Cutout feature doesn't update

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    I've been using the sketchup version more lately (it's amazing!) and have noticed that sometimes the model geometry doesn't fully update in Enscape per what's happening in Sketchup. For instance, sketchup has a feature where you can create groups/components that cut faces (for windows and doors usually). When you copy or duplicate these in sketchup, the new instances show up, but not the corresponding cuts. You have to fully close out and load a new window again for them to show up.


    Similarly, sometimes when you modify the geometry of a face, it will suddenly dissapear in Enscape and turn black. Again, the only way to get it to reappear is to close out of Enscape and relaunch it (sometimes cutting and re-pasting will do the trick, though usually only if it's in a different location). Luckily the Sketchup version is generally much quicker than Revit, so it's not that big a hassle to restart, but it would still be better if those changes always carried through.

    Another bug I noticed: when you import a model/componenet by dragging and dropping it into Sketchup, it shows up perfectly, which is great. The only problem occurs when you decide to undo/go back (ctrl z), the model turns white rather than dissapearing, leaving you with a ghost of it. Deleting it would work, except then you'd be stuck with that component bogging down your file size.

    TowerPower Thanks a lot for these error reports. I could reproduce most of them.


    For your information: Revit has quite good events we receive when you change the model, but we must request the data for the whole model and skip everything we don't want. That makes it slow. SketchUp on the other hand, has very poor events, but we can request the data we need directly, so it's fast.


    There are a lot of cases in SketchUp in which we have to guess what happened after we get notified about a change - or ask for more information in some obscure way.


    Take the cutting components, for example:

    We get notified when you place such an instance, but we don't get notified about the cutted face. This we have to handle ourselves, which might be possible. Likewise when you move the instance or delete it. When using the "Unglue" command in the context menu, we don't get notified about any change, which is really bad.


    Undo/Redo events are even worse in general. Like when undoing a component drop, there is no event removing the instance, only removing the component definition. But we should be able to handle this. You can delete it and then purge the model.


    Quote

    Similarly, sometimes when you modify the geometry of a face, it will suddenly dissapear in Enscape and turn black.

    This is the only bug I was not able to reproduce. It would help a lot if you provide more detailed steps to reproduce the behavior.


    Considering the quality of the events we receive from SketchUp, Enscape will never be able to show the model 100% accurate, only by reacting to the events. Do you have any idea for a workaround? Right now you can click the start button again to reload the model (no need to close Enscape first). We might be able to add a "reload geometry" button, that does not reload any textures (which can take a long time). Not a fan of it, though. Perhaps you have a better idea.

    Quote from Simon Weinberger

    This is the only bug I was not able to reproduce.

    See ticket #50636


    FYI I found that the re-loading of Enscape does not work for the auto-cutting of surfaces; it needs SU to be re-started.


    You commented on textures loading taking a long time - could the loading screen show which textures it is loading (as they are loading) so that the user can take note of any that seem to be taking longer than the rest and amend them in their model?

    Thanks for the tips. Pressing the start button again seems to fix most of the geometry errors.


    One other bug I've noticed recently (which isn't unique to Sketchup) is that Enscape doesn't remember you file save locations for images. Every time you save an image/render, it defaults back to the My Pictures folder rather than the last place you saved something, very annoying!

    Thanks Simon, I'll try out the new version.


    Regarding the file save location though, is this something that was changed in the past few versions then? (specifying a default capture folder) It used to be wherever you saved them last, which is much more intuitive, and what the vast majority of programs do.

    TowerPower It was changed when introducing the VR screenshot feature. For obvious reasons we don't want any save dialogs for screenshots while in VR, and we didn't want to have several different screenshot folders/mechanisms. But a lot of users don't find this option, so might want to change it again.

    Yeah, if it's possible to keep the default option and use it as the save location for VR screenshots, but go back to remembering your previously saved locations for any regular screenshots, I think that would make the most sense.


    You could even have it revert to the default save location anytime you start a new project, but for one you've already been working on it simply makes sense to remember your previous file save location. Since that was changed, I've basically given in and just started saving all my renderings in the My Pictures folder rather than on our office network where they should be. I'll copy and drag them over if I really want to save them, but it's an unecessary extra step.

    Also in the current version. Upon the first load components with cut-out plane show up correctly but when batch rendering they won't show correctly. So a screenshot render works but as soon as you batch render the exact same scene with exact same tags active they disappear.