Can't paste or draw on new layer!
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My model is getting too complex for my processor... I'm trying to use Layers to get around that and to organize things as well. Everything was going fine, but now I have about 8 layers, and when I make a new layer I am unable to draw, paste or see what I draw/paste in the new Layer. When I paste something into the layer or drag a component into it, I see a white shape appear hilighted. But when I deselect it, it disappears and no way of viewing will reveal it again. Gone! Drawing gives the same result. This means that I am forced to add new objects to my existing layers which prevents my organization and means that my old layers are getting so heavy I have trouble working.
Any advice greatly appreciated!
-SB
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Do you have that layer turned off? You need to open the Layers dialog box (Window>Layers)and check the visible" box for each layer. Then turn them off when you want them to be invisible. Hope that helps,
Chris
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Hi Sake_Boy, hi folks.
Don't forget that with SU, layers are used to control the visibility of objects.
To organise your model, use groups and components to separate geometries.
Just ideas.
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Yes, the layer(s) in question are turned on and are the current layer when I paste or draw into them. The problem persists whether we're talking about groups, components, or raw shapes.
SB
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Is it just that models or all of them?
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Go ahead and upload the file here. That pretty much always helps solve the problem,
Chris
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Sure. Here is the file, a house made of pallets. Ignore the style and turn off the section plane, that's just a recent change and does not affect this issue.
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Sake,
Seems to be a lag when drawing any linework on the original drawing. At 3.88 MB it's not that large of a file considering. I go up to 20 MB sometimes and I have a P4 CPU.
Try this which I just tested. It's rather simple.
Open a new drawing fresh. Then, insert this drawing into the new drawing a component and explode.
Should clear things up quite a bit. Works on my end.
Don't forget to purge the new drawing.
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That is quite the model. I had to get a style that had no extensions, not jitters, no profiles turned on. That helped it significantly. Once I switched tot he new style, it worked much better. Not great, but a bit better. I could rotate and walk through it. I guess that might help your layer issue too. Cool model though. Those palettes are pretty high detail. Any reason for that? Is this going to be rendered? You could lower the detail a little bit - I guess just in the curves. But it mgiht help.
Chris
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While experimenting with that skp it made my computer beep. CPU warning followed by a Bug Splat.
However, I had another idea which is to reduce the amount of faces. At the pallete bases you might want to consider replacing the curve with a chamfered edge (or bevel). It has about 6 faces which can be reduced to a single plane of the chamfer. It'll help for sure.
Great concept and execution on the palette idea.
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Thanks for the responses.
As I mentioned, just ignore the style. That's just how it was last saved. I never try to work with a model with anything but a bare-bones default style.
Earlier, I tried making a new document and pasting things in one at a time with new layers... this did not solve the issue.
I agree that there can be one or two modest simplifications to the pallet, and that that will reduce the number of points in my model overall, but that would be a performance boost rather than a help with my mysterious "ghost" objects that are pasted in with no lines or faces, only a bounding box. While there are perhaps a thousand copies of this shape, the shape itself is almost as optimized as it can be.
In a possibly related issue, I have been able to use the "Info" palette's drop-down menu to assign selected objects to a new layer. This is very handy and has helped my workflow. But although objects seem most of the time to follow instructions, turning on and off appropriately when I turn visibility on and off for the various layers they are assigned to, there is another issue. When I use the Layer palette's "Color by Layer" option, not all of the objects are correctly colored according to the layer they are actually on. For example, I have layers that seem to have multiple colors of objects on the same layer--some objects are "borrowing" colors from other layers. (There is no manually-applied color interfering.)
I'm uploading the file again for anyone who's interested.
Any further thoughts?
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its not my normal type of model and workflow. What are you pasting in? and where is it coming from? I rarely paste anything.
Chris
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I was only using cut/paste-in-place as way to move objects from one layer to another. I can now do this with the Info palette, but I still can't reliably see the correct Layer colors using Color by Layer. Also some objects seem "stuck" to a layer other than the one they are moved into.
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I suspect you are suffering from a logic error.
In most CAD programs, Layer connotes an actual layer that you could paste into.
This is not the case in SU, SU treats layers more like Classes or other instruments that are utilized to regulate visibility. Like those other programs the "layer" in SU is assigned to the object not the object to the layer.
As a result of this, you are pasting in an object that already has a layer assignment but you are under the belief that pasting the object into the layer will cause the object to acquire the currently chosen layer. This isn't the case given the way SU uses layers.
What you are seeing is an artifact of the fact that the pasted in object is indeed the currently selected object but its "layer" is invisible, so what you see is a selected, invisible object that completely disappears when it is deselected.
Turning on the layer its part of will bring it back.
I am sure both the file and the program are working properly.
Hope this helps.
Karl
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Karl, thanks for some helpful information. So, I should use the Info Palette's layer assignment function to move an object onto a different layer? And how to explain several objects being turned on and off when the layer is turned on and off, yet those objects have different colors when using Color by Layer?
Thanks,
SB
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Yes, imagine a nested component, called "Frame" on layer 1, the sub-components "Long side" and "Short side" are also on layer 1.
If you move the "Frame" component to layer 2 and turn off layer 1 it disappears. Why? Because the two subcomponents are on layer 1 and you just turned it off. Turn off layer 2 and the frame disappears as well. Why? Well you just turn off layer 2 and the frame is on that layer.
This makes using layers and nested components a real PITA, so I stopped doing it... using layers that is.
Paste in the component with the original layer turned on and the target layer turned off. Now using the layers toolbar move it to the target layer. If it disappears you know that you are on the right track.
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@sake_boy said:
So, I should use the Info Palette's layer assignment function to move an object onto a different layer? And how to explain several objects being turned on and off when the layer is turned on and off, yet those objects have different colors when using Color by Layer?
Yes you should use the Object Info palette to change the visibility characteristics of an object. Try not to think of it as a place like other CAD programs: a layer(s) of onion skin layered upon the lower layer(s), in SU its about being able to see it or not. Layers came from the past when the model was 2D and you were showing information that was at another height, orientation or was info that is in the same "plane" but you may wish to hide for clarities sake. This last feature concept is the way that SU uses the concept of Layers, because SU is a dynamic 3D environment there is no single view that this feature works in so it works in all of them and as a result confuses the heck out of new users.
The other complication that comes up is that sub groups can have different layer information than the top level grouping or component. Which is also a strength as you can use this feature to ease your work flow.
Hope that helps.
Karl
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Hi Sake_boy, hi folks.
I think you have missed my post which is the third in this thread.
I explained in it what layers are for in SU and what to do to separate geometries.
I suggest that you go back and read it.
Just ideas.
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