Until now, while modeling, I have been controlling visibility strictly inside of Outliner.
Yet more experienced users like mcalenan and monospace seem to suggest that it is better and more efficient to use Tags for this even while modeling.
… would other users agree?
Re-reading thru this I think I might have answered my own question to mcalenan.
So if I use Tags to control visibility while modeling I can leave the Outliner untouched for that purpose.
OK - I’ll experiment with that.
Question - for you and any other experienced user ; are your Tag labels (more or less) identical to your Outliner labels? Meaning generally (not necessarily all the time) that each time I create and name a Group or Component I should immediately Tag it with the same name?
I haven’t touched the outliner ever!
But my need for organisation of groups/components is quite simple in that I have tags that are general like, Element_Floor, Element_Walls, Condition_New, Condition_Existing, and so on.
I have coded a simple plugin that toggles these tags on/off with a keyboard shortcut so that I can model on the fly so to speak quickly toggling tags on and off as required in just a single SU scene.
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Just re-read through this by endlessfix.
Looks like experienced users use Tags to control visibility while modeling.
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I just find tags easier, more controlled and organized.You’re not at risk of forgetting some individual object is hidden, even possibly deleting it. I use hidden objects just for a brief time while working.
I agree with Peter. I find tags a better way to manage visibility of objects for scenes. I will use Hide while working through the modeling process but for scenes and then viewports in LO, tags are a better option. I often don’t create the tags until late in the modeling process after I’ve thought about what I need to show in the documents I’ll create from the model and how I’ll need to organize them. With the projects I do there isn’t a fixed set of tags like you would tend to have in architecture, though.
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I seem to find another use case for using tags with raw geometry. Especially inside dynamic components, like in window frames, you need to hide edges between adjacent parts to make them look seamless. Now that the visibility of geometry inside components and groups is also something controlled by scenes, these have an irritating habit of becoming visible when you import them from another file, and hiding them requires you to open the culprits, re-hide the entities, and to update the scene. A “stay away from my sight” tag might become more handy.
Like Patt, I actually don’t use outliner much at all. I learned to model without knowing about it, but maybe I should give it a shot one day.
Also like Patt, I keep tags quite general so I can hide and show things for specific purposes. I rarely create a tag I won’t need to turn on/off regularly.
I almost always have a tag for furniture and accessories if I’m designing a space. Of course certain walls and roofs always get a tag because they get in the way for modeling interiors.
I use tags a ton for isolating options or different versions of something. A scene showing option a with tag x and a scene showing option b with tag y, for example.
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Do what works for you! You don’t HAVE to use Tags for visibility… if you are grouping and naming things and it works to toggle visibility in Outliner, then do that!
The big advantage that Tags has over Outliner is that many objects can be set to a single Tag and toggled on and off all at once.
Flip side of the same coin is that you can pick and choose exactly what you want visible in Outliner without having an enormous list of Tags!
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I’m always using a heavy blend of both. I never touch Outliner, only because I’ve just learned it existed about a month ago. I hide objects often to produce what you might consider to be a hybrid section view of an area. I don’t want to actually section it, but there are far too many things blocking the camera to see what I need. Tags don’t work well for me on this, because it would be a tedious as having a tag for every single wall, column, beam, etc. But I absolutely love tags for toggling broad-scale groups like drywall, plumbing, room interiors, electrical, etc.
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