I have a large and complex model (festival site of hundreds of acres) and I want to export layers for zone design and build managers to work on, then import back into the model intermittently.
I can’t find anything on how to do this anywhere. Am I doing it wrong? is there a more efficient way to organise my model?
I have inherited the model so am reorganising if top to bottom now anyway.
My problem is that each zone of the site (Layer on SKP ideally) consists of numerous buildings, tents, structures, vehicles, furniture etc etc and so is somewhat too complex for a single ‘group’
First, be certain you fully understand the role of Layers in SketchUp.
A Layer in SketchUp is merely a Visibility-ON/OFF Attribute assigned to Groups and Components.
Layers in SketchUp do not separate/isolate geometry from unintentional interaction/alteration.
If you make a logically named component of the various parts [given its own Layer as desired], then you can select that component and use Save_As to make it an external SKP file…
At that point it might be a good idea to ‘lock’ that component’s instant so you can’t change it in the ‘central-model’.
Others can then open and change the contents of that now separate SKP file.
Later on you can update your ‘central-model’ by using Reload in the Component Browser > Model pane for that particular definition’s icon.
This way you could split the central-model into several locked component-instances which you Save_As external SKP files.
All of the changes being done in the individual SKPs, not the central-model…
Later on you can Reload them back into the central-model as you wish, so that you can image/print them ‘combined’…
The Outliner also allows you to quickly access the component-parts and their own sub-components/groups etc…
Great
I think I’ve been looking at components wrong, thinking of them as ‘entities’ I guess. I didn’t want to save a whole zone consisting of hundreds of floors, walls, fixtures, fence panels etc etc as a single component but… If I can edit that component as a separate file then it’s a winner. I’m trying it out on a copy version now.
This image shows what would end up being one component in this instance in case that changes your thoughts.
At the moment Box, that is hundreds of components in various groups, layers and nested layers. I’m looking for a way to give my colleagues access to edit the detail and precise layout of areas of say 100m x 100m and then import that back into the master.
I read TIG’s comments as advising me to turn the collection of components I want to send to a colleague and save them as 1 component…
I started nesting / grouping layers after watching this video … which is what led me to the question about exporting layers or groups I guess… as he advices essentially giving almost every component a well labelled layer and then grouping those layered components as layers.
Yep. I failed to note that the message I replied to was that old. I’m attempting to read up on importing from Adobe Illustrator, especially keeping layers intact, before I attempt it.
I expect I’ll need to export from Illustrator to dxf or dwg so that SU can import the file. The files I’m currently working with are pdf, but were created with Illustrator so they have layers. If SU does not use layers, I’m not sure how to understand other forums discussions in which SU Layout and SU Viewer can assign/create/view layers. Does that functionality not translate to SU Pro?
When you import the .dxf or .dwg, the geometry should come in with tags matching the layers in Illustrator. Tags do not provide separation for entities like layers do in Illustrator. You need to group the geometry to provide separation.
First thing: Make sure you aren’t reading ancient threads on the topic.
The SU Viewer doesn’t allow assigning layers. It’s only a viewer.
LayOut is a different animal. It does use layers in a similar way to Illustrator. Layer order is important. Entities on layers closer to the top of the list will appear over entities on layers farther down the list.
In SketchUp, again, tags do not provide separation between geometry. The main reason for tags is to control visibility of components and groups in the model. Also, tag order has nothing to do with what appears in front of what. SketchUp is a 3D modeling tool and uses distance in the model space for that.
Ok. This is starting to make sense. I’m thinking in 2 dimensions (layers). I downloaded a simple model from the Warehouse to play with tags. After some early and simple tagging it appears that tags will function in the way that I need. That begs the question… when I import a pdf with layers (from Illustrator) will the layers automatically translate to tags in SU?
It’s common for new users to get too far into their project with a 2D mindset. Better to start thinking 3D as soon as possible.
As I wrote before, generally imported .dxf and .dwg files bring in their layers as tags but it’ll be the edges and faces that have the tags and you need to fix that before you go further with your modeling.
By the way, you should also make it a practice to leave Untagged as active. If you are using the correct workflow there’s no need to change that and no need to chase active tags like you have to chase layers in Illustrator.
