I have followed the procedure to create a clipping mask, but the “clipping mask” option does not appear in the context menu. I have tried both the procedure found in Sketchup 2017 Help and also in the book “SketchUp to LayOut: The essential guide to creating construction documents …” By Matt Donley
Clipping masks are in LayOut, not in SketchUp. To use them, draw a shape over a SketchUp viewport, select both the shape and the viewport, right click and choose Create Clipping Mask from the Context menu.
Thanks for you prompt advice, Dave.
It seems that LayOut is supposed to be included with SketchUp 2017, and
the LayOut Program did appear in my list of programs but is apparently
not testable in the trial version. I think I would have to purchase the
full licence (of SketchUp) just to try it.
My understanding now is that Layout is primarily for presentation of
designs made in SketchUp, and it seems that the only function of
interest to me is the clipping masking. Also, it is not clear now
whether I can do the clipping masking in LayOut and use the results in
Sketchup. For example, I would be using clipped images on surfaces of
objects designed in SketchUp.
I’d be grateful for your advice as to whether there is any point in my
looking further to use SketchUp for the clipping I need.
Kind regards,
Robert Bogner
LayOut is included with SketchUp Pro and it is “testable” if you are in the trial period. To continue using it after the trial period, you would need to purchase the pro license. Note that SketchUp Make is for personal hobby use. If you are using SketchUp for other purposes, you must have SketchUp Pro.
LayOut is intended for creating presentation documents from the SketchUp model. You can’t send anything from LayOut directly back to SketchUp.
It sounds like you are trying to create materials to apply to faces in SketchUp. If that’s the case, you could just crop the image in an image editor. You don’t need LayOut for that.