TIG. Many thanks for the info.

I want to move certain shapes up or down on the page by using the up – and – down arrow keys until the two shapes coincide (overlap). The problem is that the incremental move on the page for each tap is too fierce. Does anyone know how I can adjust (fine tune) the amount of movement for each tap of the arrow keys.

Sonder. Wow! You picked up exactly what I was getting at. I couldn't have wished for a better clear and concise answer. It's opened it up for me. Thank you.
pbacot. I'm sure a new computer would be uplifting. It's on my wish list. I do find LO to be resource hungry.

I am busy with the Site Plan in a set of working drawings. The scene includes a few items from the model itself as well as a series of colored lines for things like set-back lines, roof line outlines, decks, sewage line, paved areas, boundary lines, 2D trees, retaining walls, the actual locality block plan, the house walls, stairs, gazebo outline, contour lines and so on. Each of these lines are a different color and I have set up a separate style with Profile 2 and the edges to color “by material”. A lot of these items have already been modeled but I have had to resort to drawing lines to make the Site Plan readable. I also like the idea of being able to render as a Vector in Layout. I take all of these groups nested in one group and one scene to Layout. I am happy with the result except that I cannot arrange their order. I have sorted the order in SU but I would prefer to do that in Layout where I will be able to see immediate results. What is the best way to go about this. I don’t like the idea of making say 20 scenes with each one holding a single line and then having 20 stacked view ports in Layout. I feel sure that I am missing something somewhere and I would appreciate some feedback.

I am using Snow Leopard v 10.6.8 and have full read and write permissions for my complete hard drive. I have tried to save this local collection in my Documents folder as well as the hard drive / library /application route.

I cannot comprehend what could have happened to de-activate all my section cuts in my scenes simultaneously. I am having difficulty in making my styles available in other Sketchup models; in other words to create my own styles collections so that they show up in the Styles dialog box. Please follow my procedure and perhaps you can pick up where I am going wrong.

1. Window - Styles.
2. Click Select tab.
3. Click Details fly-out menu - chose Create new collection.
4. Navigate to a folder.
5. Click New Folder.
6. Type in name.
7. Check Add to Favorites.
8. Type Name of file under “Save As” at the top of the dialogue box.
9. Click Save.

The Name of the created new collection is added to the Favorites section of the Collections drop-down list BUT that's all; no styles are included. It’s just empty. When I open another Sketchup model and open the Collections drop-down list, I see the name of my newly created collection but again it’s empty.

When I open the Secondary Selection Pane I am unable to drag and drop styles between folders. I am unable to drag and drop a style from the upper list to the lower. I get the green circle with the plus sign but it just won’t take.

If I try the following;

1. Window - Styles.
2. Click Select tab.
3. Click Details fly-out menu - chose SAVE new collection.
4. Navigate to a folder.
5. Click New Folder.
6. Type in name.
7. Check Add to Favorites.
8. Type Name of file under “Save As” at the top of the dialogue box.
9. Click Save.

I get precisely the same results.

Please help. I have explored every avenue I know of but can’t get it to work.

If I get circular arrows in the thumbnail in the upper left corner. I normally select a style in the list of styles that I have in my model and that I want to stick with. The arrows then disappear and I proceed with the scene update. If I get the warning box I click cancel, then select the style as described above. I then proceed to do the update again and of course I don't see the warning box again. I follow the above procedures because otherwise it seems that I have an increasing amount of styles, which to me look like a duplication anyway.

Having said that, all my styles have the "section cuts" box in styles checked so my reasoning is that no matter what style I choose I should be covered for the section cut. I haven't changed the attributes of a style or unchecked the "section cuts" box yet all my section cuts became inactive in one fell swoop, which had a ripple effect on Layout.

Thanks for the quick response Dave. I am going to work on that I have a strong feeling that you have pinpointed the problem. I have 10 section cuts in my model and all has been stable for some time. I then did as stupid thing and used the "save as" command and then later saved it back as my original working file. I later noticed that all my sections where inactive. I had already set up all my scenes in layout. So I had to start fixing up and I think that I must have gotten myself in a tis. What causes all the sections to be become inactive all at once?

Out of the blue after working normally the active section cuts deactivate themselves on odd occasions. I then need to go into the scene re-activate the section cut and update. Why won't they hold? Am I missing something? Anyone able to help?

The only Background I could find is the check box to the right of the fog button. It is linked to the Fog button and did not help my problem.
When I commented on quality, I am comparing it with other view ports on the same page. It is not good. It looks like I have inserted a poor quality Raster image not a SU model.

I have inserted a SU file (the file itself is a 'child' file imported from a 'parent' file) into layout. This inserted SU file came into layout with the viewport 'filled in" with a light background color, which is opaque. This means that this solid face prevents one from looking through the viewport. Even after clicking out of the viewport with the viewport boundary not visible, you can see the rectangle of background color. Not only that but the output quality is very poor. This all came about while putting together reflected ceiling plans. I imported the file, mirrored the model about the z axis. Everything looks fine in SU. Anyone have an idea of what could be causing this. Thanks Mike for the advice with "stacking viewports', it got me up and running just fine.

