Vanishing Sections in Layout

orchard collie · 3 Jan 2010, 09:57

Hi All
I'm a nearly retired Architectural Drafting Teacher here in Darwin Australia who is having a real problem with generating Section views in Layout. I can create them OK in SketchUp (most of the time)
Save the file and open my Layout File and the update goes OK. Select Last Saved SketchUp View option and the Section View I want appears but at a scale of 1:184. I need it at 1:200 so i select the rescale option and voila = I get an elevation view. This happens regardless of whether Preserve Scale on resize is on or off. I've been wrestling with this annoyance for over a day now, and am feeling really stupid. A Google search hasn't really given me a clear and easy routine for getting this right. Has anyone got a really straightforward way of dealing with this issue. I can't believe that Layout doesn't handle Sections easily as every Architect and Interior Designer needs them all the time, so it must be me getting senile and missing the obvious.
Any help would be much appreciated here Down Under
Cheers Orch

Gaieus · 3 Jan 2010, 11:56

Hi Orch,

Try to save scenes in SU with your elevation then with your section views. Make sure to update your style when creating/updating your scene (or save a new style when doing so).

Then in LO, select these scenes from where you selected the "last saved SU view" and it should work.

The key here should be the style change dialog when dealing with scenes. Make sure that in your Preferences (this is under Sketchup menu on OS I believe) > General, the "Warn of style changes..." box is checked so that when you create/update a scene, SU will let you know when to apply a new style in the model.

orchard collie · 3 Jan 2010, 12:54

Hi Gaieus
Thanks for your reply.
I must confess I'm still mystified as to why Layout switches from a section to an elevation view when I just change the scale of the view. The Style hasn't changed between the two views so I'm still not sure how to get the Section view back again within Layout.
Regards Orch

Gaieus · 3 Jan 2010, 14:15

If it is not a too big file, could you upload it as an attachment here?
Or reproduce it in a smaller scale?

mavie · 3 Jan 2010, 20:03

Coincidentally, I just opened the Layout section of this forum to search for help with the exact same dilemma as Orchard Collie. Same operating system, same problem--which, I should add, I haven't had in the past. I am a true lover of Layout, but must confess, that pretty habitually, in the process of demonstrating to my colleagues just how absolutely cool it is workflow-wise, inevitably, I hit a snag with a system bug or crash, setting my former speed back to a snail's pace as I work to figure out the current problem. I am about to convert the naysayers, and then wham--lose them to a ridiculous and unexpected glitch.
My latest challenge, after setting up my scenes and sections with their corresponding section layers properly (as I have done in the past), is that suddenly I can't get a proper section to scale in Layout without its reverting to an elevation. Is it perhaps, as Gaieus has mentioned, because I didn't first have elevation scenes created of the sections I cut and created scenes for? I'm trying to remember former workflows where this section problem didn't occur.
I'm so mystified and my colleagues are so thinking Layout is a tad lame...which I am always vehemently disagreeing with. I take them so quickly to a place where they are all going, "Wow", only to hit a wall right at the climax with an infuriating snag.
And btw, might the snow leopard OS which I recently upgraded to, have anything to do with this?

orchard collie · 3 Jan 2010, 22:56

Hi Gaieus and Mavie.
The file is currently 19.5 meg (is that anything to do with it perhaps?) so its not really uploadable. I have just tried it on the Windows side of my Mac and it does the same thing. Section disappears to be replaced by elevation view as soon as I turned "Keep Scale on Resize" OFF.
Still a mystery.
Cheers Orch

Charlie__V · 4 Jan 2010, 03:02

I hesitate to reply as I cannot re-create the described. [using LO..V7.current]

But.....I do recall a thread where placing a section cut...... on a scene specific layer.....will resolve this annoyance.

Best,
C

Afterthought......Are you using the latest L.O. version?

jhauswirth · 4 Jan 2010, 17:29

Open the styles dialog in SU and see if your style is modified.
If the style is modified in SU, it probably won't render that same in LO.
I think 98% of the problems in LO, where "My LO view doesn't match SU's view",
are caused by a "modified active style".

mavie · 8 Jan 2010, 22:14

Jhauswirth,
Thank you very much for your reply to my dilemma--sorry I didn't respond sooner-I was ensnared in a deadline, etc. Okay. I believe your answer is the one true answer. I just want to know when it is that I set myself up for this problem; is it when I am in SU and suddenly decide to change from my normal working style (my own saved one) into, say, the same style but with a white background (also a style that I have saved as my own) and then create a scene for a section with it and then take that section/scene into my existing LO file and try to scale it whereas it reverts to an elevation?? (If you followed that, congrats.) Or is it when you change a scene's style within LO? Or both?
I also remember I ran into the same revert problem when I tried to use the Section-CutFace ruby script, which doesn't seem to work properly in LO at all.( I wish-hope I'm wrong because it's a great script...)
Anyway, your enlightenment is much appreciated.
Mavie

Gaieus · 8 Jan 2010, 22:32

Hi Mavie,

In SU, go to your preferences > General and make sure that "Warn of style changes when creating scenes" is checked. Now when you change something that would otherwise affect your style (say turn section planes off or something), it will pop up and make sure you make the good decision (update, create new style etc.).

You have to have scenes updated in SU and the model saved like this.

Now in LO, select any ofyour scenes with these settings saved in their styles. Find a file attached where there are two pages in LO - according top two scenes in SU - and one with a section cut and a section cut face but with hidden section plane.

Untitled.layout

orchard collie · 7 Feb 2010, 06:11

Hi Gaieus and Mavie
I think I have tracked down what the problem is, and it's pilot error.
The whole issue revolves around active section planes as far as I can see.
Unless the correct section plane is set to Active before you save a scene in SKU, Layout will revert to whatever section plane is currently active at the time you redraw the scene within layout. Because Section Planes are hidden most of the time its very easy to not know which section plane is the current one, so I now turn Section Planes on and confirm the one I want is blue before turning them off again and creating or updating the scene. Since I implemented this double check I haven't had the problem recur. Touch Wood.
Cheers Orch

Gaieus · 7 Feb 2010, 10:42

Also, create scenes in SU where those section planes are set to active. Make sure to update those scenes like this (or create them when everything is set already). LO can easily access these scenes but you have little control over changing anything in LO if they are not saved as such.

mavie · 10 Feb 2010, 15:49

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...)