Tim - in the file I just fixed, you couldn't get to the page with the offending view because it'd crash, because it appeared that the links to the model did a somewhat halfway update (or it updated raster views and not vector/hybrid views). We go in and look at the XML to see what doesn't make sense, but it appears to be all related to changing the model (adding geometry, having "Fix Problems" run on the SketchUp model - which is changing geometry, etc...) but then on TOP of that having some condition in LayOut that causes a failure to pick up the updates completely.

Please submit files you get that are horked up, and we'll fix 'em for you. We're getting closer to a solution. Fortunately, this is fairly rare. In the mean time, save regularly (model and .layout).

b

Hi Karen.

I generate timber frame shop drawings with Layout quite extensively.

What follows is my work flow; which I have developed with a bunch of trial and error.

The key move is to make a separate SU file for each part of your system; great room, Master Bedroom, etc.

I use this new file for my Layout work.

I isolate each part of the frame that I want to dimension and I move them around in model space until I can dimension them and place them in Layout without seeing any extraneous members.

I do all of my dimensioning in SU, particularly with timber frames because you have so many instances where faces aren't flush and you have to rotate the model to get the point you need, which is a royal pain in Layout.

Once I have my new SU file, with everything dimensioned, then I can insert it into Layout and then navigate, in each viewport, to the view I want.

I don't use scenes in SU, though this would make things easier, becaue I experience a weird and annoying glitch with SU where, when I hit my middle mouse button to navigate, it jumps to a scene. This makes it impossible for me to "work" a model with scenes, so I have figured out work arounds.

So, the new SU file, when complete, is a mess of dimensions, and pieces all over the place, but everything far enough apart from each other to not interfere with my views in Layout. In your particular case, I would isolate the bent and dimension (at scale), I would isolate each timber in the bent, and give dimensions (not to scale as I display timbers isometrically), and I would have a scale plan view, with necessary walls, etc.

Hope this helps.

OK, I think I can answer that: yes. Create your own template, and insert a dummy model (nothing in it but Sang), set to Ortho and set the scale in the SketchUp Model inspector (set the view you want, too). File->Save as Template. Now create a new SketchUp model, send to LayOut, and your model should have the correct view and scale that you want.

It plays off of the blog post I wrote - http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2010/01/connecting-sketchup-scenes-to-layout.html

b

Hi Orch, thanks for staying on this topic--you have succeeded in verifying for me what it is that I was doing (wrong) every once in a while, (like yesterday!) namely, losing track of the active section plane, especially in models containing a lot of them. And Gai-good tip to check their status before updating, mystery solved.
...And btw, I'm probably the last person standing to have finally found the "Hide in other scenes" plugin. (if there's a better one, I'd love to hear about it...)

There IS dimension constraint in SU!
Here's an image to show drafting assistant helping me select the plane in which my dimension exists.
sample1.png
I wouldn't be expecting to find it in LO if it weren't in SU. I can see from your pictures that you didn't pull the dimension away from the geometry being dimensioned. IRL you never put dimensions right on the line being measured; it's illegible in the field.

I'm not looking for this to be used in perspective, although the behavior should be consistent across the whole SU platform, regardless of what view you're in.

Please do add this as a feature request. There are a lot of people trying to use SUPro to make construction documentation, including me. It's almost never useful to reference the hypotenuse of anything.

No, but that's an interesting request. I could see having a "use model drawing scale in measurements box" checkbox, but what if you have multiple models per page?

You'll have to use the inference and then move lines - e.g. trace a line over a model, inferencing it's endpoints and then moving or rotating the drawn line if necessary. There are a lot of LayOut users that do this to trace over models in this way to put emphasis on lines.

b

Being able to set the import dpi would probably be best.

However, if Layout is expecting a certain resolution number consistently, I could adjust the output from AutoCAD as necessary. PNG images of black and white line work aren't very big so increasing the resolution would be OK for me.

File menu > New from template...

