# Drawingelement#visible? seems to return inconsistent results

**URL:** <https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454>\
**Category:** Ruby API\
**Created:** [January 30, 2022, 9:08pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454 "2022-01-30T21:08:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowyEgret](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/snowyegret/32/137797_2.png) [@SnowyEgret](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/SnowyEgret)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 9:08pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/1 "2022-01-30T21:08:02Z")

</div>

If a simple SketchUp model is built with 2 groups of geometry, and tag **a** is assigned one and tag **b** to the other, and if the following code is run:

```ruby
Sketchup.active_model.entities.select(&:visible?)

```

An array of **two** Groups is returned (expected).

If the visibility one of the groups is turned off in Outliner, an array of **one** group is returned (expected).

If the visibility of one of the tags is turned off in Tags, an array of **two** groups is returned (unexpected). Note that turning of the visibility of the tag in Tags also turns off the visibility of the corresponding group in Outliner. Can someone help me with an explanation?

[Visible test.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/6hLsz7YAkR0r4uvgjPET29ypYqK.skp) (72.7 KB)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dezmo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/dezmo/32/51058_2.png) [@dezmo](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/dezmo)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/2 "2022-01-30T22:11:55Z")

</div>

> [@SnowyEgret](#):
>
> Note that turning of the visibility of the tag in Tags also turns off the visibility of the corresponding group in Outliner. Can someone help me with an explanation?

No.  
There, in the Outliner the coresponding group is just grayed out. If you look closer, you do have same 👁 symbol as before but not black but gray.  
 ![gr_l_vis](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/c/3/c38923a85d92aec85bfb09ac7d4ee57ff71adfb3.gif)

If you turning off the associated tag (layer) you have to look for the visibility of the layer.

```ruby
Sketchup.active_model.entities.select{|ent| ent.layer.visible?}

```

or examine both

```ruby
Sketchup.active_model.entities.select{|ent| 
  ent.visible? && ent.layer.visible?
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanRathbun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/danrathbun/32/500_2.png) [@DanRathbun](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DanRathbun)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/3 "2022-01-31T01:50:37Z")

</div>

In other words, the following code …

> [@SnowyEgret](#):
>
> ```ruby
> Sketchup.active_model.entities.select(&:visible?)
> 
> ```

… is selecting [`Drawingelement`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Drawingelement.html) objects based upon the inverse return value of their boolean [`hidden`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Drawingelement.html#hidden%3F-instance_method) property and nothing more. (The [`visible?`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Drawingelement.html#visible%3F-instance_method) method documentation description is a bit misleading.)

Whether you actually see elements in the model view also must take into account whether their assigned layer (tag) or any of this layer’s ancestor layer folders are set to be visible. Also, if any of an element’s ancestral geometric collections that it is contained within or the layers they use (including layer folders) are set hidden, then the element also will not be shown (even though the element’s individual [`visible`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Drawingelement.html#visible=-instance_method) property is `true`.)

There are also 2 rendering options that control whether you see hidden objects (groups and component instances) or hidden geometry (primitives like faces and edges) as dotted outlines.

So you need to go about this task in another way. See:

- [`Sketchup::Model#drawing_element_visible?`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Model.html#drawing_element_visible%3F-instance_method)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dezmo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/dezmo/32/51058_2.png) [@dezmo](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/dezmo)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 7:01am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/4 "2022-01-31T07:01:18Z")

</div>

🤔  
Continuing Dan’s line of thought, we can go even deeper into the complexity of visibility …  
E.g. if (or do) we want to consider whether the object in question is visible on other than currently selected scene (?)

_The [#get\_drawingelement\_visibility](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#get_drawingelement_visibility-instance_method) method is used to get the visibility of a drawing element on a particular page._

_The [#layers](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#layers-instance_method) method retrieves layers that don’t use their default visibility on this page._

_The [#layer\_folders](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#layer_folders-instance_method) method retrieves the hidden layer folders associated with a page._

etc… 😊

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowyEgret](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/snowyegret/32/137797_2.png) [@SnowyEgret](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/SnowyEgret)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/5 "2022-01-31T18:32:52Z")

</div>

I have added a tag folder to my simple example model. I understand that I would need to traverse the entire graph and provide a longer instance\_path array for a more complex model, but in this case, if the following code is run:

```ruby
mod = Sketchup.active_model
mod.entities.select{|ent|
  p ent
  mod.drawing_element_visible?([ent])
}

```

an error is returned:

