I'm with Mike. The existing arrangement can quickly mess up any layer management. I now only have three layers 1. Paper, 2. Viewports, 3. Notes. I used to have a similar layer setup to Mike but until we can pre-assign layers (& properties) to entities I found I was wasting too much time moving entities onto their "correct" layer. I still have fun making sure my viewports & notes remain separate.

The door looks a little boring, try a gothic arched entrance with a light above...

Sometimes a simple mask is all you need. Create a rectangle and overlay on the area you want to change to dashed lines. It can have some transparency temporarily while you trace over with your dashed lines. Remember you can adjust display order with both LO layers and "Arrange" from front to back.

Thanks Marcus, looks like a good solution.

I've learnt a couple of things about LO and PDF output...

1. Customising the toolbar to include the printer icon speeds things up!
2. LO's PDF export doesn't embed fonts, so printing a LO PDF to a PDF printer results in jagged fonts.

Thanks Dave. I'm guessing you are using feet & inches so that may eliminate units from the options? The only other variable I can think of could be tolerance/accuracy settings.

Sonder, any chance you could upload a simple SU & LO file with say a cube where you know the updates work so I can look at your setting and see if my system breaks it?

I have a group of LO files each producing multi page PDF's for the same job. Anybody have any suggestions on the best way to merge them into a single PDF file? I have PDF Factory Pro which is a printer emulator but ideally I would like a drag & drop solution.

@john2 said:

5. Feature to control lineweight for different layers or selected objects within SketchUp itself.
   Some good suggestions but please don't burden SU simple efficiency with unnecessary Aut*CAD wannabe features like this.

Thanks for the response Sonder. Unfortunately I have tried every variation I can think of using 3 new SU models but I can't get my LO dimensions to remain associative. I even went as far as reinstalling SU & LO!

I've trawlled through the LO manuals and it should work but I'm totally baffled so far as to why it wont on my system.

Please can someone clarify LO's "associative dimensions". After a search I have read conflicting statements as to what happens when a scene is updated in LO.

As an example I can draw a rectangle in SU, say 10 x 10 and make a scene for use in LO. I can import the view/scene and dimension it. I can then drag the scene around and as expected the dimensions will try to follow it around. If I then edit the rectangle in SU, save and update, my dimensions loose their connections, they don't update to reflect the alterations to the rectangle.

On some of my more complex drawings, dimensions try to stay attached even when changing to a completely different view. Am I doing something wrong?

Are you using dynamic components? They have a habit of quietly breeding!

Not sure if this would help but if you go to Window> Model Info > Components you can automatically fade or hide other components/ groups while you edit a particular component. If each building was a component then the rest of the buildings could be made to disappear while you worked on it, once you finished editing everything reappears.

I have the hide check boxes assigned to hot keys so I can turn on other components for reference and then turn them off again while still editing.

Sonder, is there some magic way you get dims to lock? I frequently update views and find dimensions left detached and floating although the original points are still there just in a slightly different location.

@pbacot said:

For starters the logitech MX looks more ergonomic. Anyone like that one?
Been using the MX Laser for years (can't remember how many!) after giving up on a Wacom tablet. Very happy with it and will replace it with the latest equivalent as it looks like the batteries are approaching the end of their life. Unless Win8 brings some generic Kinetic type solution that really works.

Apart from the table and chair that's a very impressive image

Might be useful for somebody...

Duh

Thanks for the confirmation Rich. It would be nice if it followed the fine grid setting for the jump amount - One for the wishlist. My problem was the drawing wasn't aligned to the grid and I was trying to move a line about 0.25mm to show a dash-dot line between two solids. Anyway job done.

I use old school layering in preference to outliner but I think that may be down to the time I've been working with architectural CAD. Outliner is more of an engineering solution, a very powerful one, but one I only use when trying to single out groups & components from an assembly.

As for what layers, then the fair response is it depends what you want to manage visually e.g. furniture separate from fixtures, windows, doors & walls internal or external. For construction drawings I have about 20 layers which relate to the various elements in my drawing. You can have too many though so only create what you need and try to develop a template so if you copy between projects you don't end up with multiple layers for the same thing e.g mywall, walls, wall in the same drawing.

@gaieus said:

Now you can orbit to more or less view this axis towards (or away from) the camera and when you start a circle, it will automatically align to this axis. Press and hold the Shift key while selecting its origin and starting to pull out the circle.

Nice one Csaba, One for the duh thread. I didn't know the visual alignment influenced object creation. This also works with rectangles although the results aren't immediately obvious as the circle has the benefit of changing colour to confirm its orientation. Maybe we could get a starting rectangle shape like the circle in an update to help with this.

Does anyone know if you can adjust the "nudge" amount in LO, it seems to be fixed at 1mm?