Just an FYI - we got this file, and could fix one error, but it had two major errors. The second resulted in me having to delete 5 of 20 pages which will have to be recreated. If anyone gets a file that wont open or crash, please send it in via Help->Contact Us and file a bug. If you put your information (and ask if bjanzen can take a look), I'll try to fix. Thanks to pgarch and others for helping us try to track this down.

b

Yes, as an example, go to the arrows scrapbook, page Arrows | 3D | Curved. These are really SketchUp models, so you can open them in SketchUp, adjust fog, color, camera angle, etc... then insert in LayOut.

b

@ebelg2000 said:

Looks like it doesn't work for me either.

There are many new technologies in Leopard that just aren't present in Tiger. Why don't you just upgrade to Leopard? I'm sure you can now pick up a (now old) 10.5 system disc for next to nothing. I know it's a drag, but it's like getting developers to still support OS9 or even worse ME or NT2000! 😲 😄

Hi Matt,

I remember Andrew (aka "Utiler" here) also compőlaining about this as for him it would be the logical way (double clicking) to unlock a locked layer.

Currently you need to go to the Layer dialog in the Tray in LO and unlock the locked layer these blocks are on (there is a small padlock icon next to the layer name). Now you can edit the template - then lock it again to prevent unintentional/incidental editing.

(I deleted your duplicate post in the Newbie section, if you don't mind)

There's been a lot of discussion about this, mostly for architectural work, so take a look at http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15911

Your template also sets tool defaults (font, line start/end style), and you'll notice on our templates that we have different styles to match the style of the template. You should do the same.

Create a template, use the label tool to draw a label, modify it to the line style and font/font size, etc... that you want. Then sample it, and draw another label to confirm that the label tool is set to the style you want. Delete labels, and save your template. When you use this template, your label style should come through.

You'll see this if you unzip your template, then look at styleManager.xml. The defaults for each tool (text, linear dimension, label tool) and default document styles are set here.

b
LayOut Crime Scene Forensics Dept.

Well, it doesn't necessarily seem to be so obvious as it doesn't work with thumbnails so once someone tries with them, won't necessarily experiment with the list view.

@jsteacy said:

hybrid

This is a bug that you can't do anything about, other than change the
camera slightly like you have been doing. What version are you using?
You can submit a bug and make sure to send in the example that shows
the problem.

hello,
there's "dim_angle.rb", but it's not beautyful

dim_angle.rb

I answered (1) - cut & paste. (2) PDF embedding "just works" on Mac, not available without ghostscript on PC.

b

I find printing directly from layout to be a real problem, it never gets it right. I can only imagine that the sheer size of my layout files are way too much for my printers. I've had up to 50 meg files and I just don't have the memory in the printer to handle that.

I always export to pdf then print but even then, there are some problems which, thankfully can usually be solved. My models are always in hybrid mode which tends to make huge pdfs, like 50+ megs big ( which could explain why the printer can't handle that) BUT to fix this, inside adobe acrobat you can reduce the file size which reduces the pdf so much it boggles my mind. I've had a file go from 74 megs to 5 megs. I don't know what it's doing but it works and I don't lose quality of the file.

BUT the problem is that sometimes after all of that the print still doesn't work, it prints one of the images and no lines or 4 out of 5 pages are fine and one is messed up even though the pdf looks fine. I traced those types of problems to missing reference files or ones that need updates, so see if your references are correct. Other than that I'm not sure.

jsteacy

Well the weird thing is that if I make some changes to the model, save it then update the model in layout sometimes it renders it properly without me ever touching the style settings or the material itself. Which happened to be the case for this model I was working on which magically worked after some revisions to the model. I don't get it, it seems to be a bug.

Charlie, I noticed that in the left side of the images you posted the transparency of the two pieces of wood are different in the images and I believe worked properly in the first image (Faster) but not in the second (medium). Also I just noticed, at what appears to be a bottom rail of a railing, when it hits that column it is rendered really transparent in the third image which does not seem proper to me (and is a lot more than the first image). I could be wrong though. There is definitely something wrong with looking through 2 transparent materials.

jsteacy

@jorgensen said:

hi jhauswirth

I created the scenes inside SU.

Select the model in LayOut and look in the SU dialog's Styles'
tab. Do you see a style called "Modified Active Style" or a
style with (Modified) in front of it?
(probably the one that's selected)

Thanks Gaieus.
That should help me a lot

Hi Gaieus

wow, that was simple. Sorry I missed it

You might be seeing the effect of the 'show section planes' switch being global. I'm referring to the toolbar button that (on my mac) looks like a yellow easel for some reason. If you turn on visible section planes and change scenes then they will be visible in the new scene, a bit like the 'show hidden geometry' menu option.

There is a switch in the style edit window for section planes as well as section cuts. If you turn on section planes and update your style and switch to a scene with a different style you should notice the section planes disappearing and reappearing when you swap back again.

So I think you might need to
a) create a new style with the section planes turned on
b) set your 'map scene' to use that style
c) make sure your other scenes don't have section planes turned on in their style

So far as I can tell most of the default styles actually have the section plane turned on already so most likely you'll have to create on with it turned off and use that for the non-map scenes. Depends on what styles you have loaded I guess.

Oh, I should point out that on Mac, it's not importing PDF's as vector; for that, you'll need Illustrator, output to dxf, into SketchUp, etc...

Hi Stan,

Not a Word doc but an rtf text file. You can insert these files and they are indeed preserved as such inside the *.layout file (if you rename it *.zip, you will find the rtf files inside)

Thats been a great help, it feels about 3 x faster and does not crash.

Thanks

Ah yes, Barry, that's what Sandra told me, too, as a workaround for the current situation (I didn't dare to come back with it here though...) 😉