```ruby
=> 
#<Sketchup::Group:0x00000262a0154668>
"Leaf must be a type of Sketchup::Drawingelement (Line 4)"

```

Is the leaf not the last (and in this case only) element in the instance\_path array? And is a Group not a Drawingelement?

[Visible test.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/iqESfYMTx6g27OLjv4ZlPXQoowP.skp) (71.4 KB)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dezmo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/dezmo/32/51058_2.png) [@dezmo](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/dezmo)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/6 "2022-01-31T19:47:46Z")

</div>

You are right. The example in the [#drawing\_element\_visible?](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Model.html#drawing_element_visible%3F-instance_method) method documentation resulting the same error.

It seams eider the documentation is erroneous or the method itself cannot handle the group or component instance in the root of the model.

As I see, the method is looking for the leaf of the [InstancePath](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html), however the InstancePath of the root instance does not contains the optional leaf entity…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanRathbun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/danrathbun/32/500_2.png) [@DanRathbun](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DanRathbun)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/7 "2022-01-31T19:49:15Z")

</div>

> [@SnowyEgret](#):
>
> And is a Group not a Drawingelement?

Yes.

> [@SnowyEgret](#):
>
> Is the leaf not the last (and in this case only) element in the instance\_path array?

You have apparently found a bug. In testing on both 2021 and 2022 I cannot form a valid [`Sketchup::InstancePath`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html) object that has a group as it’s leaf. This also effects passing a coercible array to the method in question.

There are already a number of issues open with this method and the [`Sketchup::InstancePath`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html) class in the API Bug Tracker.  
Please file a bug report with a link back to this topic.

- [Issues · SketchUp/api-issue-tracker · GitHub](https://github.com/SketchUp/api-issue-tracker/issues)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SnowyEgret](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/snowyegret/32/137797_2.png) [@SnowyEgret](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/SnowyEgret)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/8 "2022-02-02T16:15:48Z")

</div>

> [@DanRathbun](#):
>
> In testing on both 2021 and 2022 I cannot form a valid [`Sketchup::InstancePath`](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html) object that has a group as it’s leaf.

I was going to mention this in the bug report but I don’t get the same behavior (on 2022):

```ruby
mod = Sketchup.active_model
group = mod.entities.add_group
path = Sketchup::InstancePath.new([group])
path.valid?

```

returns true

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dezmo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/dezmo/32/51058_2.png) [@dezmo](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/dezmo)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/9 "2022-02-02T16:48:47Z")

</div>

[# valid?](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html#valid%3F-instance_method)

_An instance path is valid if it has at least one element and consist of groups and instances with exception of the leaf which can be any entity._  
_This method doesn’t check if the path can actually be looked up in the model._

I think the this method will not give a right information here. (or also erroneous )

The issue is that the [#leaf instance\_method](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html#leaf-instance_method) returns `nil`

```ruby
mod = Sketchup.active_model
group = mod.entities.add_group
path = Sketchup::InstancePath.new([group])
path.leaf
=> nil

```

Beside that this is not documented, according to the error message above, the [#drawing\_element\_visible?](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Model.html#drawing_element_visible%3F-instance_method) method is “looking for” a `leaf`.  
But, it seams, that proper [InstancePath](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html) can not be constructed (at least for this method) if the group/instance is on a root of the model.

BTW. Dan already reported this issue in other aspect: [Sketchup::Model#drawing\_element\_visible? TypeError message is not quite correct · Issue #570 · SketchUp/api-issue-tracker · GitHub](https://github.com/SketchUp/api-issue-tracker/issues/570#issue-742592558)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanRathbun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/danrathbun/32/500_2.png) [@DanRathbun](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DanRathbun)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/10 "2022-02-03T00:17:36Z")

</div>

Yes, but you see the response that I got ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dezmo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/dezmo/32/51058_2.png) [@dezmo](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/dezmo)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:08am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/11 "2022-02-03T06:08:40Z")

</div>

Yes, I saw it. 😥  
Hope this time we get more serious attention.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomboul26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@tomboul26](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/tomboul26)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 12:31pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/12 "2024-08-21T12:31:39Z")

</div>

I wrote [a post for a similar problem](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/layers-vs-pages-visibility-study-mistakes-in-documentation/117205/7) but not in the right discussion

I also have a problem with whether an entity is visible or not in a scene (page)

 ![2024-08-21_12h34_12](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/6/0/60389673b14c8d4dbbfdfdb64e679d21a77adfea.png)

to find out, it seems that there are two methods for this, [Sketchup::active\_model.pages.selected\_page.hidden\_entitie](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#hidden_entities-instance_method) and [Sketchup::active\_model.pages.selected\_page.get\_drawingelement\_visibility(entity)](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#get_drawingelement_visibility-instance_method)

The [hidden\_entities](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#hidden_entities-instance_method) method only gives entities at the root, so the “planches toit” group is not in the table of hidden entities, and [get\_drawingelement\_visibility](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#get_drawingelement_visibility-instance_method) for the component “planche toit terrasse” return “true”

So, we are forced to go through the entire tree of entities to find out if an element is visible or not.

but it’s very heavy to do this in a loop to test the visibility of each entity

One solution I found was to rebuild an array of all hidden entities in the active page (only group and component) and use a function that use this array to know if an entity is visible or not

here the code to rebuild $hiddenIdentities array

