How do I add a new layer?

OK, so now that I have my floor plan drawn and I know that I will not be changing my exterior walls anymore, how do I add a layer with just the exterior walls which will be the blank slate for my basement?

The house already has all the interior walls and such drawn in so I know that I have what I need for my exterior in order to fit what I need on the inside.

Perhaps I should have made the layer for the basement before drawing in everything else. But if that is the case then what does one do when they change something on the exterior?

You’re about to make a mayor mistake if you don’t group geometry first to separate it from other geometry, say group interior to separate from exterior before assigning these groups to their respective layer, whatever their names (your choice) may be.

In the ‘Layers’ window you’ll see a **+**sign that adds layers when clicked on.
Then you can change the layer name, Which you can also do in ‘Entity Info’ once created.

But first read this:
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/38572

p.d. Layers do not separate geometry, groups and components do.
Layers are to controle visibility in SketchUp.

2 Likes

I have already made the exterior a group. So in order to make all the interior walls a group, do I need to select each one at a time or is there a shorter quicker way? And of course the same process would go for making all the cabinets a group.

Think of things like in real life. a side of a TV belongs to that TV and has nothing to do with a cabinet next to it They’re all “groups”. In SketchUp you have entities as edges and faces. On their own they are basic entities, But put together they may represent something, although maybe not finished. This is a good time to group them. You can edit then later anyway,

Groups (and components) are chunks of geometry separated from the rest Their geometry does not stick to geometry, nor does their edges intersect with edges in other contexts (say in other groups or in the topmost context/ungrouped)

You’ll notice that till now I haven’t mentioned layers. All basic geometry (except for text and/or dimensions) must “stay on” Layer0. Only groups and components may have another layer assigned to them to controle their visibility (by layer o/off).

You say your exterior is already grouped. Select this group and in ‘Entity Info’ assign some other created layer to it. Now you can turn its visibility off. But only due to the grouping it is separated from the rest, not just because you made it invisible.
Ungrouped invisible geometry still merges and intersect and stick to visible basic geometry.

2 Likes

OK, say I draw my floor plan then make it a group. Then I make a layer and call it “floor plan” and make a scene. I go on with my drawing of course working on layer 0. Say I make a change say lengthen a section of my floor plan. Does the “floor plan” layer automatically change as well and then the scene change once I do the update bottom?

You make changes inside the floorplan group, e.i. in its editing context. The layer “floor plan” or “whatever the name may be” is just the name of the layer assigned to that group. Other groups and components may also have the same layer assigned to them. To controle their visibility by that same layer switch. The layer has nothing to do with the content of the group(s). You edit them inside the editing context, as simple as that.
A saved scene is just the way of how you want to view your model when you click on the tab. It does NOT change the model in any way. It shows the model in a certain way. What is saved depends on the settings at the time of saving and updating the scene. See what the ‘Scene Manager’ has to offer.
(right click a scene tab > select Scene Manager > lots of options to check/uncheck)

So changing geometry changes the model > thus changes what you see as the scene, not the other way around.

Also, to better grasp what is going on when saving/updating scenes and new scenes: In menu Window > Preferences > General > check “Warn of style changes when creating scenes”.
Otherwise you may get confused if settings don’t seem to be saved. Let’s say it helps.

In short: changes in geometry will reflect what you see in a scene, not the other way arond.
And layers are just “dumb”. To turn on/of (and saved that way per scene (or not)) merely to controle visibility. No more than that.

Hope this helps

2 Likes