M4 Layout File Issues?
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Updated to the M4 release over the weekend - supposedly mainly just the Trimble rebranding.
But now Layout won't save changes for some reason. I make changes to a Layout file, save it, and the next time I go back in the file is back to where it was before the changes. The file info shows that it was last saved at the date and time I last saved it, but none of the changes get saved.
Have tried saving to a different file name with the same results.
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You'd be better going direct to SketchUp...
I'm not aware of any issues like this....
Maybe other Mods know more... -
I've been using LayOut almost every day on both Mac and PC and haven't had any problem with saving changes to files.
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For reference, using the Mac version on OSX.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
I'll try contacting SketchUp / Trimble directly. This is driving me nuts...
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I'll be interested to hear what they say.
I'm using 10.6.8 as well on my Mac.
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Well, haven't heard anything from SketchUp. Going through the Help Menu > Contact Us > Get Pro Technical Support - still takes you to the Google pages and a form to fill out.
But I'm - tentatively - working again.
Tracked things down to one Page of my Layout file that I was having particular trouble with. Two tables and two pieces of text containing several notes for specifications. The two tables were fine as was the one piece of text. The other piece of text was the one I was having an issue with. There was still a text element, but it was completely blank. Further, the layer that the text was supposed to be on couldn't be selected (along with another unused layer on this Page). The tables and text were all pushed to another layer. I should be thankful that they weren't stuck on a layer I couldn't select.
I started by creating a new page - all of the layers worked on the new page. So I copied and pasted the two tables and the "good" text off of the "troublesome" page onto the new page and got them on the proper layer. I had the missing text in an RTF file because it is easier to edit the text on a word processor than in Layout. So I created a new text element and pasted in the text from my RTF file. Text is fine. Move back and forth between pages. No problem. Everything is good. Delete "troublesome" page and check everything again. Still all good.
Close file. Open file back up. Text is gone - just the empty text element. Fortunately, the layers weren't screwed up this time.
So the next try was converting the RTF file to a plain TXT file in case there was some errant formatting causing problems. Tried the same steps. Created a new text element and pasted in the text from my TXT file. Text is fine. Move back and forth between pages. No problem. Everything is good.
Close file. Open file back up. Text is gone - just the empty text element.
Tried a few different variations of this. Pasted in the first paragraph. That worked. Pasted in a few paragraphs. That didn't work. Went back through the text looking for any character that might be a problem. Tried things a few more times. Finally took the text into an HTML editor because it would allow me to strip any possible code away. That finally worked. Pasted the text in, saved it, and it was still there when I reopened it.
From there I was able to reformat the text in Layout - font, tabs, underlining, etc. Saved again. Still there when I went back.
I'm still not completely out of the woods, though. One unused layer on that page is not able to be selected - I could select it when I first created this new page. Not sure when it became un-selectable. At some point in my many trials of trying to get the text to work. If you select it, it highlights but the pencil icon doesn't move to it. So you cannot put anything on that one layer on that one page. The layer is able to be selected on every other page.
Also, the Cover Page layer will not display on that one page whether it is visible or not. Curiously, it will display on every other page - except that it does not display in the proper location on any page other than the cover page. The cover page has a horizontal titleblock across the bottom of the page on this layer. Every other page has a vertical titleblock down the right side on another layer. If I turn the cover page titleblock on for any other page, it displays across the middle of the page rather than at the bottom like it does on the actual cover page.
At this point I'm just happy that I can work with my file again. The curiosities are a bit of a concern only because it shows things still aren't functioning properly. But I'll have to see if starting a new Layout file from scratch with the next project still has issues or if it is just a "legacy file" thing. I'm not going to be particularly happy if all of my Layout files from past projects have issues...
Needless to say, it has been a bit of a stressful day trying to work this out today...
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I did receive a reply from SU basically stating that something went wrong with the M4 installation and that I should uninstall, clean preferences, and then reinstall. They've given the following instructions for doing so (Mac OS):
Uninstall SketchUp Pro 8
Quit SketchUp. (If you have more than one instance of SketchUp open, make sure you quit all instances of SketchUp.)
Open a Finder window.
Delete the SketchUp folder from the main library:
In the left pane of the Finder, click Macintosh HD.
In the right pane, click Library, and then Application Support.
In the Application Support folder, find the SketchUp # folder, and then drag it to the trash.
Delete the SketchUp folder from your user library:
In the left pane of the Finder, click your user name, then click Library* in the right pane.
*If you're using Mac OS X Lion, hold down the Option (Alt) button on your keyboard, click Go in the menubar, then select the Library option in the drop-down list.
Open the Application Support folder.
In the Application Support folder, find the SketchUp # folder, and then drag it to the trash.
Delete the SketchUp application:
In the left pane of the Finder, click Applications.
In the right pane, find SketchUp # folder, and then drag it to the trash.
Delete the plist file:
In the left pane of the Finder, click your user name.
In the right pane, click Library, and then Preferences.
In the Preferences folder, drag any of the following files, if present, to the trash:
com.atlast.sketchup.plist
com.google.sketchuppro.plist
com.google.sketchupfree.plist
com.google.sketchuppro7.plist
com.google.sketchupfree7.plist
com.google.sketchuppro8.plist
com.google.sketchupfree8.plist
com.google.LayOut.plist
com.google.style_builder.plist
Empty the trash.After uninstalling, we suggest repairing disk permissions:
Restart your computer.
Open a Finder window.
Click Applications.
Click Utilities.
Double-click Disk Utility.
Select your hard drive.
Select the First Aid tab.
Click Repair Disk Permissions.
