guru (21 Apr 2008)

Good work Simon and all of the rest of you, too.

Neil, the size of the square doesn't matter. 

Components and the Hide function of the eraser toolare the keys to this one. Break the entire piece down into small components and leverage the fact that copies of components don't appreciably add to file size. One thing I didn't see mentioned is that you should also delete the faces that aren't needed--the ones between components. Faces are entities that add to file size.

The other thing that Simon mentioned is the Make Unique operation. This allows you to get away with only drawing the first component. You modify the edge components as needed.

When I drew this for an actual project a while ago, the size of the opening and the width of the wood between was called out. It was a commercially available thing. The opening it had to fit in was also specified. To make the gridwork look right in the space, I started with a component at the center of the opening, the dark green one in the picture. Then I copied out to the left and to the right to the width of the opening and just beyond. (Ctrl+Move to make a linear array). I select the entire row and copied it up and then down. Then I started working on the edges. Selecting those components that would be related, making them unique and editing them to trim them. In the end there have to be 3 different components for the grille.

In the picture I've invert one each of the three and removed their back faces so you can see the faces that were removed on the seams.






I've written before about making symmetrical things using this technique to reduce file size. If you remember the pipe clamp model, I did that splitting the cast iron parts in half left and right. The Acme threads on the screw were drawn using a three-sided components with its edges hidden. the entire clamp saved as 138Kb. I could reduce the file size further by eliminating the faces that would be against the pipe.


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## Slim (21 Apr 2008)

Nice one Dave, it never even occured to me to delete the unseen faces.


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## Shultzy (22 Apr 2008)

Well after numerous attempts to get the file size down, I've managed 23.9Kb. I'm happy to submit it to DaveR for scrutiny.


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## SketchUp Guru (22 Apr 2008)

So where is it? :wink:


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