Since you ask for design advice, some design questions: You sure you want the bottom shelf to be transparent? And while I'm asking, why are any of the shelves clear? If they are covered with candy, you won't see through anyway, and if they aren't, then weight is not so much of an issue.

60" is pretty wide for unsupported shelves, generally they are no more than 36" in commercial units. And 24" is pretty deep for candy (candy boxes are around 12" deep, if memory serves, and individual bars would just get lost with the depth). Sometimes displays like this are used to showcase merchandise in front; work, sell or display on top; and have more shelves behind a false back for storage.

If you make all edges stiff, for light loads you shouldn't need to brace the middle of the shelf. It is usually prettier and easier to roll or fold the front of the shelf than to fabricate a box. Experiment first, 60" is untested territory.

Sides and backs can be grooved to hold the shelf if you don't like the look of cleats. A slender molding wrapping the side and back edges of the shelf would allow you to use shelf standards without getting into plastic fabrication, and could be very pretty.

I've laid out circles on a plane in SU, and am dimensioning them in Layout.

When dimensioning to the center of the circle, Layout measures the drawing, not the model (1/4" instead of 3")

When dimensioning an orthogonal view from a center to a corner Layout returns the diagonal distance in 3-space (x + y + z) from the corner to the center.

When measuring from center to center layout returns the drawing measurement.

When dimensioning circles from edge to edge layout gives the model measurement, which would be great, except that it is from a nearby vertex instead of from the true size of the circle that the polygon is representing. In SUit is possible to enlarge and select to work with this, but in Layout it's a matter of making many guesses/ rounding the dimension. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't, always it takes time.

Circles on a plane dimensioned in Layout

Mariocha—

Dimensioning in Sketchup, while convenient, does not work well.

Dimensions are fixed in space in SU. Shifting the perspective often puts them in awkward places.

Transferring the drawing to Layout then makes even more of a hash of it. First, there is no easy reference in SU to tell you how far away the dimension is in 3-space, and often measurements are at an inconsistent distance, or out of proportion to the drawing. With each edit, there is a risk of shifting perspective, then having to go back to SU, re-edit, re-save, refresh Layout, and check every view for conflicts.

Would that it were not so, dimensioning in Layout is a nightmare.

Jim

Sonder—

Thanks for the suggestion, but I already center the scene in SU. I set it up as best I can to show what I want, then save or update it and save the SU model.

Perhaps SO is centering the SU scene on the original LO window, before the window was resized. Since I no longer have the original size of the window, I can't tell. When I do what you say the image is no longer centered in the window. When I change the window size, then uncheck "preserve scale," the size is no longer the same. These are major difficulties.

I ask again, is this what happens to you when you follow the steps I listed?

Best,

Jim

Sonder—

I am sorry, I did not mention that I do indeed have render set to auto.

When I talk about preserving the scale of a perspective, I mean the image size. There is no assigned scale, technically I guess it's the amount of zoom.

I don't know what else I can say. I listed my workflow exactly as I did it, no steps left out. The size of the image jumps, often affecting the amount of image visible. The jumps are unwelcome. What results do you get when you try what I described?

As for your comment that this behavior lets you size drawings on the page, I can only assume that this is not what happens when you do what I listed. I say that precisely because it does NOT allow me to size drawings on the page, it radically alters the size of the drawings from what I specified.

Best,

Jim

Sonder—

I'm glad that works for you, that's how I feel Layout should work.

My experience is that when I switch from Raster to Vector, all of a sudden I can align them. Switching back to Raster, once the image is rendered I can bring them close but they are no longer automatically aligned, and the Snap function often pulls them away from alignment.

I tried it with a fresh drawing, not modifying the scenes. Same behavior.

Best,

Jim

With a fresh drawing, I make three objects.

Save Top, Front, Side, Perspective

Export to Layout

Set Scene to Perspective

Check Maintain Scale

Crop Viewport

Uncheck Maintain Scale

===>Image shrinks

Check Maintain Scale

===>Image remains the same size, does not revert to original size

Option-Click-Drag another Viewport

Set Scene to Top

Maintain Scale checked

Stretch Viewport

Uncheck Maintain Scale

===>Image of object enlarges

From this experiment, it seems that when you:
Check Maintain Scale
Change a Viewport's Size
Uncheck Maintain Scale
===>Image Size changes to correspond with the new Viewport size.

Note that the process is not reversible: if you re-check Maintain Scale, the Image does not go back to the original size. Note also that the Scenes are as listed on SU, that is, not modified.

This same sequence happens whether working to a specific scale or leaving the scale undefined

While I'm happy to have found the explanation, I still find this confusing. Is there a benefit to this behavior that I'm not seeing?

I often change scale and size of Viewport to fit items in a readable way onto small pages, while using as few scales as possible. It would be much easier for me if Layout updated its information of the relative size of the Viewport and the image it contains so the image size doesn't shift when Maintain Scale is changed.

Best,

Jim

Folks—

Okay, the discussion is split into two parts. This post is about Object Snap.

Okay, Sonder mentioned Rendering and I found my problem: my drawings were set up for Raster. When I set them up for Vector I can snap visual objects, not just Viewports. Problem Solved!

I'm on the fly, and will check back later to look at the other issue, Jumping Views.

Best,

Jim

I've noticed this also. It happens infrequently.

Sometimes I can't dimension in the scale of the model, but it measures the paper space, as you put it. It hasn't happened enough to notice if anything particular trips it, but I wonder if it's associated with changing scale.

Bst,

Jim

Actually, Dave, I do set up scenes in Sketchup. I use them for my Layout views.

You don't seem to get the issues. Did you compare the two Layouts to see the difference made by simply putting a viewport in Edit Mode? The scale jumps from the scale I specified and the view jumps from what was defined.

When I check and uncheck the Preserve Scale box, without editing the drawing, the view and scale shift radically. Typically, the scale is reduced by somewhere near 50% and the view moves enough that some or all of the image is cut off by the boundaries of the viewport.

In this example, I want to show both tops on one sheet of paper at 1":1' scale. I use two viewports, one with each top, rather than try to define an 8.5' x 11' plot in SU and place the tops inside that to set up a scene which I can move to Layout. There are reasons I draw them in their proper orientation in SU, and also reasons why I don't show them that way in LO. One way is for drafting, the other way is for presenting to a fabricator.

Yet when I change the viewport I get a jumping of scale and view. If you don't see this as a bug I don't understand why.

Please note: I do not change the SU drawing for this to happen. I am not using another program in between. This is just Layout. It does not change my SU file or the SU scene,, but it changes the LO viewport.

It's possible this is a question of semantics, so I'll put in terms of my expectations: I expect to be able to edit a viewport in LO and leave Edit Mode with those changes intact. Likewise, I expect to enter Edit Mode, and not have the act of entering Edit change the view. I can do this fifty times and it acts this way every time. Am I wrong to expect Edit to be predictable? Why is there an Edit Mode if it does not allow you to save your edits?

Best,

Jim