…So I am looking for someone who will give me a simple breakdown of how to do it. The problem I am having is that I have designed a background unit and then a bunch of things on top of that, forgetting that I would need to go back and design a bunch of stuff on the background unit that would need to go seamlessly under the things on top. Since this is my first time using SketchUp, I really do need the kind of help that is 1) you do this; 2) you do that; 3) then you do this thing; 4) then you do that thing, etc.
Thank you in advance for anyone who would respond to this cry for help.
Hide/Unhide (visibility) does not, in any way, isolate or protect geometry from alteration.
Model organization and the ability to work with certain parts of a model without affecting others is accomplished by making logical portions of the model into separate group entities (containers so to speak) called Groups and Components.
Quick question regarding your problem. Are you wanting to hide / unhide just for modelling? If so you can organize your object in layers and turn layers on and off. Even if the object is nested in a component it still has the layers properties.
Yes, I want to hide/unhide for modeling. Obviously, both of the replies I’ve gotten say that I need to work instead with layers or components. Which means I have to go back and create the layers or components. Probably components, since I can hide them, according to the video.
Thanks guys, and if there’s anyone else that has anymore suggestions, feel free to write in.
It’s not an either/or proposition.
You must organize the model into Groups and Components before you can even consider using Layers to control visibility.
See … Does SketchUp Support Layers? — SketchUp Help
Edges (lines) in SketchUp are “sticky”, meaning whenever they touch they irreversibly meld together.
Think of Groups and Component as containers which isolate the geometry within … no more stickiness.
Organize the model into Groups and Components as you’re building it … not afterwards.
Model the first part and make that portion of the model into a Group or Component before you begin modeling the next part, and so on, until the model is complete.
When finished, a properly constructed model is an assembly of Groups and Components, with no ‘raw’ (ungrouped) geometry left behind.
Hide/Unhide is a poor way of controlling visibility while building the model.
It leads to confusion because it’s context sensitive after one go.
Layers are essential in organizing the views of complex models.
They’re handy, but certainly not necessary to the process of building less complex models.
When properly constructed of Groups and Components, there’s an easier way to control modeling visibility.
This was very helpful! Of course it means I have to go back and group every part of my model into components. Fortunately for me I did save the different parts of the model as I went along on flash drives so that I would have a back-up in case something happened like my computer crashed.
But thank you so much-- this is something I can handle.