Controlling visibility of layers on a folder basis

[jarvis393]

Is there a way to control visibility of layers within folders of layers.

I would like, for example, to be able to compose a wall of cabinets with each cabinet on it’s own layer.
The visibility of each cabinet would therefore be controlled at the layer level.

I would like to then be able to toggle the visibility of all cabinets on a given wall.
This seems like it would require some kind of folder management whereby folders live inside folders and you control cascading visibility.

Can this be done in Sketchup Pro?

[JimD]

Think in terms of Nested Groups, rather than a folder in Layers.

Each Cabinet should get assigned it’s own group.

… and the collective set of Cabinets in turn, All get grouped together as well.

This gives the visibility settings you’re looking for, but the Hierarchy isn’t going to be shown in the Layers Panel.

You’ll need to look at all of this via the Outliner Panel if you want to see how the nested groups relate.

[AK_SAM]

Layer Manager (extension) can improve (slightly) the Sketchup layer system by adding groups to layers (stackable), and allowign them to be re-ordered within the list.

Unfortunatley the extension doesn’t work well if you are transferring your mdoel between different versions, different PCs, etc…the layer structure will disappear (I learned the hard way!).

It sounds like you need to put your entire wall of cabinets within a component, and put that component onto a layer of its own. Then you can switch off the ‘parent’ component, or any one of its ‘children’ independently.

It’s crazy , but SketchUp Pro doesn’t have simple functions like Layer Groups, or Scene Groups which would really simplify this task.

Consider the image below, and the number of visibility combinations that the cupboard may take. Not all assemblies (or parts of a model) are nested in such a convenient manner.

The handling of such “assemblies” becomes complicated as it starts to use a LOT of layers and requires a large number of layer states to be remembered.
Again, unfortunately, layer visibility in SketchUp is only manageable using Scenes (which are not stackable and do not auto-update). If i need 6 layers just for a cabinet, imagine how many I would need for an entire house, or a commercial office block??

There might be a 3rd party BIM extension that can do this but I’m not aware of one. If anyone does, then please let us all know

[john_mcclenahan]

There’s a a recently developed update of Layers Manager, called Layers Organizer ($ but not expensive).

Its from a firm of Australian architects. It’s in Extension Warehouse.

There’s a free trial period (can’t remember how long - a week? a month?)