I dimensioned a house in Sketchup. Everything looks good in that scene. But the scene in layout has arrows that are huge, way oversized and nothing like what shows in the Sketchup scene.
What can be going on?
How can I fix it?
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I think you will get better results if you add the dimensions in LayOut. You have much more control over the size and style of the endpoints in LayOut than you do in SketchUp. I believe that, if you place dimensions in SketchUp, then bring that scene into LayOut, the dimensions will grow or shrink as you adjust the size of the SketchUp scene. You don’t have that problem if you place the dimensions in LayOut.
Hope this helps.
dh
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Thank you for your reply.
In the way I work it is additional work to add the dimensions in layout. I want them present for me in SketchUp when I’m working. I would like them to look something like they do in SketchUp. Is there any way to control how dimensions behave in layout when they are imported from SketchUp?
Also, it is the arrows that are a big problem. The text is more or less OK.
I’m sorry to say I misspoke when I said that the dimensions grow and shrink as you adjust the size of the SketchUp scene in LayOut. The text remains a fixed size. However, as you zoom out, the dimensions appear to scrunch together and eventually become illegible; that’s because the dimensions are tied to the ends of whatever components you have in the scene; as the components shrink in size, so do the dimension lines associated with them. SketchUp has a limited number of choices for endpoints to dimension lines and callout text, and I don’t believe they can be customized.
If you really want to use the SketchUp dimensions, I’d suggest choosing “none” for the dimension line endpoints.
Hope this helps.
Thanks. I’ll try that.
I’m using Sketchup 8 Pro with Layout. It seems kind of crazy to have such an uncontrolled (and not logical as far as I can see) connection between Sketchup dimensions and Layout.
Are you using Sketchup 2014? If so, does it do any better?
I do use SU Pro 2014. It’s no different in this regard from SU 8. I’m not sure a dimensioned scene in SketchUp could behave any differently. If the type for dimensions scaled up or down as you zoomed in or out, then at some point the type would become too small to read or impossibly large.
When I first used LayOut (before I stopped to read the instructions), I added dimensions and screen text in SkektchUp. The results were not pretty. Even though it means more work for you, I’d recommend adding dimensions in LayOut.
This is how it looks for me:
The tick size in LO can be set by the user, in SketchUp it seems to be tied to the dimension text height. The default in LO is smaller, the SU is larger but I don’t think it is oversize. Both texts use 10 pt Arial. If you set your dimension size in SketchUp to use modelling units, it will behave differently.
Anssi
You may want to reconsider just how you make use of SketchUp (SU) and Layout (LO). Layout was developed as a companion program for presenting SketchUp compositions. Typically the SU files represent schematic or design development study sketches and when the SU designer wants to represent a project in some form of constructable detail, this is usually accomplished by importing the SU file into LO where a specific scene may be formatted, annotated, dimensioned and clarified under exact conditions. Attempting to develop a set of working drawings relying solely on SU drawing files may be a frustrating experience particularly when reproducing the design on paper. I fully agree with David Heim’s response, in that you can more accurately control dimensioning and other text in LO than in SU. However, if your preference remains to use SU to display dimensions, 3d text and the use of drawn arrow symbols may be beneficial, albeit a bit more time consuming to employ.
+1
It seems the dimension font setting is the root of the problem.
The relative size of Dimension Text is displayed in two ways:
• Points As a fixed text size in relation to the screen.
Text size varies relative to the model with changes in camera position.
Size is fixed in Screen Space
• Height As a fixed text size in relation to the model.
Text size is constant relative to the model with changes in camera position.
Size is fixed in Model Space
-Geo
I am attaching jpegs of the scenes as they appear in SU and Layout.
Here is what I have in a scene in SU (SUProb1)
Here is the same scene in Layout (SUProb2)
In this case text in SU is set to 12 point
As a test I changed the text one dimension in SU to 100 cm height. In SU this means as I zoom in and out the text will get larger of smaller. It stays the same height as a 100 cm object in the drawing. When text is set to points the objects in the drawing get larger or smaller as you zoom in or out but the text stays the same size on the screen.
Here is the same scene in SU with 100 cm height text (SUProb3).
Here is the same scene in Layout (SUProb4)
The text is Layout is not scaled properly. i.e. is not the same height as 100 cm objects in the drawing. I would have to say this is a bug in the translation from SU to Layout. The meaning of text size in SU is very clear. That is not what I get in Layout.
Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Solving it by abandoning dimensioning in SU is not practical for me. This is a very schematic design that is rapidly changing. The reason for using layout is to be able to send a PDF to my collaborators showing the current state of the design. My current work around is to just make a jpeg of each scene, paste it into a Word document and email it. That is faster than using Layout.
Question: Why do you paste the jpg into Word? Why not just email the jpg as an attachment to the email? Any notes can be written in the email. Saves a step.
I find it actually quicker to paste into a word document than to save the file somewhere and then insert it into an email.
I could paste into an email but I find it more convenient to have a word document on file. Notes stay in good relation to the graphics. I can easily modify, add, update the contents.
Others can add their information with “Track Changes” which makes it easy to see who has suggested what.
PS. Seems a shame that I have to do this either way. Seems like something that should be natural and simple with Layout.
Oh well.
So I am not able to change the text size of the dimensions I do in SketchUp?
You easily change size of text in SketchUp. Select the text. In the Entity Info window click on “Change text”. YOu can also set it in preferences. But I don’t know how that transfers to Layout.
This is my BIGGEST frustration with the otherwise superb product of Sketchup Pro. Could Development please work with the code behind Dimensioning so that when a scene from Sketchup is imported into Layout, the visual representation of the dimensions and texts is EXACTLY as seen in Sketchup. In my opinion, this is a major hindrance to those of us who want to take a Sketchup model and make either presentations or working drawings in Layout. Fix this, and you will have a product we will be raving!
Can you post a LayOut file that shows this problem? As seen in my screenshot from last October, I deliberately tried to reproduce it but couldn’t.
Anssi
Funny that this topic should arise again right now. I hadn’t thought of it for a long time but today the problem came up again. Here are two files with my example.
Kitchen.skp & Kitchen.layoutKitchen.skp (1.6 MB)"Kitchen.layout (1.4 MB)
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It is primarily a scale issue. It looks similar in SketchUp when I zoom out. Your viewport in LayOut is at about 1:120 scale, very small for a layout of small spaces.
In the screenshot I placed a dimension in LayOut, using 12 pt Tahoma and it is the same size. SketchUp dimension arrows seem to be configured to be the same size as the text, whereas in LayOut the arrow size is configurable.
Is there a way in Layout, some scale setting or something, to make it look the same as it does in the SU scene?
I understand that text come out differently in SU depending on the zoom level.
The way that works can be changed by setting text to a particular size (in inches) in SU. I do that when I don’t want text to get bigger if I zoom in (i.e. it will stay the same size relative to other objects in the drawing).