Grouping not including all selected edges

[adammillsap]

Howdy folks, I’ve been playing with SketchUp for years, but recently began using it a bit more seriously. I am currently using it to create a site plan for a large site which will encompass a campground, maintenance shop, offices, a farm and a restaurant.

I’ve pulled in aerials from county GIS, as well as Lidar contours, and have traced existing features such as roads, buildings, and waterways. I think I’m doing an ok job managing these various items with tagging, and grouping, but ran into a very frustrating situation yesterday, and wasn’t able to figure out where/if I’ve gone wrong.

After tracing parcel lines from an imported GIS image, I planned to put all the traced edges in a group, and then trace some more meaningful boundaries over them. (the property line encompasses multiple parcels). My hope was that this would allow me to create entities which I could toggle into our out of view to visualize different configurations without the edges sticking to the original parcel edges.

I’d love feedback on whether this plan is a good one, but mostly I need help understanding, and solving the following issue. When I went to group the originally traced parcel lines I selected them all with a selection box, right clicked, selected “Make Group”, and saw that only some of the selected edges where included in the grouping.

I’ve closed the drawing, and reopened it, closed Sketchup and reopened it, cleaned up groupings in the Outliner, and tried selecting and grouping smaller sections. It is always the same edges which are not included.

Your help is much appreciated.

[DaveR]

Are the edges that are not included in the group already included in a different group?

Can you share the .skp file so we can see what you are working with?

[adammillsap]

Hey Dave, thanks for your reply. As far as I can tell, the edges are not included in other groups. I’m happy to share the .skp. How do I do that? I have the model uploaded to Trimble Connect, but don’t see an option to share it without an email address.

[DaveR]

If the file isn’t too large you can drag it and drop it into a reply in this thread or if you can’t share it with the world, share it just with me by clicking on my name and then Message. (You might need a couple more posts under your belt before you can send a DM. If the file is too large to upload (more than 10 Mb or so) upload it to Drop Box and share the link either in a reply here or DM.

[adammillsap]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ky45WwebAnhXATiiLqtWKuJcNUL__SEG/view?usp=sharing

[slbaumgartner]

Can you describe which exact edges are causing you trouble? I see a lot of them are already grouped.

There is a chance that the issue is with incorrect use of tags. You have a lot of edges using other than “untagged”. That can cause confusing conflicts between visibility of an enclosing group and visibility of its contents.

[DaveR]

As Steve indicates, you have a lot of edges that are tagged incorrectly.

Is thhis the geometry you are concerned about? There are a couple of groups and a bunch of ungrouped geometry. I moved the large group up to separate it from the rest.

If you are wanting to add the ungrouped geometry to the large group, you can select it all, cut it to the clipboard, then open the group for editing and use Paste in place to put it in the group.

[adammillsap]

Yes, if you hide all tags except the tag “Parcel lines” which in under the tag folder boundaries, those are the edges which are giving me trouble. If you click the curved edge closest to the origin, you should highlight a group of seemingly random edges. The extent of that grouping is pretty close to what I selected with a selection box, and all the edges within that box were selected when I created the group.

[adammillsap]

Can you point me to a resource to help me understand what you mean by tagged incorrectly, and how to use tags correctly?

[DaveR]

You might start here:

https://learn.sketchup.com/track/sketchup-fundamentals-part-1

Especially the section on Tags (or Layers).

In a nutshell, tags do not provide separation of geometry. They are used primarily to control the visibility of objects (components and groups). Untagged should always be left as active (the pencil icon in the Tags panel should always be at Untagged.) ALL edges and faces should be made as untagged and left as untagged. If you import CAD files you’ll need to make sure that you correct the tagging of the geometry. I use TIG’s Default Layer Geometry to do that. It’s available from Sketchucation. Only groups and components get tagged. This work flow is less prone to user errors and is actually easier because you are never chasing the active tag (layer).

[adammillsap]

Am I understanding correctly, that I had created duplicates of many of these edges? I’m not sure how I managed that.

[adammillsap]

So I should draw my edges, then group them or create a component, and only then create a tag to control visibility?

[DaveR]

There do appear to be duplicates. Not sure how you did that either.

[DaveR]

@adammillsap

and only then create a tag to control visibility?

Well, at least only then assign the tag to the group or component. You could have your tags created in advance if you know what they need to be. Just make sure the edges and faces remain untagged and only tag the group/component container.

Here’s a thing I posted a few weeks ago that may add a little more clarity. Or maybe not.

How to add item to existing group

Hopefully it helped. In case you want a little more, here’s an analogy that will hopefully clarify things. A bunch of jelly beans. This is like your loose, ungrouped geometry. [Screenshot - 11_16_2020 , 9_22_39 AM] The jelly beans in a jar. This is like putting your loose geometry into a group. [jar] If you want to make changes to the jelly beans in the jar, you have to open the jar. (Open the group for editing.) If you are going to use a tag, you add it to the jar, not to the jelly beans…

[adammillsap]

@DaveR

TIG’s Default Layer Geometry

Thank you so much for your help! It looks like I have some learning to do.

[TIG]

Slightly ‘off-topic’…
My ‘Default Layer Geometry’ has been recast/re-signed so that its menu items etc say ‘Tag’ instead of ‘Layer’ when loaded in newer SketchUp versions…
The RBZ is still the same name…
SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation
Otherwise its operation is pretty much unchanged over the years…