UPDATE - nEVEn 2027.1.34 & WDE 2027.1.34 Released
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nEVEn: Find Targets

1. The Core Problem: The Needle in the 3D Haystack

In professional architectural projects, SketchUp models regularly grow to contain tens of thousands of entities across hundreds of nested groups and components. When a model begins to lag during orbit, freeze during zooming, or crash upon saving, identifying the root cause is notoriously difficult:

  • The High-Poly Trap: A single decorative asset downloaded from the 3D Warehouse - such as a detailed chandelier, an unoptimized tree, or a photogrammetry scanned armchair - can quietly inject 500,000 polygons into a project.
  • The Hidden 8K Texture: A single uncompressed 8K (8,192 px) marble or concrete bitmap applied inside a deeply nested bathroom cabinet can consume 100MB+ of disk space and exhaust available GPU VRAM.
  • Manual Inspection Failure: Manually clicking through the Outliner or scrolling through hundreds of materials in SketchUp's native Materials browser to find which specific entity is degrading performance is nearly impossible.

Find Targets is an industry-first diagnostic workflow designed specifically to solve this problem. It autonomously identifies the heaviest geometry and textures in your model, isolates them into a dedicated, unsectioned 3D scene, and presents them directly to the architect for review - all without altering or deleting a single line of your original design.


2. Dynamic Unlocking & Eligibility Logic

To prevent visual clutter, the [FIND TARGETS] button in the Results Dashboard footer remains hidden when working in a lightweight, clean model. It dynamically unlocks only when genuine performance strain is detected:

Unlock Conditions:

  1. Model Classification: The active model is evaluated as Caution (Amber) or Critical (Cyberpunk Red).
  2. Elevated Geometry Strain: The model's geometry load is evaluated as High, Very High, or Extreme based on your workstation's hardware profile.
  3. Elevated Texture Strain: The largest texture in the model exceeds 10 MB, or one or more textures are classified as Caution or Critical.

When unlocked, clicking [FIND TARGETS] opens the Target Configuration overlay.


3. Targeted Scopes: Geometry, Textures, or Key Impact Areas

The configuration overlay dynamically enables only the categories that currently represent a genuine threat to viewport stability:

A. Heavy Geometry

  • Scope Tagline: "Find high-poly groups and components causing viewport lag."
  • Behavior: Focuses strictly on geometric containers. It searches for groups and components exhibiting high face density, elevated polygon overlap, or excessive vertex complexity.
  • Availability Guard: Automatically disabled if no high-strain geometric containers exist in the model.

B. Heavy Textures

  • Scope Tagline: "Find large textures increasing file size and lag."
  • Behavior: Focuses strictly on texture maps. It scans material assignments across model surfaces, targeting uncompressed bitmaps that inflate file size and saturate GPU VRAM.
  • Availability Guard: Automatically disabled if all active textures fall within safe memory thresholds.

C. Key Impact Areas (Dual Scope)

  • Scope Tagline: "Review the top geometry and textures affecting performance."
  • Behavior: Simultaneously traces both heavy geometric objects and massive texture assignments, isolating the composite root causes of overall project strain in a single operation.
  • Availability Guard: Unlocked only when both geometry and texture strain criteria are concurrently met.

4. Intelligent Targeting & The "Top 3" Fallback Engine

nEVEn’s targeting engine operates on a deterministic, two-tiered priority architecture:

  1. Tier 1: Explicit Caution & Critical Targets

nEVEn first queries the model for entities and textures that have explicitly breached established hardware safety thresholds (e.g., individual textures exceeding 34 MB or 100 MB, or components consuming disproportionate shares of overall polygon limits).

  1. Tier 2: The Elevated Load "Top 3" Fallback

In many architectural projects, no single object breaches the Critical limit on its own, but the cumulative weight of multiple large assets pushes the model into a Caution or Critical state. When this occurs, nEVEn automatically activates its fallback engine:

  • Identifies the Top 3 heaviest geometric containers by face count and complexity.
  • Identifies the Top 3 largest textures by VRAM footprint.
  • Resolves the exact geometry instances in the active 3D model where those assets reside.

