Some folks have posted (as have I) for things like electrical symbols... Just ask for specifically what you're looking for and maybe someone will share. It's nice to share.

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Tim - in the file I just fixed, you couldn't get to the page with the offending view because it'd crash, because it appeared that the links to the model did a somewhat halfway update (or it updated raster views and not vector/hybrid views). We go in and look at the XML to see what doesn't make sense, but it appears to be all related to changing the model (adding geometry, having "Fix Problems" run on the SketchUp model - which is changing geometry, etc...) but then on TOP of that having some condition in LayOut that causes a failure to pick up the updates completely.

Please submit files you get that are horked up, and we'll fix 'em for you. We're getting closer to a solution. Fortunately, this is fairly rare. In the mean time, save regularly (model and .layout).

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K, file is fixed. For some reason, after updating the reference, the vector renderings were pointing at the old reference id. Jeff found it, because there was only one skp file reference, and two different id numbers in the file. Thanks for getting the file to us, and we'll try to figure out how this happened.

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We got an excellent clue from mavie that the LayOut file error was preceded by the SketchUp model possibly needing to repair itself. If anyone observes this, or any other clues, let me know.

I'm really busy today, so I'm only going to have time to fix any broken files and do other work. I'll post later about how you can look at these files to try to troubleshoot what's wrong.

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arumaret - if you can send me the doc, I'll take a look at what's wrong. Easiest way is to upload to Google docs, and send me a private msg on sketchucation once you've done that.

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OK, I think I can answer that: yes. Create your own template, and insert a dummy model (nothing in it but Sang), set to Ortho and set the scale in the SketchUp Model inspector (set the view you want, too). File->Save as Template. Now create a new SketchUp model, send to LayOut, and your model should have the correct view and scale that you want.

It plays off of the blog post I wrote - http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2010/01/connecting-sketchup-scenes-to-layout.html

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I downloaded a Timber frame house from 3dwarehouse and edited the style's face settings to be "display in hidden line mode". Is this comparable to what you're looking for?

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So confirm that I'm reading your request correctly. This would only work in a standard, orthographic projection, or you'd want it even in perspective? It might be easier to convince the powers that be if SketchUp had this and LayOut didn't, but I just tried it in SketchUp and there's no axis constraint for dimensions in SketchUp. Here's my attempt in SketchUp:

Is that what you're thinking, and would you like me to file it as a feature request?

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No, but that's an interesting request. I could see having a "use model drawing scale in measurements box" checkbox, but what if you have multiple models per page?

You'll have to use the inference and then move lines - e.g. trace a line over a model, inferencing it's endpoints and then moving or rotating the drawn line if necessary. There are a lot of LayOut users that do this to trace over models in this way to put emphasis on lines.

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Jim et al -

As an FYI, we did a seminar at the University of Utah this past week-end for SketchUp and Autism. You can see some of the details at http://www.fcs.utah.edu/.

On another note, HBO is showing the movie "Temple Grandin" this month. Temple has stopped by our office and given us feedback on SketchUp, and if you watch the movie and read her books, you'll see why she gets SketchUp and sees potential for kids and adults on the Autism Spectrum.

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For now, the best you can do is to nudge one model with the arrow tools and then align just by eyeballing it.

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Clarification: not all of your other pages were in Perspective, but if they were in Ortho you hadn't drawn dimensions so this issue didn't appear. Morale of the story is: if you always want dimensions from model space, select "Auto Scale".

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Ah ha ha ha... now I get it. How we decide if there should be 2D (paper) or 3D (model) dimensions:

If you're in Ortho view, and have assigned a standard view (which you had: front, back, left, right), then you'll get paper space * scale. You can override this by selecting the "Auto Scale" button in the Dimensions Style inspector.

All of your other pages and models were in Perspective (instead of Ortho), and those will be in 3D model space scale. So to fix this, if you ALWAYS want your document to display dimensions based on 3D model space and not 2D paper space, select the "Auto Scale" button.

Clear, everyone?

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Can you explain how you think that's backwards? Once you know about layers, it seems right to me that the topmost layer takes precedence, and then items within each layer determine the drawing order. How would you do it? Thanks for any feedback.

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You can set scale for the dimension tool only for the entire document. I don't think you can set the dimension from the scene - if you inference off the model, you'll get model space, not paper space. But if you break the connection to the model, you'll get paper space and the scale that you've saved in the dimension tool.

Choose the dimension tool, set the scale (turn off Auto and set your scale), then save the document. In StyleManager.xml, you're setting the dimension tool's "dimension.scale" and "dimension.scale.isauto" variables.

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Did you explode your model? That would do it. Or did you NOT get an inference point on the dimension? If so, it'll be paper space.

I've found it harder to handle dimensions if you're not displaying edges - you get an intersection of faces inference point, but not an Endpoint inference. Are you using scenes and matching your scene selection in LayOut to the scene in SketchUp?

Lastly, you can make some changes in your model, but if you're doing major changes to the model, dimensions wont be persistent across edits, so the typical workflow is to wait until the model is stabilized to dimension in LayOut. Let us know if you get this solved or if any of this helped.

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Titleblock/Contemporary/ArchD Landscape
Titleblock/Modern/ArchD Landscape
Titleblock/Rounded/ARCH D Landscape
Titleblock/Simple/ARCH D Landscape
Titleblock/Simple Serif/ARCH D Landscape
Titleblock/Traditional/ArchD Landscape Sidebar
Titleblock/Traditional/ArchD Landscape

Open one of those, File->Document Setup->Paper and adjust to the size you need. For the non-architects, Arch D is 24" x 36".

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...and even on the same layer you can order things by selecting items individually or as a group and either (a) clicking on the arrange menu, or (b) right clicking and selecting arrange, then

• Bring to Front
• Send Forward
• Send Backward
• Send to Back

within any individual layer.

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I hear you, Gai... yes, vector import is best done for now by trying to get a vector format into SketchUp, then importing the model from SketchUp and vector rendering in LayOut.

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Bzzzzt. Wrong question answered - that was question 1.

Question 2, on how to set section cuts - that's in SketchUp question; see embedded image.

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