Plugin required: paste on layer

davidlouis

Hi there.

I require a function 'paste on layer' which would help in transferring objects from one scene to another in which the original layer of the copied objects has been hidden.

I'm imagining that it would work similar to the 'put on layer' script and allow one to choose a destination layer for the paste function.

At the moment, if i copy the objects and switch scenes, on pasting they are hidden by default and once dropped, dissappear and can't be edited / accessed. Obviously i can turn on the layer in question temporarily but then the copy gets pasted on top of the orignal and makes selecting it for editing difficult.

Currently the only workaround i have is to copy...open a new file... paste in place.... change layers and copy back to the original file...

If theres a plugin out there that already does this please point me to it... altenatively if someone might be able to offer a script for this that could be shortcutted for keyboard use, that would be great.

All help is most appreciated.

Cheers
Dave

Didier Bur

Hi,

@unknownuser said:

transferring objects from one scene to another

I don't understand what you mean. Objects do not belong to scenes, but to a layer...

davidlouis

Hi Didier

Thanks for the response... let me attempt to explain further...

I have a scene (1) in which i have placed some grouped text entities (textA) in a specific position relative to a model and on layerA. In a subsequent scene (2), i need to have the same number of text entities in the same positions but with different text values (textB).

A simple set up to achieve this would be:

Scene 1
LayerA (containing textA) - on
LayerB (containing textB) - off

Scene 2
LayerA (containing textA) - off
LayerB (containing textB) - on

The problem arises in creating this scene / layer permutation...
textB references textA's position so if you copy textA from scene1 and paste in place in scene 2, layerA has been switched off and once a copy of textA has been dropped, the bounding box (with no contained items visible) appears but disappears the second you try and change its layer to layerB

If one goes back to scene1 where layerA is visible, you now have to the copied instance of textA on top of the original making selection a bit irritating...

As mentioned my current work around is to paste in place into a new file, change layers using the 'put on layer tool' and then copy and paste in place back into scene 2

I appreciate that a two scene scenario might not present the degree of frustration in doing this but in a multi scene file with scene specific text all over the model, it would help if one could choose a destination layer before the paste event rather than after.

I also thought it would be nice if this could be done in the same instance of sketchup... hence a simple paste on layer option would do the trick...

Does that provide any more clarity?
Thanks for your help.

Dave

Dave R

Perhaps you could try this. Select Text A and copy it. Then, while Text A is still selected, change its layer association to Layer B. Next do a Paste in Place. The pasted copy with still have the Layer A association and you'll have Layer B associated with Text B.

davidlouis

Dave R

Your workflow solution will work just fine i guess...

In the meantime I have been thinking about this and figure that there could still be use for a 'paste on layer' in much the same way that components are dropped on the 'current layer' when bringing them in from the component console...
That way we would get an object instance and layer change in one easy step. Could be good for bringing in CAD reference info into a model which is often multilayered....

Thanks for sharing the knowledge

Dave