@bjanzen said: If this of great interest, it would be a reasonable feature request to have VCB, er, measurement box input be scaled, so if I drew a rectangle and then typed 3",6" to get a 3" by 6" rectangle, but figured it was 1" = 1', to directly be able to type 30',60' and have it scaled for me. Is that what you're looking for? b I second this - it would be a very useful feature. It would be great to develop this and additional Layout features similar to those in ACD Canvas 11, which incorporates the features red and others have mentioned. -wb

A layer could disappear because something is in front of it, or if the layer inspector is hidden (the little eye in the Layers inspector). Things are also drawn in order on each layer, so right clicking items on a layer, you can "Arrange->" and move forward or backward in the drawing order. Also, if you group items on different layers, it will bring them to the front-most layer. If you select an entity, you'll see a little blue dot in the layers inspector to indicate what layer it's on. Keep posting questions, because I'm sure there are other newbies that don't know but don't ask. b

The red x is typically when a resource can't be loaded. In early days, this was a stand-in for lacking memory resources on large documents... did you get this resolved? If not, PM me. b ps - sorry, my replies have been slow. I lost my reader feed and didn't see these posts.

Tig, thanks, I will give that a shot as I thought that I had done that all along, as I was building the model. also thanks for the useful plugins too. aloha red

@merc said: I want to show an exploded view of an assembly, using guide lines to show where points will be connected. In Layout you just draw the lines.... the inferencer will usually even link to the underlying SU model correctly. Set the dash style and you should be done.

When you are in vector (or hybrid) rendering in LO and explode the SU model, when entering its editing context, you should be able to split certain bits off the vectorwork and move them per paper space with no problem.

if you click on Print Preview, in Layout, do all the pages appear ? if so, maybe it is your chosen printer that fails. cant think of anything else. good luck [image: SRms_PrintPreview.JPG] [image: MH4P_Allpages.JPG]

Hi Gary, Well, I must have looked elsewhere "when I was still online" so sorry for coming back so late to this. I do not think the dimension tool should have anything to do with the layers. However under arrange (menu), you can set snapping to object or grid. When set to object, it dimensions the model (until you explode it) while with grid snap on, it will dimension paper space. I am not sure what was set to you as when selecting the dimension tool, it should automatically toggle object snap on and grid snap off (AFAIK)

I think you want to change it in sketchup (via window->styles) then update the layout version (right click->update reference.)

@bjanzen said: You can have more than one window open: Window->New Window for Page blah. b Oh, Duh! Perfect. Except we need the self-updating cross-references.

Yes, it was a LayOut issue / question, hence within the LayOut discussions. And thanks, yes, clipping mask is the way to go, I knew of that but thought it would be more work, ultimately not. Thanks again for all the insightful support. aloha red

Hm. I don't know - it gets through for me. [image: Q5P7_ScreenShot003.png]

Hi Red, You could however (after stripping the LO file off everything, true) save it as a template and then when opening another document, apply this template to it.

thanks for the clarity, I knew they had a function, it just seemed when i pressed them, nothing really happened... but then again I am an old dawg and this is a new trick.. aloha red

@redinhawaii said: I asked the question, if I have "on every page" set as visible and active, can I modify it (in this case the title block) unique to THAT page, i.e. have a distinct number? Yes and lock it for That page on each page or is it just "global" all the time? No,It can be local (per sheet) and what would be the difference / application for having a template (in this case a title block) vs having the title block "on every page" what I found with the template was that when I clicked "additional page" within my title block template, I got the right sized paper but my title block did not carry over. What am I doing wrong here? You need to add a "duplicate page" not just another (blank) page........please ref attached image. red Red, Open any of the default LO title block templates and experiment with the add duplicate page (inside page) and see if these get you closer to where you want to be. Best, Charlie ![LO PC Screengrab of "add duplicate page"](/uploads/imported_attachments/5tRW_SP04.jpg "LO PC Screengrab of "add duplicate page"")

I've found it easiest to create multiple styles and control them in the various scenes, even turning them on and off in a window in LayOut looking at my embedded model. Styles can have sections on / off and the planes active or hidden. When you update your scenes it may ask you to 'save a new style'. I do this, then name is something that defines what it is / how it works. Once these are set - you can apply them to ANY window in LayOut - regardless of what scene / setting you originally set the model up in... I have 2 color styles with sections on / off and 2 BW hidden line styles with sections on / off. I can quickly (relative here in LayOut!) change the entire drawing from color to BW line art...

@jhauswirth said: I think the problem might be the same as the z-fighting issue. The dashed lines consistently render while in hidden line mode so I don't think it is Z-fight related. Are the lines on the same plane as the faces they are drawn on? Yes (in test file) Can you pull the lines up off the ground/faces by a very small amount and see how it looks then? I tried this (+ 1/8") and it did not resolve the missing line segmnets Thanks for you help on this, Best, C

Well, you could draw a scale in SketchUp, send to LayOut and make it Ortho with a scale (I chose 1" = 1', but this can be changed), vector render the model, add text labels in LayOut, and save as a Scrapbook called Scales.layout. That's what I did. Of course, you can create a prettier scale drawing, pick a better font, etc.. b [image: s9nW_ScaleSBimage.png] Scale.layout

OK, I got it. It seems to work in relation to the handle that was just dragged. So if you pull a handle on an edge, you can only enter one value, for either the width or height. In order to enter horizontal and vertical dimensions, you have to drag from the corner first. Not obvious, but it does make sense. Thanks EJE for the fast reply.... EJE

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has more plan view trees and shrubs for Layout they'd be willing to share with me. thanks, Keea