HIDING AND UNHIDING WITH SCENES QUESTION
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Outliner is great for keeping track of components and groups but layer is even more flexible.
For example, say you model a room with furniture, flooring, lighting etc. All these are components easily hideen in outliner by right clicking and select hide.
But if you make layer for each collection of components then you can hide and unhide in less clicks
So you'd have a layer for....
Walls
Floor
Furniture
Lighting
All easily hidden by simply clicking the checkbox for invisible. This is much for streamlined than selecting numerous different furniture components and hiding/unhiding them.
Give it a go, i'd definitely highly recommend TIG's,Gaieus and Thom's advice as good workflow
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Layers let you organize the visibility of objects. Set up scenes with different visibilities.
The Outliner is still useful, it does not exclude or compete with layers, it complements. The layer let you navigate your model's hierarchy. It even has a nifty filter box that let you quickly find the objects you want. (Provided you named them appropriately.) -
thanks so much..I'll give it a try. I really appreciate your time in this...Keea
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Hi KEEA, hi folks.
And don't forget to update the scene, after you have changed the visibility setting of the layers (or any other setting).
Right click on a scene tab and choose "update".
Just ideas.
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Can someone tell me whether or not this used to work without putting the hidden components or groups on their own layers? I'm almost certain that it did.
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Ben, you can just use Hide but it's not a good practice. As TIG says, it is a sure way to drive yourself mad.
Use Layers for controlling visibility and follow Google's guidelines about using layers. Leave ALL geometry on Layer 0. Only make layer associations for components, groups, dimensions and text. I think you'll find it is much easier to work this way, too.
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I don't agree with using only layers for hiding objects in scenes - that thing drives me nuts in AutoCAD! In Rhino and SketchUP You can control the visibility of the objects per viewport/scenes - just select the object and choose Hide all unselected - as easy as that. If I have a furniture model and want to dimension every part I have to make a separate layer for each to show only one part per scene!
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@dedmin said:
I don't agree with using only layers for hiding objects in scenes - that thing drives me nuts in AutoCAD! In Rhino and SketchUP You can control the visibility of the objects per viewport/scenes - just select the object and choose Hide all unselected - as easy as that. If I have a furniture model and want to dimension every part I have to make a separate layer for each to show only one part per scene!
Sketchup has nothing to do with autocad. in order to control the visibility from scene to scene there is nothing like layers in sketchup.
when you have a complex model, moving from scene to scene with all the geometry on can be a real bitch, especially if you have trees, cars, etc.
I use a system that has been working very well for me since I watched Chris Fulmer's presentation video at the 2008 Basecamp:
- create a basic scene with just enough geometry for you to get oriented in the model. in this scene you check only the Visible Layers box.
- for each view of the model create two scenes: one that saves only the Camera Location and another that saves all the rest (particularly Visible Layers, Shadows and Styles) except Camera Location.
3.in general I name each pair of related scenes like this: Scene A POV (for point of view) and Scene A LYR (for layers) and keep them together so that I can find them easily.
navigation then goes like this:
after you have set up lots of views, whenever you wish to move to another view you first click on the basic scene tab (which shows just a few elements), then on the scene with the saved Camera Location (this is very fast), then on the scene with all the rest.this works great for saving and rendering views of a model.
another thing: when you have a lot of scenes set up the way described above, adding a new layer can be a nightmare, as it will be visible in all scenes. the trick is to use the plugin Add Hidden Layer to introduce a new layer. the new layer will be invisible in all scenes: it is up to you to turn it on for the scenes where you need it.
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Maybe that works for You, but I'm not architect and my way is serving me just fine. I see a lot of posts here too narrowed about using SketchUp for architecture - this is just one way, not the only one. So, we are all right
And in the last version of AutoCAD they implemented hiding objects individually - not only by using layers. -
Dedmin, this isn't an architecture-only thing. I don't use SketchUp for architecture as you know. I use Hide as a temporary way to get things out of my way but I use layers exclusively for hiding components for scenes. I find layers more logical for that than using Hide.
Another reason for using Layers comes in during editing. If you turn on Hidden Geometry under the View menu because you need to be able to see all the edges on the component you are editing, all the other stuff you've hidden will be in the way.
By just turning off the layers, there's a clear view.
You can work as you choose, of course. I've seen first hand the frustrations of SU users whose models are all confused because they've used Hide instead of layers for controlling visibility.
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Agreed - but if You read my post I argue that hiding objects via layers is not the only practical way. Actually I use a mix of both. I use layers for hiding dimensions and text, also for organizing parts by type - handles, hardware and etc., but for showing single part I hide them individually. Editing is done in the first "works" scene where all the geometry is visible and where all the dims and text from other scenes are hidden by layers. And there is a very useful plugin - "Hide in other scenes".
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it seems our friend dedmin is not here to be helped. he seems to think autocad and sketchup work the same way with respect to layers. I rest my case.
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The whole Outliner/Layers metaphor in SU is odd.
The Outliner actually works more like the Layers palette as found in apps like Photoshop. But otherwise works well.
The Layers palette just annoys me. Why no sub menu to see what each layer contains?
How can edges and their respective faces live on separate layers? That's just crazy.
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@sketchup_roolz said:
How can edges and their respective faces live on separate layers? That's just crazy.
If you heed Google's directions for using Layers, faces and edges are supposed to be on the same layer, Layer 0. It's only components and groups that get other layer associations.
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@dave r said:
@sketchup_roolz said:
How can edges and their respective faces live on separate layers? That's just crazy.
If you heed Google's directions for using Layers, faces and edges are supposed to be on the same layer, Layer 0. It's only components and groups that get other layer associations.
True. But it's just not an intuitive tool, unline pretty much everything else in SU. -
I don't know that I would agree with you. I've been using the program for about 8 years and never had a problem with it. I kind of like the way it works.
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