Well said, Chuck. LO 2017 is in its best shape ever! Just need to catch up on a number of those 'long term' fixes and functions in the next release I reckon.

Seeing SU 2017 is out this morning, here are my must haves for the next version:

1. Custom linetypes for SU. Such a huge missing element of graphic communication in this day and age.

2. Advance the Layer Manager for better control. Locking layers as well as manipulating layers to be viewed in one, many or all scenes...

Thought I'd get a just on this seeing SU 2017 came out this morning.

Here we go again...

MOVE Tool - I was a big advocate for the move tool in previous releases and would still like to see some advancement on it. Rather than it be part of the SELECT tool, giving it its own identity would allow for much more freedom and hence workability.

LINE Tool; its options for line thicknesses have been in points rather than units. Can we have the option for units as well [in my case, millimeters?]

Text Baseline - The ‘baseline’ for text should be the baseline of lettering rather than a corner of the text box IMO. When I want to snap to a grid or object to inference to the text is not lined up but rather the textbox.

The STYLE eye dropper - it should work so that when it inherits the selected style of line, text, etc it also inherits the objects layer property....

I believe so given that if I’m sampling say a dashed line that represents a ceiling or roof above I will want to put it on the 'Linework' layer. Same with TEXT: if I want to sample TEXT chances are I want that on the same layer as all the other text... The same goes for site boundary lines, elevation height lines, etc. The only thing missing is the ability to sample Layer info which saves me the step [and quite a lot of times a little forgetfulness!!]

I just think that this makes sense.

ROTATE Tool - as with the MOVE tool, we should be able to rotate precisely. Here’s a good example of once something has been rotated, it is impossible to rotate to a specific angle:

As you can see if I want to rotate a north point to a specific angle I can’t pick and align the north line to where I want it to be. Maybe a ‘3-way rotate is the way to go and this is how it should be done IMO.

1. Activating the ROTATE tool allows selection of one or more entities. As with the MOVE tool the standard snap functions of SU are available to pick from.
2. Pick and place where desired.
3. Once placed pick again the origin of yoru rotate [while everything is still selected] then the target rotate point then simply ROTATE!!!

DIM leaders - we need to be able to set our extension above and extension below the DIM line. It has long been a user setting in CAD and should be in LO also. Gives the user the ability to customize his / her own style….

I can't tell you how time consuming it is having to edit each dimension string to an appropriate length. I generally grab the end of the DIM line and inference it down the DIM text; seems to look right.

And for those of you who think you've read this before is just a cut down list of my 2016 wishlist....

I noticed that too Nick and wasn't sure of the reason why.

However, it doesn't change the fact that if all levels of groups were the default SU color that it shows the line color in Vector [well at least it did for me...]

Glad you're on the right track, Brett.

It should work as long as the group is not painted with a material. Or the section plane has been un-intentionally painted a colour. It worked for me when you posted the model for us to troubleshoot..

Did you sort it out, Brett??

Yes, like JQL says multi-views are the wa yto go when you work out how too but for the time being it should work. Highlight your reference file in LO and toggle back to raster. Then toggle back to Vector and see what happens. At times that function in LO just needs resetting when styles have been changed....

Also, be careful of unintentionally applying a colour / texture to a section plane. I've done this before and because when you select a section plane it doesn't show an assigned colour in Entity Info, you'll never know it has been coloured unless you apply the default to it.

Quick video here to explain. It's a trick for young players....

LINEWORK IN LO.wmv

Brett, see the attached video.

What you need to be careful of is applying colours to groups and components. I have seen a tutorial on this somewhere so I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

You'll notice you have coloured the wall groups in the concrete texture rather than painting the faces. This is where the problem is.

I changed the colour back to the default SU front / back face colour and updated the Layout file and wha la!

The vid is a little over the limit for here so download it from my Dropbox here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sa4qr61ltcqq5sp/SECTION%20FIX.wmv?dl=0

Here you go, mate.

I;m just doing a quick video to show you what was wrong in your model... will post soon.

@brettsichellodesign said:

It is really annoying. I try and get round it by having all sketchup 'viewports' in a locked layer. This means you can't double click into them.

That's exactly what you should do. I import any Su reference on a layer called 'SketchUp Imports' and lock it unless I need to manipulate the viewport. That way working over the top of it is a breeze...

I think I might know what your issues is, Brett. Can you post your model here and I'll have a look.

This has happened to me before.

Hi Brett, are your external walls in SU in a group?

@richard said:

@utiler said:

Must be the beer we drink Rich that creates such a steady hand!

Or the excess of it causing a limit to "straight" lines only!!! And none of that crappy U.S. beer!

Nah, they certainly don't know how to brew a decent beer...

Must be the beer we drink Rich that creates such a steady hand!

Very, very low ceilings in there, Gary!! I'd be like a caged lion and I'm only 5'6"!!

Hi Guys, not sure how many of you use Gmail as your link to the business work; I have for a number of years and rarely have issues with it.

I started looking for extensions a few years ago to push Gmail's usability a little more into GTD direction seeing I'm a sole practitioner I don't have people to orgainse my day for me.

I've trialed a number of these that I found:

Todoist [www.gmail.todoist.com/overview]
Hiver [www.hiverhq.com]
Boomerang [www.boomeranggamil.com]
ActiveInbox ]www.activeinboxhq.com]
Right Inbox [www.rightinbox.com/]

For me the most important thing was to have an easy reminder system of tagging emails, creating task and reminders so that nothing gets forgotten. Also, having mobile support was a huge advantage.

The best extension I found that ticked the most boxes was ActiveInbox. Reasonably price and full of features.

Give it a try if you're a gmail user and want more of it. I'd be surprised if it didn't make a serious difference to your daily productivity....

Oh, and I have no affiliation with any of the above extensions; just appreciate the wood work that has gone into building these timesavers and though you guys should know about what's out there.

Thanks mate I'll give them a go.

I quite like that!! Could you share the SU file? I've tried making dashed lines with Profile Builder too but never perfect...

Ditto!! Nice of you to share, mate!!