In previous versions of SketchUp (up to 2013), in the “Layers” window, after creating a new layer or editing the name of an existing layer, that layer would stay highlighted selected and visible in the window. With SketchUp 2015, that does not happen any more. After a layer has been created or edited, pressing “Enter” now deselects that layer and in fact does not leave any layer highlighted, not even Layer0. The list displayed in the “Layer” window now also jumps back to the beginning, with “Layer0” shown at the top of the window, regardless of where the cursor was in the list prior to editing.
The same happens when selecting a different scene in the “Scenes” window while you have a layer highlighted: the “Layers” window loses that selection highlighting, and jumps back to the top. That makes no sense: The most recently edited layer should remain highlight and centered in the layers window permanently (until another layer is selected), regardless of what happens in other SketchUp windows.
This has a major impact on workflow when working with layers in models that have dozens or hundreds of layers, as it is now necessary to scroll through the list to find the right layer again every single time, after having created it or renamed it, or after switching to a different scene. For me, it basically makes this version unusable.
Could someone please tell me where I can down-load SketchUp 2013 so I can re-install it? I stupidly deleted it while installing SketchUp 2015, but now I need to go back to it urgently, until this bug is fixed.
At least I can continue working in 2013 for now, but I’m hopeful that this bug can be fixed easily.
It is also present in 2014. I hadn’t used 2014 before, as I went straight from 2013 to 2015, but I just checked and it is there too.
Is anyone else seeing this, or is it just me? Maybe its something specific about my system? The strange thing is that SketchUp 8 and 2013 do not show it, but 2014 and 2015 do, on the same system.
Can someone else try to reproduce it? It’s simple enough: just create a new layer in the “Layers” window, and after you hit “Enter” see if it is still highlighted or not.
Thanks for confirming, Dan. So at least I know it really is a bug, and isn’t just something strange with my system.
For me, it’s not at all unusual to need something to remain highlighted in the “layers” window while I select a different viewpoint in the “scenes” window. I often do that when I’m stepping through an animated walk-through, and want to make sure that I have a particular layer turned on or turned off for each step of the animation sequence. If the “layers” window jumps back to the top each time I select a different scene, then it’s a huge pain to find the right layer again to turn it on or off for that scene. Some of my models have hundreds of layers, so finding the right one takes time. But if it remains selected, then it’s dead easy, and real fast.
The same happens if I just want to see the model from a different view point, then turn a layer on or off to see how it looks from that angle.
Another common situation is when I want to re-name a bunch of several layers that are together in the layers window, but I need to see them from different view points while renaming. If the highlighting is lost each time I rename one item, or each time choose a different scene, then once again it’s slow process to find where I was in the layers list, so I can rename the next one.
There are many other scenarios where it is useful for something to stay highlighted in one window while you are working in another window, or simple to stay highlighted even after you hit “enter”. It’s a workflow issue.
I sure hope these bugs will be fixed soon, as I’d love to move up to SketchUp 2015, … but I can’t while these problems are there. It just slows things down too much.
What I mean is, that it is (usually) an OS controlled thing.
There is a difference between a selected control and one that has the focus. Only a control in an active window, is supposed to show that it has focus. Controls in inactive windows, have other means of showing that they are selected, and likely will be the ones that receive the focus when the window becomes active again.
So what I am implying is, that if the programmers did something “out of the norm” to keep the selected control looking like it still has focus, when it’s parent window no longer has focus (ie, is inactive,) … then strange behavior might be the result.