8. Styles and Other Style Tips
Styles
Try to sequence your workflow so that the operations and model features that have the greatest impact on file size are added after you have finished constructing the geometry. And hold off on adding textures and images and decorations such as foliage until you're nearly done.
Okay, that's will probably not happen, so configure different visual styles through the Styles browser and View menu - one with attributes that render fast (no shadows, textures, transparency, or special display effects) in SketchUp and other Styled for presentation. Save those Styles to different Scenes to readily switch between them as needed.
Manage the use of fancy stuff
Set Up Scenes
As shown below, quite a few of the Style properties can be changed through the View menu. But go to the dialogs and panels available through the Window menu for greater control.
Shadows
Turn off shadows to speed up the overall rendering speed.
Note how the edge style appears shortly after the date slider stops moving. The edge style will not render while the shadow changes as the model complexity increases.
To turn off shadows:
Open the "View" menu, and then click "Shadows" so that it doesn't have a check mark next to it.
Alternatively, click on the Display Shadow button, through either the Shadow toolbar (View > Toolbars > Shadows) or in the upper left corner of the Shadow panel. To open the Shadow panel, either the Window menu or clicking on the Shadow Settings button, in the Shadow toolbar.
Need for Speed?
Tweak Style options
To turn off special display effects (such as Shaded using textures, Profile edges, Edge effects, Edge color, Use sun for shading, and Enable transparency), open the "Window" menu, click "Styles," and click the Style you're using in the model. Click the "Edit" tab then clear the selected options you don't need.
Choose a Style from the Select menu in the Styles browser then switch to the Edit menu. Go through the Styles submenus and disable unnecessary stuff to create a speedy style. Limit how much SketchUp has to render by only having Edges enabled.
Disable face transparency. This will cause transparent textures like those applied to windows to become opaque. But that is one of the trade-offs for speed.
Disable the Sky and Ground if they are not needed.
No Watermarks either.
No Hidden Geometry nor Section Planes.
Title the new style and add a description. Press the Save a New Style button.
Any time a change is made to a style, a refresh symbol will appear over the thumbnail. Press the Refresh button to save the change.
Styles in Scenes
Scene and Style change warning
Disable Scene Transitions
To further speed things up, disable Scene Transitions on large models that use Scenes. Find the setting in Model Info, under the Window menu. Or go to View > Animation > Settings to pull up the same dialog.
Purge Unused
All styles saved with each Scene are saved with the file, including all discarded styles. This can inflate file size, especially if there are a lot of watermarks and special edge styles.
A general purging of all unused material is done through Model Info. From the Window menu choose Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused.
Another way to open Model Info is from the lower-left status bar.
Or use the Model Info button on the Standard toolbar:
Manage Styles Only
Purge individual Styles...
or purge all unused styles:
After purging, save your new Style for future use by r-clicking on the Style > Save As. Move it into a Collection for future use.
Some Other Useful Tips
Set-up keyboard shortcuts
SketchUp has many keyboard shortcuts already created. And you can create many more. It is also possible to over-write the default shortcuts if you prefer different locations. Plugins can become keyboard shortcuts too.
Window (SketchUp in Mac) > Preferences > Shortcuts.
Note: to make a shortcut from a tool that only shows up in a context menu, first select something that tool can work upon. Then that tool will appear in the Shortcut menu in Preferences.
Tip: to switch between Scenes without moving location, don't save the camera position.
Navigation
At the minimum, use the recommended 3 button mouse.
With the 3 button mouse, you can quickly move the model to the center of the screen. Position the cursor tool over any geometry you want to move. Double-click down on the center scroll wheel. It works in any tool mode.
Some alternative navigation devices adds functionality that can speed up your modeling.
Lock geometry to avoid accidental movements
R-click component/group, Lock. This can avoid future headaches and wasted time and potential flare-ups of workplace violence.
Locked geometry cannot be Hidden
Control Locked geometry visibility by assigning it to a Layer, then turn off the Layer's visibility.
A tip to speed up opening SketchUp
Close Window palettes, like Components and Materials, before closing SketchUp. The palette browsers have to repopulate before you can use the program. While at it, choose list viewing instead of thumbnails in those browser windows if possible. That can help speed things up a bit too.
When editing a component/group, hide the rest of the model
Go to Window (SketchUp in Mac) > Model Info > Components and check Hide.
Trapped in model?
Switch to Wireframe or X-Ray view to navigate out of bad places.
Camera > Zoom Extents, Zoom Window will restore some sanity to the view.
Camera > Previous will restore the last two camera position - a camera Undo button. This is really useful.
Turn some of these tools into keyboard shortcuts.
Set up at least one Scene, one with Camera position enabled. Then click on the Scene button to return to a known location.
Relevant Plugins
HideTool Left click to hide anything and everything you click on.
HideAll Hide all unselected Objects in your model.
Hide_faces_edges Hide and/or unhide faces and/or edges of the current selection.
HoverSelect Fredo6 - Several click-select tools.
Unhide_all In the Editing section. It will unhide all entities, including nested entities inside groups or components.
Desel In the Selection-Layers section of the Ruby Library Depot - Selects or deselects edges and faces.
Filter+Extension In the Selection-Layers section of the Ruby Library Depot - Filters selection options.
Selection Memory ThomThom
SelectionMemory2 Among other things, it remembers the latest bunch of stuff you selected. Soooo, if you need to dump that big selection set to briefly use another tool - or complete another little neglected task - you can restore that last selection set with this plugin.
Printkeys HTML list of your keyboard shortcuts (...if one was fortunate enough to have downloaded a copy of the plugin before its developer removed all his plugins from all download sites. The old plugin still works in SketchUp 2021. Now if only someone writes another one...)