Organizing Sketchup Components & Layers

[elvisperez]

Hi, i'm fairly new to Sketchup, but have a pretty good understanding about the program.
Unlike other drafting/modeling programs their isn't a all-in-one layers manager, at least i dont believe so. My question is how do you organize your model, from components to layers? I find it difficult to have the hide/unhide in the components manager (outliner) and the visibility (layers) and keep them all straight. If anyone has suggestions to keeping my future models in order let me know! thanks.
elvis

[remus]

Well it sounds like youve found both the things you need to organise your model already, the outliner (for groups/components) and the layer manager (window->layers.)

My first tip would be to make sure you never draw ungrouped geometry on anything other than layer0, this is quite important for keeping all your geometry organised as it makes moving tihngs between layers (after youve grouped it) much easier.

Tip 2 is to remeber that you can drag and drop things within the outliner, this can greatly speed up moving things about within your model.

And finally, tip 3 is to think about what your doing all the time. Often doing a bit of thinking about how your going to organise your model can prove very beneficial when you start modelling.

Hope thats helpful.

p.s. dont forget to name everything, its helpful to be able to find stuff.

[troyhome]

This is very good advise- it will save you from troubles down the road in your work flow if you follow it. I find that in the end it's not at all as difficult to actually keep organized as you might thing at first. If you keep even simple things organized it is becomes habit; and since large SU models are only a bunch of small models put together, you should never have trouble if start out with good habits.