Hidden Elements

3dme

Hi All,

I'm brand new to this forum and relatively new to sketchup. I think I may have jumped the gun a little bit in my rush to use scenes.. My problem is this:

In short: I can't "unhide all".

In detail:

I've created a model in which I've grouped elements together so that they can be hidden and unhidden quickly. Nothing strange about. As the model got more complexed I've grouped groups together and created scenes in which groups are hidden, thinking that if I hit "unhide all" everything will become, well, unhidden. This doesn't seem to be the case. I've created 7 scene over the building process and managed to hide only parts of groups in every scene, which now can not be unhidden. Yet, I know they're there because I see them when I view hidden geometry. I managed to claw back bits of my model by using hidden geometry > Edit Group > Unhide all. But it's becoming a long laborious process.

Does this make sense to anybody? Is this a common mistake? I there an "Unhide absolutely everything" option? Am I using scenes incorrectly? Can anybody help?

Many, many, many thanks.

TIG

You would probably be better off using some Layers, that are then set as on/off in different Scenes to hide certain Groups that are given them.
That is the Layers primary function.
As you have found Hiding stuff can get things into a terrible tangle.
It's OK to temporarily hide something or even permanently hide it [e.g. as a seam between two parts that are separate Groups or Instances] but trying to use it within Groups and Scenes to control visibility is usually too convoluted - as you've found out...
If you want to globally 'unhide' everything then you can type [or copy/paste + <enter>] some code into the Ruby Console [which is opened from the Window Menu].
To unhide everything in the Model [note that this does not affect things inside Definitions] use:

Sketchup.active_model.entities.to_a.each{|e|e.hidden=false}

To unhide everything inside every Group or Component-Definition use [note that this affects things inside every group or component but not things placed in the Model itself]:

Sketchup.active_model.definitions.to_a.each{|defn|defn.entities.to_a.each{|e|e.hidden=false}}

Hope this helps

3dme

Thanks Tig,

I'm doing a preview render right now so I'll let it do it's thing. Will let you know how I get on.

Olly.

3dme

Thanks again TIG,

That helped an awful lot. Will have to be less sloppy from now on.

Phew!!