5. The Dual-Scene Isolation Engine

Once targets are identified, nEVEn executes a non-destructive isolation pass using a proprietary two-scene architecture:

[ Active Model ] ➔ Automatically Generates ➔ [nEVEn]Original  (100% Protected Backup Scene)
                                           ➔ [nEVEn]Targets   (Isolated Focus Scene)

Scene 1: [nEVEn]Original (Protected Baseline)

  • Before isolating targets, nEVEn creates a dedicated scene named [nEVEn]Original.
  • This scene captures the complete, full model with your active working camera view, layers, tags, and entities preserved exactly as they were.
  • Your overall project environment and modeling viewpoint remain completely intact and accessible at any moment with a single click.

Scene 2: [nEVEn]Targets (Isolated Problem Focus)

  • In this scene, nEVEn automatically hides all non-target entities, leaving only the problem assets visible in the viewport.
  • Top Perspective Framing & Auto-Zoom: nEVEn applies a clean top perspective camera angle, selects the offending assets, and automatically zooms the viewport directly onto the isolated targets.
  • Active Section Planes Override: Architectural models often contain active section cuts that slice through walls and ceilings. nEVEn automatically disables active section planes and section cuts in the [nEVEn]Targets scene. This guarantees that target assets (such as an interior sofa or recessed ceiling light) are fully visible rather than cropped or hidden behind sliced building shells.
  • Viewport Selection & Framing: nEVEn adds the target assets directly to SketchUp’s active selection set so you can immediately see their entity properties in the Outliner and Entity Info.

6. Architectural Decision Freedom: What to Do Next

Find Targets does not alter or delete geometry on its own. It acts as an authoritative diagnostic lens, allowing the architect or BIM lead to calmly evaluate the problem objects and make an informed design decision:

  1. Replace with Low-Poly Proxies: If an imported piece of furniture or landscaping tree contains 200,000 faces, replace it with a lightweight proxy or simpler 3D definition.
  2. Compress Textures In-Place: If the target is an architectural surface mapped with an oversized 8K (8,192 px) or 4K (4,096 px) bitmap, launch the [OPTIMIZE] panel to downscale it to 2K (2,048 px) or 1K (1,024 px) without losing visual quality.
  3. Purge Unused Geometry: If the isolated asset is an obsolete design iteration hidden behind a partition wall, delete it and run [RESCAN] to reclaim file space.
  4. Return to Full Model: To resume standard modeling, simply click the [nEVEn]Original scene tab at the top of your SketchUp viewport.

Does nEVEn Find Targets delete or modify my 3D geometry? ›

No. Find Targets is 100% non-destructive. It does not delete, edit, or downscale any geometry or materials. It simply manages entity visibility and camera framing inside a new SketchUp scene, giving architects full control to inspect problem assets and decide their own course of action.

How do I find which object or component is making SketchUp slow? ›

Open the nEVEn Results Dashboard and click [FIND TARGETS] in the footer. Select Heavy Geometry (or Key Impact Areas) and confirm. nEVEn will automatically locate the heaviest components, hide the rest of the model, and zoom directly to the offending assets in a dedicated [nEVEn]Targets scene.

Can Find Targets find large textures mapped inside nested groups? ›

Yes. nEVEn’s resolution engine recursively traverses the active model hierarchy, resolving material assignments across nested groups, component instances, and sub-assemblies to identify the exact placed geometry where oversized textures are rendered.

Why is the "Find Targets" button missing or not visible in nEVEn? ›

The [FIND TARGETS] button is dynamically context-aware. If your model is in a healthy, Stable (Green) state with no oversized textures or heavy geometry, the button remains hidden to keep the interface minimal. It automatically appears when your model enters a Caution or Critical state, or when geometry or texture load becomes elevated.

How does nEVEn select targets if no single asset is marked "Critical"? ›

If no individual component or texture breaches Critical thresholds but the model's overall load is elevated, nEVEn activates its intelligent fallback engine to automatically isolate the Top 3 heaviest geometric containers and Top 3 largest textures contributing to model strain.

How can I isolate heavy geometry in SketchUp without deleting the rest of the model? ›

nEVEn’s Find Targets feature creates two scenes automatically: [nEVEn]Original (which keeps your full model 100% visible and protected) and [nEVEn]Targets (which hides everything except the problem geometry). You can switch between your full model and the isolated problem assets instantly using standard SketchUp scene tabs.

Why are targets visible even if they are inside a building with active section cuts? ›

When generating the [nEVEn]Targets scene, nEVEn automatically disables active section planes and section cuts. This prevents interior furniture, nested equipment, or structural components from being sliced or visually obscured by architectural floor or roof cuts.