```auto
def getAllHiddenEntities
  $hiddenEntities = []
  listHiddenEntities(Sketchup.active_model.entities)  
end

def listHiddenEntities(entities, visible = true)
  entities.each { | ent | 
    if ent.is_a?(Sketchup::ComponentInstance) || ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Group)
      if !ent.visible? || !visible
        setHiddenEntity(ent)
      end
    end
    if ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Group)
      listHiddenEntities(ent.entities, ent.visible? & visible)
    end
  }  
end

def setHiddenEntity (entite)
  if !$hiddenEntities.include?(entite)
      $hiddenEntities.push(entite)
  end
end

```

and when you want to know if a group or a component is visible or not: _(sorry is not very elegant, i’m beginner in ruby)_

```auto
def entityActive?(ent) 
  if($hiddenEntities && $hiddenEntities.include?(ent)) 
    res = false
  else
    res = true
  end
  return(res);
end

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanRathbun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/danrathbun/32/500_2.png) [@DanRathbun](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DanRathbun)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/13 "2024-08-21T14:15:53Z")

</div>

> [@tomboul26](#):
>
> The [hidden\_entities](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#hidden_entities-instance_method) method only gives entities at the root, so the “planches toit” group is not in the table of hidden entities, and [get\_drawingelement\_visibility](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Page.html#get_drawingelement_visibility-instance_method) for the component “planche toit terrasse” return “true”
> 
> So, we are forced to go through the entire tree of entities to find out if an element is visible or not.

We cannot test your scenario without a test model. But …

What does `Sketchup::Model#drawing_element_visible?(instance_path)` return in this scenario for the “planches toit” group and the “planche toit terrasse” component instance?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomboul26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@tomboul26](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/tomboul26)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 6:33am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/14 "2024-08-23T06:33:31Z")

</div>

> [@DanRathbun](#):
>
> What does `Sketchup::Model#drawing_element_visible?(instance_path)` return in this scenario for the “planches toit” group and the “planche toit terrasse” component instance?

i have also this error :  
`Error: #<ArgumentError: Leaf must be a type of Sketchup::Drawingelement>`  
in this project the the group “comp”  
[testRuby.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/ebkXvDY1lqEyLiQHPsLQpdthe8n.skp) (293.6 KB)

i get the error with this code

```auto
def test(entities, path = [])
  entities.each { | ent | 
    if(ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Drawingelement))
        puts "its a drawing element #{ent.class.to_s} " # even when it's a Sketchup::group
        vis = ent.model.drawing_element_visible?(path + [ent]) 
    end
    if ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Group)
      test(ent.entities, path + [ent])
    end
  }
end
test(Sketchup.active_model.entities)

```

it would seem that a `sketchup::group` is considered as a drawing element ?  
`puts` display : `its a drawing element Sketchup::Group []`

I don’t know all the subtilities of sketchup yet, I needed to create a material array with for each its list of visible components, so I made a loop starting from the [defintionList](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/DefinitionList.html), its maybe a mistake because with this kind of loop, I couldn’t know the path of a defintion and its entities

The best solution I found was to build a array of hidden elements, and then I can use this array to know the visibility of an element without knowing its path in the hierarchy

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomboul26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@tomboul26](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/tomboul26)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 8:22am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/15 "2024-08-23T08:22:31Z")

</div>

> [@dezmo](#):
>
> `path.leaf`

I continued to do research to better understand the problem, and with this code (on the project sketchup of my previous post)

```auto
def test(entities, path = [])
  entities.each { | ent | 
    if(ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Drawingelement))
      pa = Sketchup::InstancePath.new(path + [ent])
      puts "its a drawing element #{ent.class.to_s} " + getName(ent) + " valid = #{pa.valid?} leaf = #{pa.leaf.to_s} root = " + getName(pa.root) # even when it's a Sketchup::group
      #vis = ent.model.drawing_element_visible?(pa) 
    end
    if ent.is_a?(Sketchup::Group) 
      test(ent.entities, path + [ent])
    end
    if ent.is_a?(Sketchup::ComponentInstance) 
      test(ent.definition.entities, path + [ent])
    end
  }
end

def getName(entity, id = "")
  cm = entity.class.to_s.gsub("Sketchup::", "")
  if(cm != "Group" && entity.respond_to?(:definition))
      entity = entity.definition
  end
  if(entity.respond_to?(:name) && entity.name)
      name = "#{cm}_#{entity.name}"
  else
      if(entity.respond_to?(:entityID) && entity.entityID != nil)
          name = "#{cm}_entityID_#{entity.entityID}"
      else 
          name = "#{cm}_id_#{id}"
      end
  end
  return(name)
end