I am inserting a scene from SU into Layout. This happens to be a Plan Section but my question would apply to all Section Cuts. The scene consists of two groups (as shown in Outliner), the model group itself and the linework group that has been created with "Create group from slice" and 'faced' ala Nick Sonder's videos. To clarify: the Linework Group is outside of the Model Group. Now I am led to believe according to this discussion that once Inserted into Layout, the Model itself should be Raster rendered and the Linework should be Vector rendered? According to Nick's procedure he uses a separate SU model referenced to his Master Base Model, which contains only Linework. My understanding is that he then Inserts the "Model Group" and then as a second Insertion he inserts the "Linework Group" into Layout? My setup is different: I am not using a referenced "Parent - Child" x-ref arrangement. I have one scene (consisting of 2 groups) and one Insertion. How do I raster render one and vector render the other when they are both coming into Layout simultaneous? Once I have Inserted the Scene, am I able to edit it (in Layout) by selecting a specific group as one does in SU itself? I hope I am not missing something but this is the first time I am using Layout fror CD's.

Many thanks to Dave R, Krisidious and Jeff Hammond for the in-depth answer.
It was a shadow thing. I followed your advice and my problem is solved. I had 2 vertical section cuts through the same room in a house model, each facing in the opposite direction and each one captured on it's own scene. All the parameters for each scene were identical. As I would toggle between the 2 scenes I would get "white" walls / "gray" (shadow / shading) walls effect. It was rather daunting.

When I view a box from one side it is white but when viewed from the opposite side it is grey. Is there anything that one can do to have it white from any angle? Has it something to do with the shadows settings?

I am modeling a house for the purpose of doing working drawings. The house, the garage and the site are on the same level, which seemed to be fine until I came to model the outside structures (an elevated wooden deck, a spiral staircase, a gum pole gazebo and a fish pond) that are on a lower level as the ground is sloping.

What is the best way to go from here? If I model them lower than the floor level of the house then the house will be in the air as it were?

Is there something special that I can use for the rough gum poles or must I just use the circle tool?

Thank you.

I prefer pdf over video as I feel that written material is good for referring to later especially in this subject where I have a steep learning curve to master. I just feel that I can take it in slower in pdf form?

Yes, once I have opened the pdf in Chrome, the only way that I can see to save the file to my hard drive is to go File>Save Page As. I was hoping there would be a more direct way without me first having to open the file in Chrome. Thank you.

I am using Chrome browser on my Mac. I am trying to download the Catchup pdf files directly onto my hard drive without first opening (loading) the pdf into the browser. I also hate this and would love to overcome it. Downloading the pdf from that "flipping page format" site (issuu) just does not do it for me! I have tried to make it work with Adobe Reader and Preview viewers. Is there a Mac equivalent to the Windows “Save Target As’ on the right click context menu? How do I do this?

Many thanks, I've got it now.

@tig said:

Click the dimension-tool icon on the toolbar, and before doing anything else change your dimension-style settings to what units/tolerance/etc you want - e.g. 'mm' - and now add some dimensions - they'll all be in 'mm'.
When you next use the dimension-tool it will use these new settings - these will be remembered across sessions too [although the inactive dimension style will initially show 'meters' it will change to 'mm' as soon as the dimension-tool is activated].
If you make a custom-template*** then you can set the dimension-style in that in this way, so 'mm' become the default units for all new Layout projects... **For example - make a new project using the A3L template [meters] and change the dimension-style settings to 'mm'/1mm etc and Save_As_Template naming it perhaps A3Lmm - which automatically goes into C:\Users\TIG\AppData\Roaming\Google\Google SketchUp 8\LayOut\Templates*A3Lmm.layout - and which will make a new project default to 'mm' dimensions every time that particular template is used [now found under the MyTemplates list]... If you have a number of users then you'll need to have a system to coordinate your own standard .layout templates across every user's ../Templates/ folder, so you all sing from the same hymn-sheet... Of course you can do much more that just fix the dimensions when customizing your own templates - title-blocks/borders, standardized text/fonts etc etc...

According to Metric Standards and Specifications and common practice in hand drafting of Architectural Working Drawings, all metric dimensions are shown in millimeters but the symbol (mm) is to be omitted. E.g. one meter is to be shown as 1000. However if the mm symbol is used for some or other reason there is to be a space between the numerals and the symbol such as 1000spacemm. Meters (m) are used for large site Plans and Civil Engineering drawings. Metric dimensioning is based on the International System of Units (SI). I have followed your procedure set out in the forum but I cannot get Layout to conform to the above. The best I can do for say 620 mm is 0,62m. First prize for me would be to have Layout show millimeters without the mm symbol. Second prize would be for dimensions to be shown as mm but with a space between the numeral and the mm symbol. Is there something I am missing? I am really hoping that you can help me on this one.