Custom line type with text

I want to create my own linetype in LayOut. Example we use a dashed line with text for rain drainage, gas, hot water, cold water, on the site plans for differentiating utilities. Subcontractors don’t always get the color plans and a tiny bit of text goes a long way.

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Not for layout but I guess you could put it on a separate tag in su.

https://extensions.sketchup.com/extension/9903f08c-f4a7-442a-9d8c-8ddf4b7b1584/dpline-styler

Thats a possibility but since all the other sizing lettering and documentation, notes, dimensions are make and controlled in layout it would make more sense if it was controlled in layout. Then if you need to adjust the line weight or text size font ect. it can all be adjusted in the construction document editor Layout. Wouldn’t that make more sense than having a to save in sketchup then go to layout and check how it looks in the viewport and then go back and forth. Once my model is set up in my viewport I don’t really need to go back and forth for anything else.

Yes doing custom line types in Layout would be the preferred way but I don’t think it’s possible. There’s also this https://www.kcdallc.com/product-page/vbo-vstyle but again I think it needs setup in SU.

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It is a feature that has been requested for LayOut. Hopefully one day.

I’d also like to be able to apply sketchy SketchUp styles to LayOut drawing entities.

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They have been adding a lot of line type features but there are still no plugins for layout to help bridge the gap. That would be a nice add on so one or both of the options that alpro suggested could be added for the folks who like it.

Styling lines that way would be a nice feature too.

Thanks for the suggestions. Those would both be options. Ive used profile builder to add letters to custom lines but its kind of aggravating to work with. I have DP line styler but I haven’t used it much yet. My efficiency loss is from the variety of project sizes we do. When you have a line set up for a half acre lot then the next job is on an 83 acre farm that’s where it would be really nice to have the viewpoint of layout to add a text that is readable on the finished page. I seem to doing a lot of guess and check and printing to see if its actually readable if the text is made in Sketchup.

I thought there was some talk about making plugins for Layout a long time ago. Maybe that would be a way to give some more options and at least see how many people use it and then it would be nice to have the option.

Sometimes a dashed line with the word gas written intermittently go a long way on an old dirty set of prints in the field.

They have been adding a lot of line type features but there are still no plugins for layout to help bridge the gap. That would be a nice add on so one or both of the options that alpro suggested could be added for the folks who like it.

Styling lines that way would be a nice feature too.

FWIW, it’s fairly trivial to add text or symbols centered on a line in LayOut.

That looks great. I have manually placed symbols like that before. If you have multiple lines and symbols plus arcs or 90 degree sections it can get very time consuming. Especially if you have a revision and all those manually entered symbols have to move. Can that symbol self orient while following a line with arc’s and 90’s. If it can I suppose that would solve all of my problems. I wasn’t aware that Layout had a copy along path feature for text or objects but I would like to follow your method if it will give me a solution. There are so many little hidden nuance techniques I guess I missed the copy along path for Layout?

That looks great. I have manually placed symbols like that before. If you have multiple lines and symbols plus arcs or 90 degree sections it can get very time consuming. Especially if you have a revision and all those manually entered symbols have to move. Can that symbol self orient while following a line with arc’s and 90’s. If it can I suppose that would solve all of my problems. I wasn’t aware that Layout had a copy along path feature for text or objects but I would like to follow your method if it will give me a solution. There are so many little hidden nuance techniques I guess I missed the copy along path for Layout?

There’s also the workaround described here…

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=66503

I use the hatch method routinely in my Layout condocs.

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I made some simple text/symbol lines as dynamic components.

There’s nothing special in what I did and you didn’t miss a copy along path for LayOut. I didn’t intend to imply that. I simply created an array of text boxes centered on a dashed line. Could have been a radial array around an arc, too.

I think you’re reading too much into it. As I wrote before, custom line styles has been requested before and hopefully it will be implemented one day. In the meantime it is possible to make labeled lines.

Well I decided to give the vbo plugin that I mentioned a try. I misunderstood the way it works, you don’t draw your lines in SU, just need SU to run the plugin and get the code to paste in the ruby console in Layout. Works pretty well, would be perfect if it would allow to adjust spacing between text, only way is to edit the line and delete text to get the spacing you want. You can adjust text style and size and line stroke.

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Thats really cool. Someone made a layout plugin. I’m going to try it! Thanks so much for sharing!

I read this before but must have been tired it seems like a good option for some things. I don’t really know how I would use it for this? Would it be copying and pasting along an array?