[JPMays]

I am having trouble exporting from a file that previously worked, even earlier today. All of a sudden I seem to be getting three typical results:

1. SU will crash on export
2. It will tell me that exporting failed
3. Seemingly work fine, placing textures in a folder as usual, but with no corresponding mxs.

I've tested other files that work fine, restarted, saved as, lowered the resolution of the exported image, all to no avail. I can't just copy/paste to a new file because I need the saved views. Any thoughts?

[JDHill]

Take a look in [documents]\Maxwell\SketchUp\logs to find the plugin's export.log file, and send it along to me (jeremy at nextlimit dotcom), so that I can check if the plugin is aware of any problems. And when you say that you receive a message stating that the export failed, has this message ever mentioned anything about being out of memory?

[JPMays]

Ok, I sent you the log file. Also, it has not been giving me the Out of Memory error. It simply says failed to export.

[JPMays]

I sometimes get this error message:

[JDHill]

That error is not from the plugin, but it makes me think you could be running out of memory. Checking the log file, it looks as though the plugin is just disappearing from memory at a certain point in time; there is no warning, and no further messages written; the log just continues with the next export attempt. The only actual errors I find there are a couple of failures of SketchUp to write its textures to disk.

So, first of all, I might try purging unused materials, geometry, and component definitions. If that does not help, you could try 'wolf-fencing' the problem, where you select half the model, export that selection, and if it does not fail, move to the other half. If there is something corrupt that is causing the problem, you can chase it down pretty quickly that way. You may also want to keep the Task Manager open and keep an eye on the Sketchup.exe process to see how much memory it is using.

[JPMays]

Interesting result: I did everything you suggested, and then attempted export. SU crashed, but when I reopened and tried again, everything worked fine. Not sure what happened, but hey, I'll take it. Thanks!

[JPMays]

I am again getting this crash issue - it was better for a while, but now it's back. I also frequently get this error message when starting the Maxwell plugin:



This is generally fixed by restarting SketchUp, but I am wondering if it is related.

JD, can you further explain the "wolf-fencing" you described earlier? I am not sure how to do this.

Thanks.

[JDHill]

For the Silverlight thing, the best I can recommend is uninstalling Silverlight, rebooting, and then reinstalling it again, because the error message appears to indicate some issue with the Silverlight runtime itself.

Regarding wolf fencing, that is just a process of elimination -- I believe it comes from the question: if it is dark, how do you go about finding a wolf on your property? Build a fence down the middle, listen for its howl, and then build a fence down the middle of that half. Repeat until you have your wolf. Here, it would mean, select half the model and export; if the problem is not found in this half, it must be in the other, and so on.

This will not help, though, if the issue is running out of memory, which it sounded like from your earlier posts.

[JPMays]

I have reinstalled Silverlight recently (last week), assuming that was the problem, but it still sometimes occurs.

Thank you for the explanation of wolf-fencing - I understand the concept, but not how to do it. For example, last time I tried to

select half the model and export

(by selecting part of the model, then going to File>Export>3d Model and choosing .mxs), it simply exported the whole file, not my selection. That time it worked, though, so I didn't pursue it further. Now it will not export. Is there another method you suggest?

Even after I successfully identify the problem area, how will I know what needs fixing?

Thanks!

[JDHill]

Rather than using File > Export, you would want to select some objects, then use right-click > Maxwell > Export Selection to. As to identifying the actual problem once it is found, I cannot really say without seeing the model. I suspect it is not this type of problem at all, at least from the plugin's point of view, since there is no specific error being recorded (at least not in the log file you sent). What the log showed was the same as if you had manually killed the Sketchup.exe process while the plugin was exporting.

[JPMays]

Yeah, it doesn't seem to be a MR problem but an SU one. I just tried the export on a co-worker's machine (same model as mine - HP Z210), and it worked fine. Not sure what's causing this...