```

I get this result:

```auto
test(Sketchup.active_model.entities)
its a drawing element Sketchup::Group Group_comp valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Group Group_comp 1 2 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::ComponentInstance ComponentInstance_comp 2 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_144 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc59eb0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_145 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc59438> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_146 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc58bc8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_147 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc58128> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_148 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc57598> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_149 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc56710> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_150 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc551d0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_151 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc54348> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_152 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc50db0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_153 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc50220> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_154 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc9df48> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_155 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc9ca08> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_156 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc9ba18> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_162 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc989a8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_168 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc97c38> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_174 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc96cc0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_180 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc95e38> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_186 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001dc95320> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::ComponentInstance ComponentInstance_comp 1 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_76 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc93d68> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_77 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc934d0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_78 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc92e90> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_79 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc92558> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_80 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc91e00> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_81 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc918d8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_82 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc91248> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_83 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc90848> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_84 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001dc90050> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_85 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da1e100> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_86 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da1c878> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_87 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da1abe0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_88 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da18930> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_94 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da16fb8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_100 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da16720> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_106 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da16158> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_112 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da15960> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_118 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001da15230> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Group Group_comp 3 4 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::ComponentInstance ComponentInstance_comp 3 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_212 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da13f70> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_213 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da138e0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_214 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da120f8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_215 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da11a90> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_216 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da111f8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_217 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001da106e0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_218 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9cfd70> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_219 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9cf528> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_220 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9ceb50> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_221 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9cdf98> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_222 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9cd688> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_223 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9ccdf0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_224 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9cc648> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_230 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9cbe78> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_236 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9cb3b0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_242 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9ca640> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_248 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9c8278> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_254 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x000000001d9c6a18> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::ComponentInstance ComponentInstance_comp 4 valid = true leaf = root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_280 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c4718> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_281 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c3638> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_282 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c2c38> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_283 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c1e28> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_284 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c17e8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_285 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c11f8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_286 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c0c08> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_287 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x000000001d9c05a0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_288 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x0000000021ddfc90> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_289 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x0000000021ddf768> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_290 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x0000000021ddf290> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Edge Edge_entityID_291 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Edge:0x0000000021ddee30> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_292 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021dde868> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_298 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021dde408> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_304 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021dddf30> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_310 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021dddad0> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_316 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021ddd5f8> root = Group_comp
its a drawing element Sketchup::Face Face_entityID_322 valid = true leaf = #<Sketchup::Face:0x0000000021ddd198> root = Group_comp

```

[leaf](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/InstancePath.html#leaf-instance_method) method on a instancePath return nil when the last item is a group or a component  
that’s probably why we have this error `Leaf must be a type of Sketchup::Drawingelement`

[I reported the error here](https://github.com/SketchUp/api-issue-tracker/issues/995) :

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanRathbun](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/danrathbun/32/500_2.png) [@DanRathbun](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DanRathbun)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/16 "2024-08-23T15:25:57Z")

</div>

> [@tomboul26](#):
>
> i have also this error :  
> `Error: #<ArgumentError: Leaf must be a type of Sketchup::Drawingelement>`  
> in this project the the group “comp”

I am sorry. There is an open bug in the API (that I forgot about) …

> <https://github.com/SketchUp/api-issue-tracker/issues/764>
>
> \[Sketchup::Model#drawing\_element\_visible?\](https://ruby.sketchup.com/Sketchup/Mo…del.html#drawing\_element\_visible%3F-instance\_method) throws an error when the leaf of an array representing an instance path is a Sketchup::Group
> 
> \`\`\`ruby
> mod = Sketchup.active\_model
> group = mod.entities.add\_group
> mod.drawing\_element\_visible?(\[group\])
> \`\`\`
> 
> throws
> \`\`\`ruby
> Leaf must be a type of Sketchup::Drawingelement
> \`\`\`
> Please reference Developer's RubyAPI forum topic \[​
> Drawingelement#visible? seems to return inconsistent results\](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/drawingelement-visible-seems-to-return-inconsistent-results/188454/6)
> 
> SketchUp Pro 2022
> Windows 10