Shadows on ground setting not updating in LO

[Aris]

Hi all,

This is a problem I keep on stumbling upon with layout and I'm guessing the answer must be simple but I still haven't figured it out:

sometimes, I change within SU the "shadows on ground" setting, but if I have already referenced a scene in LO, it does not update

Unfortunately, I see that this setting cannot be controlled within a style (just shadows on/off) and there is no control for it in LO.

does anybody have any idea for a fix?

[Dave R]

I was about to respond in your other thread and you've showed a perfect example of why I advised you not to do things that created "modified" scenes in LayOut like selecting a different style. You're breaking or damaging the link between the original scene in SketchUp and the viewport in LayOut. So then, when you turn on or otherwise adjust shadows for the scene in SU and updated the scene, the change still won't show in the viewport in LayOut. You've made the viewport so it no longer reflects the settings for things like shadows, sections, camera position, and other scene specific properties you might make in SketchUp.

There's no reason you have to modify scenes in LayOut. Leave the viewports so their associated scenes don't show as modified and changes you make to the scene in SketchUp will show in the viewport after you update the scene, save the changes and update the reference. This is the fix.

[Aris]

Yes! I realized that it might be related the moment I started writing...
but I checked it and even with a clean new file, and with LO referencing an unchanged scene(i.e.no new style was applied to it in LO) the problem remains: shadows on ground do not go away

I am starting to suspect this is a bug. The sun position updates but all the settings in shadow/display tab do not.

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[Dave R]

I doubt it's a bug. Upload your sample LO file that shows it. Let's see what you've got.

[Aris]

here they are, I uploaded both files (they're very small anyway)

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box.layout

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box.skp

[Dave R]

As I expected. No bug unless you want to consider your workflow as the bug.

You've modified the scene in LayOut as shown in the SketchUp Model panel so the viewport is no longer reflecting the scene properties.

Opening the SketchUp file shows that shadows are still turned on for the scene.

I turned the shadows off and updated the scene in SU. I saved the changes in the SU file...

...and then returned to LayOut. Once I reselected the scene in the SketchUp Model panel to restore the link between viewport and scene, shadows went away as expected.

In your example file, it appears you opened the viewport and zoomed in on the model to make it fill the page. This modified the scene. If you wanted the model to fill the page, you should have set the scene to do that.

You can also adjust the size of the model on the page without modifying the scene by dragging the edges of the viewport. If the viewport covers too large of an area, tick the box for Preserve Scale on Resize in the SketchUp Model panel and you can drag the edges of the viewport without affecting the size of the model on the page.

[Aris]

I see now!!!
I falsely assumed that whatever is not controlled by the styles is automatically passed on to layout.
Ok, I am starting to be convinced now of what you're saying
but still, it is a limitation of the software that forces you to set many scenes. It is not a bug but it is a limitation. If you could control those things from LO you wouldn't need to end up with tenths of scenes!

thanks for giving your time!

[Dave R]

You're quite welcome.

I've been using LayOut since the first version and I probably have two or three hundred LO projects under my belt. I learned very early to create scenes in SU for what I want to show in LayOut and to not modify the scenes. This prevents all sorts of headaches that other people complain of having. I might have a couple of dozen viewports in a LayOut project. Never is there any need to modify the scene in LO.

We'll get you on the straight and narrow and it'll all be fun and nothing unexpected will happen.

By the way, aren't you up kind of late? Or are you at it early?

Eat some excellent Greek food for me.

[Aris]

actually skipping one sleep, 'render night'
opportunity to brush up my Layout skills in the waiting times
P.S. I owe you one mousaka for your help

[Dave R]

@aris said:

actually skipping one sleep, 'render night'
opportunity to brush up my Layout skills in the waiting times

Very good. Efficient use of your time.

@aris said:

P.S. I owe you one mousaka for your help

Do you have 4 feet of snow on the ground and 64 KPH winds? If not, I'm headed for the airport.

Maybe one day I will get to Greece and eat mousaka with you.