I don't know if you have seen the thread about layers but here is what I suggested:
%(#0040BF)[It seems to me a longer term goal would be to get rid of layers altogether. After all layers exist only to control visibility of components (ignoring for expediency notes and dimensions). A component can only be placed in one layer. And there is no provision to group layers into named collections other than scenes, and that only at a single level. Making groups greatly restricts any workable flexibility in organisation and outliner, good perhaps for nesting sub-components makes working more complicated as it does not provide for named collections. Perhaps not so importantly, what I found in making a fairly simple but multi layered and scened model I had to constantly move or open and close layer, outliner, scene manager, entity info, style and other windows in order to see the display.
Dare I suggest then the whole organisational part of Sketchup is dealt with as a hierarchy of components that moves from the project "collection" through building, floor, space type collections to each component? Linked to that hierarchy is a similarly structured hierarchy of pertinence that moves through categories such as design, client, supervision, trade, purchases into sub categories and then individual scenes.
The components are turned on and off in at all levels of its hierarchy. One component can belong to many collections and one collection can belong to many scenes. Moreover individual components can take up different xyzs in different scenes showing position in relation to time or position relating to presentation (like a schedule) for example.]
which seems to me to be a kind of performance spec utiler is looking for in native SU.
At the top of that thread J Bacus quotes himself from "improve layers":
SketchUpâs âLayersâ arenât really like what youâd traditionally find in a CAD package. As many of you have heard me say before, Groups and Components are really more like what youâre accustomed to with layer systems in other CAD apps. Both of the most popular Layer suggestions (make them lockable, make them heirarchical) are already accomodated by Groups and Components through the Outliner.
It seems to me something is wrong when a product manager (in an intuitive software world) needs to explain that SU layers are not really layers like in CAD programs. I can see dimension and label layers being straight forward like a tracing paper overlay to your screen but calling a collection of possibly diverse objects a layer is extremely strange.
Also strange logic is that a component can only have one layer. If, for example I wanted to show all sanitaryware and all its pipework in one scene and a single bathroom with everything in another imagine the complexity there when it could be so simple.
Finally just to complete my early morning workout both components and layers get hidden or turned off by their visibility methods - both get hidden. At one stage I did an excercise where only components that were switched on were imported. The rest were really switched off.
And finally finally why don't you resurrect the layer improvement thread? You will get closer to improving native SU there.