Dashed lines in SU 2019

Hi.
I just received an e-mail from Michael Brightman (the author of ConDoc Tools) explaining the dashed lines feature in SU 2019. My question is, where do I have to keep loose dashed geometry then? We know that Layer 0 should always stay active and all entities must be created there, until they are grouped etc. But when I want some entities to be dashed, then I should place them on a different layer? Then this rule considering Layer 0 is not valid any more?
Michael Brightman also gives following explanation in his e-mail: * When nesting layers, the deepest nested layer’s line type overrides all others. This I do not understand. We can nest groups and components, but layers? I should address this question to mr Brightman itself, but maybe it’s interesting for others also.

Hi Jabberwox,

A few things that might help out.

1 | If loose geometry is important to you, and you’re comfortable managing groups to isolate geometry, then you can still have lines directly on a layer within the group without any risks. I.e. you don’t need to separately group your dashed lines if they are inside a group or component to get the benefits of grouping.

2 | The inheritance of dash patterns work the same way materials do, and how layer visibility has always hidden groups and sub groups. If it helps, I personally like to think of SketchUp layers more like a tag. For example a door component contains fixtures and glass could be tagged with a ‘door layer’ and within the door you could have individual hinges or screws tagged with ‘hardware layer’ and glass tagged with ‘glass layer’ . This would allow you to turn off all hardware or glass while working, but turn them back on when rendering. It would also ensure that all door hinges and glass turn off when the doors layer is turned off because they are within the door.

3 | I’d be personally interested in understanding what you are aiming to achieve by having loose dashed lines in case there are some suggestions we could make, or so that we can understand more about the varieties of uses people have for dashes.

Thanks Doug. Of course, I now understand that “nesting” layers is committed through groups and other entities, not directly through layers.
About loose geometry: I have no particular interest or aim with them, just every SU manual and tutorial states that you should not have any loose geometry in your model, everything must be grouped. But when creating entities, it is recommended that this must happen on Layer 0. So I just have to create a “Dashed” layer and place lines to be dashed there (but still create them on Layer 0?) and then group everything. This how it seems to me.
Regards,
Jabberwox

Here’s a suggestion.

Quite often, you need dashed lines to represent different things, usually in 2D drawings. For example, on a plan you might want them to show the outline of foundations below ground or the outline of a beam at ceiling level. You might use one style for things above ground and another for those below. Once you have drawn one set, make them a group and assign them to a layer called something like Overground Dashed Lines which defaults to using a specific dashed linetype. Then draw the other set, group and assign to an Underground Dashed Lines layer defaulting to a slightly different linetype.

It would be very helpful to be able to group layers. So you could have a main group called Dashed Lines and then sub-groups simply entitle Underground, Overground, etc. There are extensions that allow you to do that but it’s a pity it isn’t a native facility.