Ah, I see the problem has already been discussed widely on this forum and a few workarounds have been suggested (like drawing guidelines in SU in order to place dimensiongrafics manually in LO). Thanks Mikar

I'm glad that the main issue is resolved. However, having non-ASCII characters like a cedilla in a User name or any folder path that SketchUp might want to access is a recipe for disaster. On PCs the version of Ruby shipped with SketchUp is known to have issues with such strings in its File, Dir and IO operations [but MAC works OK, as do newer Ruby versions which are sadly unavailable for us to use via the current API]. So on a PC... File.exist?("C:/Users/TIG/AppData/Local/Temp/Francois.dat") will return false if it does not exist... AND true if it exists. BUT with the cedilla in the path... File.exist?("C:/Users/TIG/AppData/Local/Temp/François.dat") will return false if it does not exist... BUT also false if it exists !!! Which is pretty useless ! So be prepared that from time to time you might get illogical results from some Plugins... An update of SketchUp's Ruby is long overdue... this fundamental issue with Ruby's old PC version is a pain...

File > Document Setup > Paper You can change size of paper for all file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqB-ER9Qdv8&feature=share&list=PL190C90DCE62242C9

@agrazdi said: Is there a complete guide or book where i could find all those little details hidden in layout ? You might have a look at This book by Bonnie Roskes. I've learned to use LO without a book and I don't know exactly what is in Bonnie's book. @agrazdi said: 1 - When i insert a skethup model i can define which scale i want it to be, but lets say i want to draw directly in layout, how can i define the scale because in Sketchup it can be set in the print out window. When you are drawing in LayOut, you are drawing in paper space so if you draw a line that is 100mm long it should print out as 100mm long when you print the PDF (if you print without scaling). If you need to draw to some scale in LO, you might consider drawing in SU, importing to LO and setting the scale then. After that you could explode the viewport to make it just lines in LO. Render as vector before exploding. @agrazdi said: 2 - Lets say i draw a rectangle, i can't find a way to explode it or ungroup it in order to have the four lines alone. ( I Found it, USING SPLIT !! ) Excellent!

Well, either you need to zoom in with the scroll wheel in LO or maybe you need to change the size of the viewport on the paper. In LO you can't use the edges of the work space or the display as a reference for how large things appear. You need to use the edges of the paper space instead. Maybe you could post the LO file to me in a PM.

Moved from the Bugs forum. As it turned out there were some stray lines as part of the template. A bit of cleanup and the problem is solved.

I'll end up doing some line work, a section, or something to the effect and would like to take that work and expand upon it in 3D... also it makes it easier to scale large groups of layout groups. Which does not really work properly in LO.

Ah I see. You have to go through FILE>PAGE SETUP this happens a lot in Windows where software doesn't retain the paper size and adjust the printer for you. I tend to favour the export to PDF option which gets around the problem in the paperless age but even Adobe Reader needs you to configure the paper if you want a hard copy.

Don't think I don't appreciate you Dave... You're one of the most helpful people I know.

yes sir, i got it just now, thank you very much

I wish I could help you out. The key is finding the right method that works. When you do, it is remarkable how fast a complete set of 3d construction documents can be prepared. I'm on my ninth custom home this year with very detailed drawing sets - typically 50-60 sheets. 6 of those designs are already well under way in construction. All of them are fairly complex as well. One of these days, I am hopeful to really document my approach in more detail, not just to help out those struggling, but to hopefully find someone that expands it much further. If it helps any, I spend 90% of my time in Sketchup, and only 10% in layout. It's all in the prep time, so that you utilize Layout only for what it is intended......presentation.

There are several threads about this subject and there are several people who insist dimensions in Layout are associative. For the life of me I don't know what they're seeing that I'm not. In my mind Layout is a very useful tool for exporting images of the SketchUp model and, if the model is actually complete and no further revisions are expected (a very rare occurrence in my business), a useful tool to output 2D views with dimensions and annotations. But for a 3D model or a model that will go through numerous revisions, I don't see how Layout's dimensions would be useful.

This is a link to another shortcuts thread by Dave R http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=53564#p486074

Hi Dave Thanks for replying. I,m using al Dell precison M6300 with windows XP , and send about 20 bug splat reports. Also send an email to the SK help center. regards Ronald

@tig said: @Ken I suspect you are XP. I believe that all of the newer versions of Windows use the 'C:\ProgramData...' tree for the defaults... or the 'C:\Users\UserName\AppData...' path for the custom templates... Yes, TIG, cheap company doesn't want to move to another operating system on the laptops. However, I was trying to show the method I used to find the files, by using a unique name and doing a search. Ken

Guys, I have little difficulty dimensioning what I need to in SketchUp or Layout. Then again my dimensioning is pretty straightforward, plans and sections. I find one really has to think ahead and plan for dimensioning awkward views. Not ideal I know but thats what we have for the moment. Hopefully dimensioning ability will improve for LayOut in particular. We have to remember that the application is was called 'LayOut' for good reason, not DraftOut or similar. It was brought out initially as a convenient way to show SketchUp output. In all fairness it has come a long way since version one and I imagine will continue to improve as time goes on. To be honest, I would have to say that LayOut has had more improvements than SketchUp over the past couple of years, so this gives me hope that it will continue to improve. Maybe to a level that the 'Layout' name does not properly describe the ability on the application. Mike

+1 to sfto1's comments. If you are working on a section, avoid dimensioning to the model by creating a "group from slice", copy and then paste to a separate layer in LO. Alternatively set the scene in LO to vector and then explode it. This will "flatten" the view but it also removes any automatic updating or automatic scaling of dimensions. Just a couple of ideas for your workflow.

Ah. Good point TIG. I made a probably erroneous assumption that the template had already been saved as a template using File>Save as template... This is certainly important because it then makes that template selectable from the Templates list when you start a new project and when you use File>Send to Layout in SketchUp.

Yes they should