Thanks for the tip about tags @simoncbevans , I didn’t know that. Is there a way to send something ONLY to you?
Point taken on LO being a separate program. I use such a small piece of LO that I probably shouldn’t talk.
DataCAD had 3d capabilities and better control than Autocad…
I used to do retail design and documented the shop fitouts in 3d,
still produced plans in 2d views
but all elevations / sections were actually 2 point perspectives
so quick for everyone to visualise [client, shop manager, mall architect, shopfitter]
Sightlines are very critical in shop design so
doing them in 3d virtually eliminated on site issues and gave client / manager confidence.
There sure is. You can PM me (PM=personal message). If I wanted to send you one, I would click on your name and select Send Message (as below).
Try FlatText for this. Limited fonts, but true WYSIWYG.
Yeah, I tried FlatText a while ago. I don’t remember details, but decided it wasn’t for me. Partly, I just didin’t like the number of new objects in my model.
Any text you create in SketchUp will not export to CAD as text and won’t be on a separated layer.
Drawings are not exclusively visual. Layout is part of an interdisciplinary workflow and a simple thing as being able to isolate a text layer is key in that workflow.
True, but it’s the only way I know to control the appearance and location of annotations with the same degree of accuracy as edges and faces, at least until something better comes along.
It’s not just SketchUp and Layout - text graphical translation between CAD, PDF, and other software is still a Tower of Babel. 
Well yes and no…
Notation,[ text and dimensions] are integral elements of the object you are describing and
if the link is broken between the object and its notation there is a big risk of them not being coodinated…
Accordingly, when managing large Autocad teams I insisted that all notation that related to physical object in a drawing be kept with that object, ie in model space [aka SU] , no in paperspace [aka LO]. That of course is not really practical in complex SU models, nevertheless it is desirable
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Well said @gsharp . I feel validated. I draw cabinets, and each cabinet box has dimensions related ONLY to that cabinet, so I put them IN the cabinet component. This has the added advantage of showing only that cabinet’s dimensions when I open that cabinet (“hide rest of model”). I also feel that time to make notes about a specific part of the project is while you’re drawing it. If I wait until I’m in LO, I’ll forget to add a note like “horizontal grain on this door”.
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yep, a wrong dimension in a 40 storey building can cost millions
even billions in the case of NASA Mars shots 
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I agree with you two. It’s just that I have so many different uses for complex drawings that I always endup having my own compromises mindset.
That shouldn’t be needed though…
I see some solutions that I’m constantly talking about:
- Dimensions in Layout are flawed: they MUST be fixed;
- Dimensions in Sketchup are not flawed and very handy for a lot of scenarios so: they must convert to layout as true dimensions for export to CAD and allow for management in Layout like style and positioning;
- This should also happen to texts.
- There should be a new Sketchup kind of text: that would be something between a 3D text and a leader text, allowing for precise placement in 3d space, but still have it’s size relative to paper size, defined in font style dynamically and can have left, right, center, top bottom or full line justification.
- Sketchup Layers should be manageable in Layout and exported to CAD: this would allow us to have Sketchup dimensions in the dimensions layer which is shared between Layout and Sketchup. What I mean is that part of that Layout layer’s objects are made in Sketchup and the rest is residing in Layout. Hide that layer and you hide both Sketchup and Layout’s objects.
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