For now, the best you can do is to nudge one model with the arrow tools and then align just by eyeballing it.

b

Can you explain how you think that's backwards? Once you know about layers, it seems right to me that the topmost layer takes precedence, and then items within each layer determine the drawing order. How would you do it? Thanks for any feedback.

b

You can actually edit your SU lines if you

turn vector or hybrid rendering on (the default is raster)* then explode the SU drawing in LO - then the model will act like deeply nested groups in SU so you need to double click to edit until you can select the individual set of edges.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zcvsIuYiVbo/S2pCbqJ1J2I/AAAAAAAADZg/5W9pPSpMj7E/LOShapeStyle.jpg

Note that this (exploding) is a destructive and irreversible operation which will ultimately beak the linkage between that particular SU viewport in LO and the embedded skp file so only do this when you know you are ready with the modelling phase.
Of course, you can always delete just that exploded viewport and insert the skp file again - the model itself won't be affected this way.

if you explode it while raster rendering is on, it will become an image that you can open/edit in an external application and it will instantly reload upon saving.

thanks gaieus that's exactly what i want, strangely I think I have used that in the past so feel a bit silly. Anyway thanks for your help much appreciated.

@bjanzen said:

For #2 - if it's not showing up on other pages, then it's on the wrong layer. It's pretty easy to check what layer things are drawn on. To do this, right click on the layer name and select "Select Entities", and everything drawn on that layer will be selected. Alternatively, you can select an item, for example a text box, and in the layer inspector you'll see a little blue dot show up on the layer that the entity is on.

To move an item to the correct layer, select the correct layer in the layer inspector, then right click on the item and select "move to current layer". Then re-save your template.

Let me know if that helps.

b

Hi bjanzen,
Heres how it behaves on my computer. I tried it on my customized template and on another one (titleblock modern).

For the page number:

1-it is on the Unique Elements layer.

2- On the second page (called Inside Page in the template), visibility on, locked or unlocked, and shared on 1 page.

3- If I press the + button to add a new, I new is created called Page 3 or whatever, then everything is copied except the page number and whatever else on that same layer.

4- Then, I try to press the share on all pages button and the page number reappears on the newly created page (page 3).

5- Then again, I change the number to "3" and go back to page 2 (Inside page)to see the "3" appearing on that page too.

What is wrong with me? 😆

Jerome

EDIT

I tried the duplicate page button instead of the add a page button and it worked for the page page number.

Can someone confirm it is suppose to work that way?

Then I dont understand the purpose of the add page button** 😕

Thanks, i will continue with Photoshop and PNG Pictures.

@bjanzen said:

Adjusting the grid opacity is a regression bug. I just tried it in 2.0 and it worked, but LayOut doesn't respect grid line opacity settings in 2.1. Ouch. Sorry.

b

Sorry, I didn't tell you before... I did the grid (because the spacing is not really the same between x and y) using LO lines and setting their opacity to 10 (the color is black).
I discovered a bug accidently 😄
But however, as I wrote in the first post, exporting my work in jpg the resulting images are exactly what I want them to be (and the same as I see in my monitor, that's ok).
I was just wondering how PDF has not the same output image as jpg. That was all.
BTW many thanks for your helpfull advices!

Thanx a lot Gai, you are so precious!

No problem with several discussions about an issue - it shows there isan issue - so that people will easier find it. 😉

Slightly different. Center Point plugin.

Do you have "Preserve Scale on Resize" checked (it's in the SketchUp Model Inspector's View tab)? I just tried it with the standard views with ortho projection, and when I changed the scale on each scene, it added "(Modified)" in front of each of the scene names, but did NOT change the scaling when I changed geometry and materials.

I may not be doing thing exactly the way you are, so here's what I did: I created a simple SketchUp model with 7 scenes, each with Camera->Parallel Projection, and the 7 views you get from Camera->Standard Views. I sent this to layout, and created 7 pages, each with a page matching the name of the view (top, bottom, etc...) and changed the scale to 1/4" = 1' (1:48) on each page. Preserve scale on resize was checked.

I then went back to SketchUp and changed a few things (geometry of building, materials, etc...), updated a scene, saved, then back to LayOut and updated the skp model reference. Everything stayed the same for me. More info if you can, because if this is happening, I can see how it would be a pain.

b

Since it seems that the windows version of LO doesn't support font kerning, the best way I've found to manage this is to write the text with an image editor and export it as png image with transparent background.

Photoshop has a quite good text management and supports well text kerning. If you have to put some text labels in your LO file (i.e. 'elevation north' or 'level 04'), it's good to set up a new Photoshop file with a grid and write down the text for your labels. Don't forget size and scale: i wrote my text @ 300 dpi. Then with the slice tool cut all the labels and export them all at once with the 'save for internet' option in the menu 'file'. Save them as plain png images, since the html code is useless in this case.

Now you're ready to import the labels in LO and position them. Your text will look more elegant now!

I guess that you can do the some with The Gimp and most of the image editors available.