Scenes layers and styles
-
I know questions of scenes etc have been posted on a number of occasions before, I've ready many them. I've read books and explanations of scenes and creating scenes. But I still don't understand the how and why of many aspects of scenes. Perhaps, with the forum's indulgence, once again from the top:
I'm putting together a presentation of a model of a custom home I've been working on for over a year (I'm also building the project at the same time). Ultimately, I want to make an animation of / for the presentation. I rotate / pan / zoom to a particular view of the model I want, turn off most of the layers (a couple hundred) I've created during the course of it all to get the exact view of a subset of the model I wish to present in "Scene 1". I continue on with rotate / pan / zoom to new views of the model, different layers being turned on for visibility as desired and creating new scenes from these new views - scene 2, 3, 4 etc.
For one particular scene, I've added an object, grouped it and put it on its own, new layer. Its simply something to illustrate a change made in the structural design to accommodate mechanical ductwork. For some reason, ALL of my scenes now include this new layer with the new object, without any input on my part (such as updating the scene to include the new, added layer). This is the exact opposite of what I would expect. If I were to draw a new object and place it on an existing layer which layer visibility was ON for a particular scene, I would expect this new object to be shown in the scene. But why would you want any and all new objects, placed on new layers, to be visible in all previously created scenes, unless you specifically updated the particular scene to include this new layer / object?
What am I misunderstanding here??
Thanks in advance for any enlightenment offered...
Bob
-
By default, new layers are created such that they are visible. The scenes you made previously don't contain any information to turn the new layers off. You need to tell SketchUp you don't want to see that layer in the other scenes by updating their attributes. There are some extensions that create layers that are, by default, turned off when created. You then need to turn those layers on to see them in scenes where that is desirable.
@unknownuser said:
This is the exact opposite of what I would expect. If I were to draw a new object and place it on an existing layer which layer visibility was ON for a particular scene, I would expect this new object to be shown in the scene. But why would you want any and all new objects, placed on new layers, to be visible in all previously created scenes, unless you specifically updated the particular scene to include this new layer / object?
I can think of a number of cases where I would want the new entities to be displayed in scenes I've already created.
-
I think this is point where SketchUp is lacking. You can reset every scene, or use an extension as Dave notes. I like the extension "JF Add Layer" that lets you set the layers' general visibility, which tends to be a faster method (for example NOT visible in existing scenes). "JF Add Layer" can be used to modify a layer's visibility anytime (not just when you add it).
-
Hello Dave
Thank you for the response, I figured you'd weigh in, you're always a very helpful fellow!
"The scenes you made previously don't contain any information to turn the new layers off."
I can't think of any other app I use that works in this manner. I would think that the default would be the exact opposite. Either that, or I don't understand correctly the use of scenes.
When I was early on in this model, I was finding issues with the structural elements (steel beams, retaining wall heights, embed plate conflicts) in relation to other assemblies in the project (mechanical ductwork runs, for instance). I would create a scene of a particular aspect of the model for later illustration to the structural engineer, number and make a note of it, so that when I was going to meet with the engineer in a week or two, I could quickly recall the particular scene(s) in order to discuss the specific issue(s). In the interim, I continued to draw, group or component and layer, to develop the model. After a week (or even a day!), my originally created scenes were so changed with added objects and layers as to be useless for the purpose of illustrating the problem for which they were originally created! I had to go through each and every one (20 - 30?) and change the visibility of many added layers to get back to the scene I had originally created! And I had to do this immediately before my meeting and not draw anything else until after the meeting! With all respect, I can think of no use for this behavior in SU.
I'll try out the plug in mentioned in the post below, to see if this does the trick. If I could ask another question, where would one go to suggest to Trimble the ability to modify this "default" behavior?
Thank you again, Dave!
Bob
-
"I think this is point where SketchUp is lacking."
Agreed! Thanks for the plug in recommendation.Bob
-
There's a features request forum here on SCF. You could start there.
FWIW, I prefer the behavior of adding layers as it is so if they make a change, I hope it is a user-selectable option. Of course I guess they say that's why they opened up the API to allow users to write plugins/extensions to add features.
I hope you find the plugin helpful.
Advertisement