Nested elements dont show up because of hidden layer

Dave R

"Raw geometry" refers to the primitives. It's the edges and faces inside the groups or components. I'm ignoring nested groups/components at the moment. All those edges and faces should remain on Layer 0. Only the groups and components get other layer associations. The easiest way to prevent the problems you've been having is to leave Layer 0 as the active layer. The program does allow you to make other layers active. Just don't do it.

harnstein

Ok, i understand.

I'll keep that in mind for the next project.

Thanks

-edit- Now, after this i by chance came across this thread about the same: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=42572&p=378567&hilit=explode+plugin#p378567

mac1

@harnstein said:

Good morning,

and first of all thanks for your effort
and second i want to apologize again if someone got me wrong..

English is not my mother language, maybe i missed the fine nuance of making jokes
at least in a written way. I'm a friendly and polite person.
None of the things i said, what made me smile or gratulating for 500 posts was ment to be unfriendly.
Just nice.

I am reading and listening, trying to understand what people tell me.
I stated that maybe i have misunderstood something in the answers.

Thank you for this link to google, i did read that before but honestly didn't put that much importance into the notes.
I did not know that layers only toggle visibility- or where the difference would be compared to other progs.
I'll find out later.

Finally, at the end of the quotation it's describing my problem.

It's not a big deal in SU but causes problems when being exported, but there are ways to overcome this as well.

I know that the sample file i proposed was carrying errors- it was on purpose to show the problem.

I tried to explain the problem as precise as possible, because i don't think attaching the project file would help.
Here it is with a problem discription included.
It's zipped because it's file size was 5,5 mb.
[attachment=0:5yatrbmj]120218 japan house.zip[/attachment:5yatrbmj]

Could you please tell me what you mean with "raw" geometry or what may be the rest ("fine" geometry)-
i interpreted raw geometry in the context of this thread as being lines and faces not grouped together.

I don't know how i can explain the problem any further right now, if there are still some questionmarks left
please tell me and i will try to explain.

Niko

PS: I can move all elements of layer 0 nested in groups which are on other layers by showing one layer after the other, selecting everything and use "putonlayer". It works and it's ok, as i said. Being able to show elements of a unhidden layer, even if they are nested within a group of a hidden layer, would be beneficial anyway.

PPS: Please don't mind the roof drainage or any other wrong parts of the model, they will not be visible at the end.

There is NO apology expected nor required. I took NO offense what so ever in any thing said.
We are here to try and help and because of that focus some times my comments can get a little terse but are always directed toward that goal so bear with us and always be free to ask questions!

pbacot

Hi Niko,

I tried to figure out what plugin you mentioned from this thread, but, nevertheless, if this were my file, I'd run this plugin now: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=7638

Then only groups or components will be on other layers, besides Layer0.

But yes, if a mother component/group is on a hidden layer, you won't be able to see the nested components/groups, regardless of their layer.

Peter

mac1

@harnstein said:

Ok, i understand.

I'll keep that in mind for the next project.

Thanks

-edit- Now, after this i by chance came across this thread about the same: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=42572&p=378567&hilit=explode+plugin#p378567

Nice looking model
While you are looking at things for the next project make sure you understand components. It appears ( have not checked in detail yet ) the model size is being driven by the large number of groups you use or different component definitions when not needed. I expected to see the use of large photo textures causing the large size but you only have the one small chain link fence. Components are more unique than groups because their definition are invariant under scale, move and rotate operations. This means you can use just 1 component for many places for beams , studs etc. You can scale, move, rotate them to each application. You can even use the component browser to replace one component for another if you decide to change the design. That replacement will be scaled and located in relation to the one being replaced. However if you context edit one thenallwill change unless you make that it unique. For most cases you should use components vs groups.
The plugin mention above is very good because it lets you put the primitve geometry back to layer 0 on a bulk basis.

mac1

HARNSTEIN:
As a check all materials where deleted in the model and size went from 5.3MB to 4.8MB. The obvious conclusion: It's driven by geometry. If you are concerned about size make max. use of components and try to keep ploy count of components to a min. by reducing the number of edges used in the model.

harnstein

@pbacot: Yes, i will definitely change my handling of elements / layers and therefor "Default Layer Geometry" comes in very handy.

@mac1: Thanks there are projects i could say these are my own design only, but to give credits honestly, this one is based on a design by Masaaki Okuno Architects (House in Wakakusa) as well as i've changed it in many parts. I did choose this one to test some visualisation methods- and i love japanese architecture! (But there are some really strange elements sometimes..)

I was as well surprised about the filesize, there are components used almost wherever possible.
There are no obsolete layers / elements, no big textures and libraries got purged...
It's probably just the amount of data / elements (many objects beveled etc..)
Not a big deal, this one's not going to be uploaded to the warehouse or sth. (at least because there are some parts not modeled as they will not be seen later). Maybe i'll post the results in the gallery then..

The bad thing about eg. scaling components is, that if you have some more complex geometry (eg. even beveled edges), it will shrink / expand everything in relation to the scaling center..

Dave R

@unknownuser said:

The bad thing about eg. scaling components is, that if you have some more complex geometry (eg. even beveled edges), it will shrink / expand everything in relation to the scaling center..

You shouldn't use Scale for resizing, at least in just one or two directions in cases like that. You should use the Move tool, instead.

harnstein

Yep, that's what i do.

Open component / group (for sure selected all components which are going to be different and made them unique first) select wanted edges and use the move tool.

I have a personal 3d model library where i take eg. a window from and use this technique to "scale" it into place. Works fine even if you have complex geometry like all this little details of an aluminium or steel window.

PS: A "select sub-group objects" plugin (to move all edges of eg. a window at once) would be great, but a little handcraft is alright as well.

Snow

"

But yes, if a mother component/group is on a hidden layer, you won't be able to see the nested components/groups, regardless of their layer.

"

I understand how layers are supposed to work in SU, and there are some advantages to the implementation. But I find this aspect can cause issues, even when following the good advice above. For example if I have a large project, organised into groups and components it is often needed to bring new elements of a cad import (raw geometry on layer 0) into groups / components to update them. It would be useful to be able to isolate (visually) the different parts of the cad import by a layer regardless of the groups i've put them into but the system seems to prevent this. Is there a script to ignore nesting and show visibility just by selected layer or does the way SU separates groups make this undoable? Thanks for the help.