Stumbled across this thread cause I'm currently working through the same problem, and looks like someone else revived it recently anyway so yeah I'm jumping in.
For starters, I've got a lot of love for sketchup. I used it as a kid about 15-20 years ago (back when there was an actual free version) and had a blast modeling bits and bobs for hours on end. It was a great intro modeling tool and it helped set me on the path to eventually becoming a mechanical engineer where I now work mostly with CAD like Solidworks, Fusion, etc.
Recently I started working on a small construction project, and I figured hey I can probably do the design and draw up the plans myself since its basically a glorified shed. I knew solidworks or fusion wouldnt be the right tool, so some 20 years later I decided to cross paths with sketchup again and bought it. I remembered it being fairly limited but figured hey its been 20 years and they are now charging 700 bucks for this so it's probably pretty kitted out now with lots of new features and a solid workflow, after all they do market this as an architetual design platform and it comes with Layout as a drawing tool to create plans, etc etc... WOW was I surprised when I loaded it up and NOPE its basically exactly the same thing I was using 20 years ago. TWENTY. YEARS. For basically the same thing?! How is this possible? I was sort of pissed at first but was just thankfull I didn't buy the subscription package to "get all the new updates every year", HAH.
Ok so I mellowed out a bit and started using it daily and realized it did have some potential for complex assemblies and was handling them well. Awesome. It still looks and feels like I remember from early 2000s but maybe they did add some of these features (or maybe they were there in 2000 and I just didn't know how to use them then...) Anyways, I got over it and actually started enjoying it.
But just today I started using layout and OH MY GOSH. What were they thinking? (and for clarification, I had already watched that youtube video "7 things to know about layout..." which helps you setup your design process in Sketchup so that it migrates to Layout more easily, so none of that stuff was an issue). But like, seriously? The selection / moving of objects is horrendous, the whole thing is super clunky and slow, and you cant fill or pattern objects without doing completely ridicuouls round-about workarounds? There are dozens of youtube tutorials that are like 10-30 minutes long that show you some completely ludicrous and complicated methods of... wait for it... applying a pattern fill to a part, like it should be some expert-level skill (besides using the MS paint option of re-drawing over your shape with a new shape in Layout that does not update with your model). What is even the point of linking them in the first place then? Seriously? Is this some off-the-wall edge case that the developers didn't anticipate? Unbelievable. Maybe give it another 20 years...
All I'm trying to make is a shed, A SHED, lord help anyone who is actually modeling something complicated.
Ok, end rant. If anyone has any pointers on how to handle any of these problems, or just on how to cope with the fact that these obvious problems are still here after 20 years, please let me know. Thanks