After the permissions are repaired, exit Disk Utility.
Please repeat steps "a" through "i" once more.Reinstall SketchUp:
Log in to your computer with a user account that has administrative privileges.
Please visit our SketchUp Pro page to download the SketchUp Pro 8 install file.
When the download completes, double-click on the install file and follow the on-screen instructions.I'm going to see what I can do this weekend. With plugins, settings, and such, I want to go through and think about this carefully so as not to inadvertently lose anything.
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Due to workflow, I waited until this weekend to go through the whole process of uninstalling and reinstalling SketchUp and Layout. With a clean install - and before adding any plug-ins or add-ons to the mix - I tried opening one of the Layout files that I had previously had issues with.
Nope...
Exact same problems as before...
Crap...
Another email in to SketchUp to see what to do next. I'm not sure if the file got corrupted by the previous installation of Layout? Or if it is some other problem.
SketchUp has the ability to check a file for errors and to fix them. I see that come up every now and then. I'm unaware as to whether Layout has a similar feature or if there is a way to check whether the file is corrupted.
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So out of curiosity, would you send me one of your LayOut files? I will try to open it here and see if I have any problems. I promise I won't share it with anyone.
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Unfortunately, the ones I'm having issues with are all on current projects. Wish I had something on a past project or sample I could send, but I haven't been able to recreate the problem in a new file - partially because I haven't tried to recreate a 15-page Layout file with a dozen SketchUp model files and such just for testing purposes...
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I'm sorry. I thought I had posted another followup to this thread.
I was able to send a reduced file in to SketchUp to see if they could find out what was going on. I sent in three pages of the file to illustrate the issues that I was having with it.
They replied, saying that the file itself was corrupted. Apparently they are aware of this issue, but it does not happen frequently so they are having some difficulty finding a fix for it. They did give me some suggestions on a workaround involving changing the layer state from "on every page" and back to "on single page." Unfortunately, this wouldn't work for me as I had several pages with different information on each page on that layer - using that workaround would have consolidated all of the information from each page and put it on every page.
However, I was able to duplicate the page that I was experiencing problems with, delete the original page, and then rename the new page back to the original name. That seemed to solve the problem, although I had tried that before and it did not work.
I also have no idea if the corruption was prior to the update to M4 and M4 just brought it out, or if M4 was somehow responsible for the corruption.
In any case, I was able to salvage my file and continue working on it.
When I had uninstalled SketchUp per their instructions, instead of deleting the files I saved a copy of everything - just in case. I've actually reinstalled the old files rather than having to go through all the setup procedures for my plugins and other add-ons. I'm glad I did so. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in operation between the reinstallation and the initial update to M4 now that the corrupt file is fixed.
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I'm having the same issue for a while now.
It's been a couple of months,i haven't been using layout too much, I didn't bother.Now that I need it, it's irritating.
Nothing SAVES right.
Every single file I save ends up corrupted, i don't even have to close, if i save it as another name, and open it, it's all white squares.
If i save it as a template, it's all white squares too.I tried the "repair" tool. Still saves wrong.
I uninstalled the whole thing and installed it over again. Still saves wrong.And it's EVERY file, if i start from scratch, still saves the same way.
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Any chance you'd like to share things like your operating system and which version of LO you are using? Maybe post one of your corrupted LO files?
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Damn, i hadn't checked back here all this time.
My Layout has been open for two days now since i'm working on something, and if i close it, it will get messed up.
I'm running Windows 7, my layout version i believe is the latest, since i haven't got any update messages lately. (Is there a way of seeing update versions?)
i'll be posting a file as soon as i figure out how to do it. -
ok, this is it:
http://www.filedropper.com/messedupfile
mind you, it's not a complex file at all, this happens to everything.
Also, when i see the thumbnail before opening it, it shows as it was.Also, do you know if there's any other software that allows me to copy+paste the information that's on the Layout pages? Because that's would be so nice.
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Hi Piper-
It sounds like you're running into a problem that LayOut 3 has on computers where the decimal separator character is set to a comma instead of a period. The bug is that when LayOut saves a file, it starts using commas instead of periods, and then gets confused when it tries to read the file back in. This will manifest itself as text boxes and model views that collapse into a single line (among other problems).
For example, from the file you posted, I see this line in the xml:
<e:rectangleBase height="1,169292" width="0,8267701" x="2,755906" y="5,129921">
but for LayOut to work properly it should be this instead:
<e:rectangleBase height="1.169292" width="0.8267701" x="2.755906" y="5.129921">There is some good news, though! The workaround for LayOut 3 is to go into Windows Control Panel and change your "decimal separator" character to be a period. Also, we believe that this bug has been fixed in LayOut 2013 although it's still a bit early to know for sure.
Thanks,
Marc -
Holy Crap, I think that worked: opened a new file, put a bunch of squares, saved, closed, opened it. And it opened just as it was.
I just have to try with bigger files now, but i think that did solved it. Is there any way of fixing already saved files? Or just opening them? Can i change the codes? -
I'm glad that worked! Unfortunately we don't have a good way to fix files that already have this problem. The trick is that some of the commas in the LayOut file are necessary, so it's not as easy as just replacing all commas with periods. Do you have a significant number of files in this state?
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pretty much everything i worked on for the past four months.
I had already given up fixing it, and just used for simple stuff, that i could do in one sit, saved everything as a pdf file. There was no way of changing it after.
Sad thing is that i had a big one already halfway done, that was lost.
But thank you so much, Marc! -
If you're using the SU 2013 version then Mac must be updated to 10.7... and XP to SP3.
Have you done this?
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