Gaieus and Ross, Thanks a bunch for your replies. Much appreciated!

@anssi said: What happens to layers depends on your export type. When you export your whole 3D model, layers remain intact. A 2D hidden line export generates a projected 2D line drawing of your view, and has the option of generating DWG layers according to the visual appearance of the lines. I am not a programmer, but I think that in this case it is not possible to unequivocally determine what layer a line should belong to, as it can, for instance, be a border between entities that belong to different layers. It works the same in AutoCad itself too. 2D projections created from 3D views or exported as DXB and reimported are on a single layer. The workaround would be to export one layer at a time and reassemble the layer structure in AutoCad. Anssi Ah, I see. So, if I just do a 3-D export instead of 2-D, I should preserve the layers? Is there any advantage to doing the workaround you mention in the last paragraph instead of a 3-D export? I don't have AutoCad, so I don't actually see the results of my export, I just hear what my architect tells me-- her office is not near my residence.

I would suggest leaving the housebuilder ruby alone until you are at least familiar with using groups and components and how they work. These are two things which are so important in SU. You can always go back and play with housebuilder ruby at a later date.

Hi Dan, hi folks. See attached SU file for another way of doing your model. Shop roof with overhangs 2.skp

Greetings cheers Alan

Ok That looks to easy I didn't know you could put a photo in the program. Thanks for the help! I will work on it some tonight.

Thank you Jean. As usual, once you explain it it's obvious. Before that it was impossible.

@dalek said: TIG, Very helpful again. I've got another one. I've got two components that cross in my model. I want to delete the bottom half of one of the components, and keep the top half that lies on the other side of the second component. Kind of like an "x", and I want to delete on of the edges so I end up with a "y". So, I "intersect with model." That gives me lines where the two compenents cross, but when I go to delete the edges I don't want, it deletes the entire edge, even the edge on the other side of component #2. Is there any way to prevent this, or do I have to retrace the shorter edges I want to keep? Dale Use 'Intersect' when you are within the component itself (during an edit). Do it for each component in turn. That way the intersecting lines are then made within the components and you should be able to erase them within each component during an edit as desired...

Thanks for the pointer to the Most Used Scripts thread. Lots of interesting notions there. I particularly liked the menus idea, as it seemed to me that Plugins was going to get awfully cluttered. I know next to nothing about Ruby (I don't want to, either. I spent too much time customizing AutoCAD. Now I want to design and draw in SketchUp.) but I was able to discern the structure and to customize it for myself. I was even able to hack out a way to make a heading and a faux separator at the end. I can see using Roof so often that I don't want to have to go through the extra step on the menu, so I left on it's own under Plugins. Bur's layer_manager_extension and projection_extension look to me to be so useful that they should be integrated right into SketchUp. Shapes also seems like it will be important. As time goes by, I expect to refer to that Most Used Scripts thread again and again.

Thanks everyone for your help!

mk11, I found my quickest work thru was to place a line from the exterior centerpoint of the opening that was above the floor plane down (blue) to the floor, this was my pick point for dimensioning. Mostly I deleted them at the next ISO view, but if you place them in their own layer, you can use them again. I like the dimensioning capabilities of SU. It is extremely flexible,stable and easy to modify, and with a little technique modification on my part it is quite easy to dimension a plan to my tolerances. Regards,

Malte, I don't know if this has to do with what you experience but some of the window components do have some 6 unnecessary extra lines/edges in them. Looking from the purple side: nr.1, nr.8 and nr.12 cheers, Wo3Dan

thanks a lot!

@goggin said: Hey, that was the first time I gave advice, as opposed to asking for it, on this MB! That's the way it is... First you (I mean most of the people in general) just lurk then ask finally return what you received to the community. Knowledge is one of those few things that the more you give away, the more you yourself will have (I hope my "Hunglish" is understandable )

Yes, obviously one great advantage of png files is that they support transparency so whenever you apply them on a surface there can be areas where you can "see through". Open your materials browser and check out the "Fence" materials. They are all (?) partly transparent png files and using them will let you have those fences without the need of modelling all that stuff and loading your model with heavy geometry. also a lot of the 2D plants work with these transparent png's Yet there are drawbacks; this "transparency" does not support shadows - i.e. the whole face will cast the shadow as a big "block". Mostly you would turn off the "cast shadow" feature of the entzity... But this is already OT - on a mobile phone you need not cast shadows...

a warm welcome from India!!! (even though i am not there now.... )

@pmiller said: once you start to add windows, vents, doors, etc. you will probably end up with a lot of unique components anyway. Not to mention the off-module oddballs and the inside corners. Nevertheless, I like your approach since it permits one to array the tops along the slope and the bottoms along a level plane, and I would not have to go in and adjust every panel individually. Also, I think that just a few component styles would take care of 90% of the panels on any one project, even on the large-for-me 200,000 sq. ft. buildings.

Thanks guys, followed your help and lo and behold, there it is. Easy when you know how

Hopefully some Mac guru will drop into the discussion here and give you some suggestions See what the help center article says about such issues: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=39694

@rhankc said: I can see where the layer 0 is in the .skb, After writing the list in notepad do you just paste it in at the layer 0 end? And thanks for the extra layer ext rb. I'll give it a shot. The skb file is just a backup of the skp file. Writing or pasting stuff manually into the model's file without deeeeeeeep knowledge of what you are doing WILL mess up the model completely ! Don't be tempted to try it... unless you read and write binary code - it's NOT a simple text format... Use my LayerExIm.rb script tool to import a list of layer names via the Ruby API interface - it knows how to make new layers/names and insert them into the data base properly. You can first export a list from an existing skp that has the layer names you need, or simply write a notepad.exe based text list of the layer names - one per line, normal charcters, no tabs... (start with it called MyLayers.txt BUT afterwards change the file's suffix to MyLayers.layers when you've done so the importer can see it... Then use my Layer Import tool, select the list and the layers will appear in the model. If that model file were put into the Templates folder and its name selected under Preferences as the default template then you'll always start with that set of layers in any new skp. Purging the model will remove any layers that are 'empty'. If you want to get them back reimport the .layers list... You can have different 'layers' lists to suit different stages of your work, just as you can have different templates or styles for different types of modelling...