Import from Photoshop

Hi!
I have a 2D floor plan drawing in Layout. I would now like to render my drawing and make it a little bit more artistic by using PhotoShop or similar software. Now, how do I export back to Layout without loosing the scale etc? And in what format? It is a drawing, so I really need to the measurements, line bars, labels etc and use the info bar.

You would need to export an image file, probably best would be to export a PNG file from LO and then import that back in after you’ve made your changes in Photshop.

Here’s a quick example. On the left is a viewport from a SketchUp model and on the right after it has been edited. I exported a PNG image of the page on the left. The white paper area is exported as transparent and in the image editor I cropped that area out. Then I manipulated the image to give it a watercolor appearance and then inserted it into LO. The L-shaped marks at the corners are index marks I used to make sure the imported image would be the same size as the viewport. They were added on a separate layer in LO and that layer was turned off before exporting the PNG. I made them thick and red so they’d show for the screen shot but they were originally thin and black.

Keep in mind that this image you create and insert will not be connected to the model so you won’t be able to dimension it and changes that might be made to the model won’t be reflected in the image.

I was thinking about this a little more while my coffee was kicking in. To make the example in the previous post I duplicated the page with the viewport, deleted the viewport and inserted the image. Here I’ve added dimensions on the first page on a shared layer so they show on the second page.

Another option would be to stack the image on the same page over the viewport. Put the image on a layer between the viewport layer and the dimensions layer. So the Layers list would look something like this:

Dimensions
Artistic image
SketchUp viewport

Then you can dimension to the viewport and it will look like the dimensions are to the image. I’d make the viewport layer invisible for export later. If you have some transparent areas in your image, you could let the model viewport show through, too.

Or maybe the viewport goes on top of the artistic image as in the example.

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Thank you very much Dave for your kind helpt. Very useful. Coffe can make a world of difference. :grinning:

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