I use layers and scenes in most models I use to create woodworking plans and have no problem at all showing just what I want to show in each scene. It does work.
This is from a recent plan. Dimensions and other text not shown. Each view is from a different scene with different layers shown or not.
Ok so please correct me where I am going wrong.
I have just started again from scratch.
Note that during this process I was asked to save my style (I was not asked to do this previously ⌠and before you ask the warning was checked before)
There is no instruction indicating whether I should Save as a new style (default), Update Selected style, Do Nothing to save changes.
Well as I was not aware that I had a style selected as I havenât been anywhere near the style tab I decided to accept the default and create a new style. The system did not tell me what style it created so I really feel none the wiser!! Looking at the styles tab no new style appears to have been created. So that is a complete mystery.
At this point All the scenes are the same.
I made copies of the relevant components in each of the scenes working one component at a time. I changed the entity information of the instance created to reflect the appropriate layer.
I tested swapping between each scene as it was created.
N:B: I kept layer 0 as the active layer in all the scenes at this point.
Everything works perfectly at this point.
Now went to Frame Head Scene made the Frame Head Layer the active layer to add the dimensions as per the tutorials.
CRITICAL POINT
IF YOU UPDATE THE SCENE AT THIS POINT EVERYTHING GOES TO RAT â â â â AND THERE IS NO WAY BACK EXCEPT FOR STARTING FROM SCRATCH ALL OVER AGAIN!
Or least that has been my experience.
Making the relevant layer active while you add your dimensions and labels will as would be expected assign those dimensions and labels that layer. But do NOT update the scene. It isnât necessary.
If you update the scene with a layer other than Layer 0 active the system for some reason starts to carry stuff over between the scenes getting progressively more confused. As far as I can tell once you have made this mistake you cannot reverse it.
Anyway thatâs my experience. I do not understand why. I do not understand all the mentions of saving styles etc etc.
But for me what works is ensuring that Layer 0 is the active layer before doing a scene update.
I hope this helps. If any clever person can explain why it would be even better.
It should be obvious. You only get that message if you create or update a scene after youâve edited the existing style.
Do you want to keep the style changes and apply them to the existing style (which would result in any other scene using that style reflecting the same style changes) or do you want to create a new style which would be applied to the scene you are creating and could be used in future scenes (but wonât be applied to existing scenes). If you choose to do nothing, the style wonât be updated nor will a new style be created and those changes wonât appear in the scene. So what choice did you make?
You are going about this the hard way.
Draw your model, create the layers and assign the components/groups to those layers as appropriate. Make sure Layer 0 remains as the active layer at all times. Then create a scene called Main showing the elements you want to see.Their layers will be checked for Visible. Turn off the layers for entities you donât need to see and adjust the camera position as needed. Create a new scene for that part. Repeat the process for the rest of the parts, turning off layers for elements that you donât need to see and turning on those for the parts you want to see. If you watch the video I made, you can see how different layers are made visible and how others get turned off as I step through the scenes.
As per what tutorials? This is where you go wrong and if thereâs a tutorial teaching this, you shouldnât be following it. Leave Layer 0 active at all times. Only adjust layer visibility by ticking the check boxes in the visibility column.
Thatâs a poor method for dealing with the dimensions. If you are going to insert dimensions in SketchUp, leave Layer 0 as active, insert the dimensions and either assign them to the layer with the component or better, assign them to a dimensions layer associated with the part. i.e. Frame Head Dims, Frame Jamb Dims, etc.
You can go to each scene and make Layer 0 active again, as it should have been all along, and update the scene.
@MikeWayzovski mentioned styles. The only reason you need to update the style is if youâve made changes. If, as in my example, the style remains unchanged, the style never needs updating and the warning should not appear.
Thank you for the guidance this is very very useful.
However I must just comment on one or two points.
I havenât updated a style. I applied aluminium colouring to a component but I didnât change it I just used it. - If that is classified as updating a style then so be it, but it is hardly intuitive.
You say that I can go to each scene and active Layer 0 again. Well it appears to me that that is exactly what you cannot do. Once you have done a scene update with anything other than Layer 0 active the active Layer and visibility settings start to get carried over when you click the next scene tab. Obviously you reset the Visibility Settings and the Active Layer to that which you want to see but itâs no good because it ignores this. That is why I say that there is no way back once you have made this fatal mistake.
Several tutorial videos including Sketchupâs own advise the that simplest way to add dimensions to a cutting list scene is to change the active layer, a couple suggest creating a label layer specifically for this. Those videos also demonstrate changing the dimensions layer in the entity information. But the recommendation in each case is the former method. Obviously that comes fraught with danger so I totally agree that I will ignore that suggestion in future and change the entity information instead.
True. But they also should emphasize how easy it is to forget about changing the active layer back to Layer0 and then adding other entities to the model associated with the wrong layer. So from then on your model may be messed up with things being unexpectedly visible or invisible.
Itâs much easier to leave Layer0 the active layer and assign a selection of âlayer0â dimensions their specific âdimâ layer through âEntity Infoâ. You might forget one or two dimensions the first time. But at least you can keep track of what geometry/components is associated with what layer.
Materials are not styles. I was trying to clarify the issue of changing the style and not updating it because this was mentioned in your other thread.If you didnât edit the style in this file, you wonât have this issue. At this point you can ignore the part about styles.
Youâre mistaken. You can go to each scene in turn, change the active layer back to Layer 0 and then update the scene. Simply changing the active layer while you are looking at the scene does not update the scene. Right click on the scene tab and choose Update after setting Layer 0 as active.
This is the best work flow. Leave Layer 0 active at all times and you never need to chase the layers. See this page from the Help Center. Especially:
When you apply these concepts to creating a 3D model that has layers to control visibility, the process looks like this:
1. Draw everything on Layer0. If youâre new to drawing in SketchUp, start with the article, Drawing Lines, Shapes, and 3D Objects.
2. Organize sections of your model into groups or components. Grouping Geometry explains what groups are and how to create them. For an introduction to components, see Adding Premade Components and Dynamic Components; find out how to create your own components in Developing Components and Dynamic Components
3. Create a new layer.
4. Associate only that group or component with that layer. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until you have a layer for each group or component whose visibility you want to toggle on or off.
5. Use the Layers panel to control the group or componentâs visibility.
Thank you Dave R. This is all useful stuff which is helping my learning process.
Twice since we last spoke the style update warning is coming on for me when I am completely certain that I havenât done anything with styles. I mean I do not even open the styles tab let alone do anything with them. Is there any explanation for why this might be being triggered. This does not appear to be cause any issue other than I do not understand why.
P:S Everything else is progressing well. Thank you for your assistance.
Changing just about anything on the View menu changes the style.
If you look at the style tab on the Default Tray youâll see it has a style thumbnail, if that has rotating arrows on it then something has changed since you last updated the style.
As Box says changing just about anything in the View menu will affect the style. If you turn on shadows or section cuts or display the axes or turn them off or change the Face Style either from the view menu or the Face Styles toolbar and on and on. I would suggest that you keep the Styles window open so you can see if the style has been changed. itâs easy to see because thereâll be the circular arrows on the large thumbnail.
The highlighted things in the screen shots below can be changed without touching the Styles window.
Pay close attention to what changes youâve made. If you are making the same changes for every other scene or something, you can wind up with multiple identical styles which needlessly bloats the file.
Glad everything else is coming along.
Thank you very useful.
