Help regarding rendering and white surfaces

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Julian's advise is good. Linking to a SketchUp file can be problematic, so it is better to work with an OSM and and use the "Open OpenStudio Model" directly.

More generally whenever you see surfaces as white, or that don't show up in the "OpenStudio Inspector" when you selected, then the OpenStudio model is not properly synchronized with the active SketchUp model. This can also create issues changing render modes. I would follow these steps when this happens.

1. Save your OSM file as a new name to avoid overwriting your original file that may not have any issues
2. Quit and restart SketchUp (don't open the new file yet)
3. Go to the "Plugins" menu and then under "OpenStudio User Scripts/Reports" look for "OSM Diagnostic Script"
4. Now browse to the new file you saved in step 1. and click ok.
5. There are two options for removing objects with errors or warnings. The defaults of "true" and "false" are fine, but if you have lost of tiny surfaces you want to remove then setting both to true may be good

At this point the script will run, and will open your ruby console. The script will report out results of some basic testing for problematic objects such as surfaces with out a parent space, or surfaces without 3 vertices, it will look for surfaces with duplicate geometry within the same surface group. If it finds any issues it will save a copy of your file with "diagnostic" at the end of the name, leaving your original file untouched. Now you can open the resulting model through the traditional method using the "Open OpenStudio Model" button.

Note: one thing the script doesn't currently do is remove orphan sub-surfaces. These can result if you deleted a base surface but somehow not the subsurface. There is a dedicated user script for this under "Add or Alter Model Elements" section of the user scripts/Remove Orphan SubSurfaces". This script is also good for files that won't even open in the plugin. That was what it was originally developed for.

I have also experienced this issue and found the easiest way to avoid this is to never save the sketchup file and always work in OpenStudio or OpenStudio leagcy. Also make sure you are drawing in a zone, you can tell this by making sure you have a dotted line box where you are drawing (this is relevant for legacy but might still be the case in openstudio as well). A white surface is sure sign your model is going to crash at some point and a lot of the work you do after you have seen the surface could be lost. We always save multiple copies regularly so we can go back to an older version if something goes wrong like this. If I see a white surface I save under a different file name, make sure to say I don't want to save any sketchup entities, close the program, then reopen and see what I have lost.

When I start using OS and Sketch up I used to have the same problem and the solution that Matthew Larson give me was this one:

1. Open an empty sketch up file
2. Then using the Open Studio Tool bar use the "Open OpenStudio Model" icon
3. Search your file and then select the .osm file

He explain me that you need to work on the .osm file or otherwise you are going to mix the surfaces, The sketch up ones (white surfaces) and the open studio ones (grey surfaces) and open studio wont work with the white ones.

And probably you can't change renders because of this issue

I hope it works for you :).