Several sketches in a single file?

Hello again,

I've been trying to create several sketches within a single file in Sketchup (and losing hair). Just like in MS excel where you can have several workbooks saved under the same document.

I would like to be able to open 'X', and navigate within that file to bent and wall drawings, rafter specifics, etc., etc..

Layers?

Thanks in advance for your ongoing willingness to share knowledge.

Brock

Hi Brock,

The "Layers" facility really comes into its own when you start to produce "Scenes". You can set which view and layers will show in a particular scene and this might go some way to providing you with your wish to view several "sketches" within the same file.

Sketchup imports "named views" from AutoCAD and presents these as Sketchup "Scenes" and so there is good interchangeability between this high end heavy weight CAD program and Sketchup.

Regards

Ken Hume

Describe a bit more of what you are trying to do...

Frame inside enclosure walls with windows and doors and furniture sitting on a landscape?


Layers can work ... but be warned - they DO NOT CONTROL geometry - so only move groups and / or components to a layer other than Layer 0. What this means is that if you are a sloppy draftsman - when you switch off a layer part of your model may disappear - obviously the intended effect - except when half a timber or half a wall disappears. Ungrouped and uncomponented(?) Lines drawn on a layer CAN influence other stray lines that may be turned 'off'. My practice is that I only move components and groups to layers.


The Outliner is your friend here - along with groups and components and scenes.


The way I work is this:

Lines and planes get made into components - these become timbers, rafters, floor joists, walls, windows, etc. - basically the 'objects' that we build with.

Components get organized by groups - so timbers may be grouped as 'Roof', 'Floor', or B1, B2, Wall A, etc. etc. Walls get the same treatment, and I usually include windows in the grouping of the wall geometry.

(Note - in the case of a group that could be repeated I would make it a component - so a truss that repeats would probably become a component rather than a group so I can make changes throughout.)

When I have my model working along I'll use a combination of the outliner and scenes (with layers as needed).

The outliner lets you control the groups and components, and the parts within them. When you open the outliner you can effect your model by right clicking items - so Hide, Unhide, Delete, select, filtering, etc. etc.

A strategy you might use is to put objects 'X', 'Y', and 'Z' into different macro groups (with micro and sub groups and components within them). You can now control visibility of single objects or whole assemblies.

If you keep coming back to a certain part, object, or view - create a scene. This will create a tab on top of your model view and allow you to keep coming back to it. You can have the scene 'remember' exactly what you are looking at - so section cuts, objects that are hidden, layers, camera angles, etc. etc.

I use layers only for objects that may want to be on or off as they cross over groups and large assemblies - and most of my layering is for 2 purposes - documentation (dimensions, notes, construction lines, etc.) and for 'fluff' (people, cars, trees, furniture, - stuff that dresses up the model)


Hope this helps.

Just one note about the outliner: It's a performance hog. Make sure you close it before you run the tf_ruby scripts like make shop drawings, or create timber list.

I use layers the same way Mike does - to hide certain objects to make it easier to see what's going on. If you download the example from my web site, you can see how the purlins are on their own layer, so you can hide them to better see inside. The grid lines are also on their own layer, so you can hide them for printing, perhaps.

As Mike warns, you should note that even though a component is on a particular layer, the geometry inside might be on a different layer. I just found and cleaned up some of that "sloppiness" in the example and re-posted it. CB.

Clark -

Have you experimented with the Outliner and what may be causing it to hog resources? Does it hog when minimized, or when fully opened? Is it the graphic representation of the information - or the data itself? It seems that the data lives on and gets updated behind the scenes regardless, as I thought this was a core way in which SketchUp dealt with geometry...

-Mike

It's the graphical representation. If the outliner window is minimized, everything's fine. If not, it takes 30 seconds to make a shop drawing on a pretty simple model on my relatively fast machine. CB.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your responses.

Mike, I'll try and explain my desired outcome.... Bear with me.

I generally start by creating an Isometric of the a completed frame. Each piece is assigned a name and created as a component. This portion of the drafting is very helpful to me, because I use the timber list ruby frequently (thanks Clark) and our team finds the 3D picture of the entire project very useful.

Once that drawing is completed, I would like to find a way to 'highlight' certain sections of the frame (bents, walls and floors, for example), and be able to view them on their own without opening a new file. Essentially, create line drawings of frame sections to create simple working drawings.

I thought I was on to something by using the section plane tool, creating a group from a slice, highlighting and assigning a new component value. But, beyond that, I'm having difficulty viewing it on it's own, either with scenes or layers.

Having said that, scenes and layers are relatively uncharted territory for me, so I may be missing a small piece of the puzzle.

Brock

You can use the section tool just as you describe... the trick is to create a scene, layer or group (or combination of all 3) that isolate just what you want to see.

If I have time on Thursday I'll try to post an example file.

I've had the same problem. I'll create a scene (for example a bent) with a certain section and layers turned on, then I'll create another (a different bent) with different layers turned on. When I go back to scene #1 it won't seem to remember what section was being used, nor (I don't think) does it remember which layers were turned on. I got frustrated with this some time ago, so I frankly haven't tried it in the last few months so the memory is a tad foggy.

Hi DKR,

Right click on the "scene" tab that you have just set up and select "properties".

Tick box the properties that you want to preserve and save in your scene. Press enter & close the dialog box.

Right click on the "scene" tab again and select "update".

Job done. It will now be there every time for you.

If you want to change any of your scene settings remember to click "update" scene.

Regards

Ken Hume

It should remember what settings were used when you originally made the scene.

When you first create a scene, get everything in your model just how you want it, then use the scene dialog box to add a scene (the plus sign). Be sure that the boxed checked are what you want the scene to remember.



When dealing with sections you may be prompted to save a new style - click OK for this as required.



-Mike

Note that you can have several section cuts in your model. Only one can be the active cut. On the main menu under View, there are two check boxes for section planes and section cuts. You definitely want section cuts turned on - that controls whether the cut takes place or not. You'll probably want to turn off the section plane, to make things less cluttered, but you'll need to turn it back on again to manipulate it.

By default, the active section cut is remembered with each scene (unfortunately, the item in the "scenes window" says "active section planes", which is not quite accurate - it should be "cuts"). Also, the active layers are remembered (note however that if you later add a new layer, it will be active in all scenes, and you may not want that, so you have to go back and update those scenes).

SO...

What I do is create a scene for each bent, a layer for each bent, and a section cut for each bent. Place each section cut on the appropriate layer. If you have any notations or dimensions that apply only to that scene, place them on that layer as well. Make sure that for each scene, only the correct layer and section cuts are active. It's a little time consuming, but once you've done it a few times, it's not hard. CB.