Hello All

I re-visited this thread recently and would like to share what I have been doing in relation to hatches in Layout. This is very much experimentation but it may be of use to someone.

Start in Photoshop with a new file. After a few tries with different size layers in Photoshop I went with a 1400px by 1400px transparent base layer and drew lines to form the hatching using the Path tools. These I believe are vector elements. I had an idea that if, instead of drawing the hatch lines themselves, I could fill the negative spaces with wide lines and leave the hatch lines as transparent spaces. The image is saved as a PNG. I formed just two (hatch) lines in the image as this was near the maximum that the Path line tool can cover (1000px max width of Path line). I'm no expert in Photoshop (or SU/Layout for that matter) so my explanation is probably lacking in detail. However, it does seem to me that the Path tools give a better/crisper line result even when zoomed.

In Layout, the PNG can be loaded into the Pattern inspector tab. A solid fill is enabled in the Shape inspector and this is masked by the PNG. The colour of the shape fill is, therefore, visible through the transparency of the PNG. Thus the hatch can be any colour. The limitation with this method is the hatch lineweight is fixed by the PNG image although when zoomed the line does thicken.

Attached is a version 2015 Layout file with three hatch pattern PNGs plus a PDF of the same. These are used at different scale factors and fill colours.

Have a look and see what you think!

PS Did anyone catch the Sketchup April Fool on Youtube? Worth a look!

Hatch tests 02.layout

Hatch tests 02.pdf

@bramleyapple said:

Any news on this re bug fixing. I can't bring any of my models into Layout as they end up with black pixels around them. I'm on a Mac.

Not yet. So far Apple and the GPU makers haven't announced an update. The SketchUp and LayOut teams are still trying to come up with a work around solution but they haven't released anything yet.

This is a known issue and Trimble is working on it.

There are a couple of workarounds that can mitigate this somewhat. Keeping viewports square seems to help.

Check out these threads for more info:

http://forums.sketchup.com/t/bug-workaround-high-scale-viewports/26887

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=65251

Change the font in your LayOut document and export to PDF.

As Richard points out and as has been shown elsewhere, it's possible that the problem is due to licensing of the font you are using.

Found the solution:

I am using a second monitor on my MacBook. When I disconnect the monitor, the panels get scattered out of the monitor space and don't return after I reconnect.

Go to Mac system preferences -> monitors -> arrange and there you'll find a check bos "synchronize monitors". That brings back all panels in the monitor space.

Good Luck!

bump

LO2016 is irrelevant to me at this stage, so LO2017 and onwards would apply.

#pretty_please?

Good point on flipped or mirrored text. We have come to expect computers software to help with more mundane tasks, such as cleaning up text, not work against us.

@ben ritter said:

Had the same issue in Layout 2017, but that just seemed to happen from one day to the next. Fixed it simply, but not sure why it happened.

BTW, what are PID's?

PID's are Persistent ID's. They are what allow dimensions in LayOut to be connected to the model and update automatically if you change the dimension in SU. If you delete a line or a point that is being used by a dimension in LO, though, the ID goes away and the dimension loses its connection.

thanks pcmoor, that was exactly what I was looking to do.

I've been having the same issue. My work around has been to collapse all other open trays and then toggle the green resize button - top left.

I use clipping masks for all my sections, elevations and interior elevations. It works perfectly. You can assign the mask a line style as well which works great for interior elevations.

Mate to me that is making little sense!!!

Are all the pages exported from the same Layout file or later combined in Acrobat? You could try printing from the PDF to PDF this might fix it!

I'd also try exporting one page at a time and then check the properties of each to ensure they are correct sizing.

copy shortcuts.xml from this location:
C:\Users\mdurant\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp 2016\LayOut\shortcuts.xml
to this location:
C:\Users\mdurant\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp 2017\LayOut\shortcuts.xml

Do NOT copy the .plo files, that will crash LayOut.

I've not seen that sort of thing before. It has been a very long time since I used LO3, though. Perhaps you could upload the LayOut file and we can take a look to see if we can figure it out.

@utiler said:

Cheers for the overview, Rich. Might have to look at what InDesign can do for my work. So many bloody programs from renderers, image editors, work processors... so days I just want to pick up a pen!

Mate, you can then imagine things this end, doing a LOT of marketing, print, website stuff on top of that! My mind these days seems in total overload. But truthfully Indesign took a lot of time away from all that as SO much can be done so easily.

@marcdurant said:

Among other minutia, looks like the library we're using to import .XLS files doesn't properly handle some aspects of locked cells. Thanks for your help identifying the issue, and keep an eye out for maintenance releases.

-m

Hi Marc,

When will we be able to reference a password locked Excel file into Layout? I tried again after the SU2017proM2 release but no luck...

or someone can write a smart routine/plugin/extension to be used in LO, seeing that the LO SDK is available (LO is written in C++, correct?)

Not that I know of but making your own template isn't difficult or time consuming.

Hey Jason-

I just downloaded your .zip archive and successfully recreated a LayOut file from it. I didn't need to delete any pages, and I was able to open and view all of the pages in the recreated document.

You are correct that a LayOut file is just a .zip archive of all of the .xml files.

I will PM you a link to my fixed version of the file on DropBox.

-m