Scenes, Layers, Outliner Question

[redinhawaii]

I know this can be done I am just not doing something right.
I create a "scene", in this case a plan view of the roof framing, I save the scene.
I create another "scene" in this case, the roof (so the roofing covers the framing).
I make these choices in the "properties to update" dialog box, I check, camera location, hidden geometry, visible layers, active section planes, style and fog, shadow settings, axes location, then click update. I want to save that "scene" as is, in other words, the camera location, the hidden stuff in the "outliner" will remain hidden, the layers stay the same, hidden or visible and the fog/shadow and axes remain as saved.
I then "unhide the plywood layer" via the outliner, and create a new scene, save the same "properties" and should have two new scenes that I can go back to, i.e. to show a client how this will look scene by scene.
I did this, checked the scenes, thought everything was fine, saved it, then compressed it and sent it to my client and my engineer, spent four hours organizing the whole thing.
what i got was not the scenes as saved but the scenes as last modified i.e. the roof framing now had the plywood on it and I had lost the original scene.
what am I doing wrong?
what is the visability difference, as viewed by the "scenes" set up, of layers vs the outliner?
What I want is to be able to show the ortho "drawings" of a SU model, i.e. Plan Views, Elevations, Sections, so that my engineer and clients can just hit the scenes tabs and see the project like they would be seeing the drawings....
thanks
aloha
red
see attachment.

thanks aloha
red

I

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[Gaieus]

For this kind of job I generally use layers with scenes, not the Outliner. You may accidentally unhide things that should be hidden or when you turn on hidden geometry, they block your view or (eventually) you can make this kind of mistakes much easier than with layers.

I can't really say anything without the skippy.

[caddict]

i find the easiest way is to get the scene looking exactly as you want...the exact view you want, which layers are visible, whether shadows are on, etc...then right click the tab for that scene and choose update.

then that exact scene should be replicated every time you hit the tab for the scene.

[redinhawaii]

that is what I thought I did, I even saved the file, but for some reason, unknown to me, the scene gets corrupted, updated, modified, who knows what, it just is not what I know I had saved, and still am very uncertain as what I can do to in fact have a "saved scene".
thanks for the insights and experienced perspectives.
aloha
red