I have tried to use the label tool and allow the auto label with the component name. Wht ends up really happening is the label displays child components of the component. So if you have nested components and the top level is the main components (and obviously structured that way for a reason) then one would expect the labeler to label per the highest level component the user is selecting and not the sub components or nested components. The child components could always be labeled if the parent component was drilled into.
So as it stands, both sketchup and Layout label tool do not really label the component selected but reads down the hierarchy selects the component it thinks you are pouting to and completely ignoring the parent that you are really pointing to.
OK lets assume I am mistakenā¦tell me exactly what you did to get yours to workā¦For me I am simple selecting the label tool, and selecting what I believe is the parent component only to see the child (embedded) component name appear. I have never been able to get a Label to read SIP or SIP 001 or anything other then the childrenā¦is there a parameter or setting I a unaware of. IF not then I am NOT mistaken and my system is not working as you concur it should.
Gully, here is my componentā¦please let me know what you get when you place labelsā¦Lets see if it is my component or Sketchupā¦Funny thing is both Sketchup and Layut behave the same.SIP.skp (89.2 KB)
My apologies. I am surprised to discover that itās a bug in version 2014, seemingly. (I am surprised because people report bugs here all the time and it usually turns out they were doing it wrong.) I have now duplicated the behavior you described and I am now able to confirm your report.
I opened your component in SU 2014 and it behaved exactly the way you describe. Then I opened it in SU 8 and it worked fine. (At first I thought that the fact itās a Dynamic Component was causing it, but 2014 also does the same thing on non-Dynamic Components.
I shall report this finding to our Trimble friends. Thanks for not getting your back up when I said I doubted you. Never again.
Thank you for investigating to the level that was able to draw a clear conclusion. Doubting is a natural tendency when historical findings are in conflict with the customers perception of an issue.
Now that we know there is a bug How do I track a bug report. This is a very critical feature for me and I have spent weeks trying to solve it and or come up with an alternative. Unfortunately Sketchup is a little stingy with the text API so alternatives are, wellā¦nonexistent.
In pre-v2014 the Text-label added by clicking on the instance always shows the componentās instance-name OR its definition-name if an instance-name is not set.
Nested instances are ignored.
In v2014 if you click on a piece of geometry that is inside the component-instance then the Text-label works the same way - displaying its ānameā.
BUT if you click on a nested instance within the main container, then the Text-label shows the ānameā of that nested instance instead.
This is actually a good thing if you want to Text-label the container AND its contents in the parent-context: BUT unfortunately, if there are only other instances inside the main container component, then you can never add a Text-label referencing that main containerās name.
So at the moment you must have some raw-geometry within it [or an unnamed nested group - which of course canāt then the labeled! ] to allow the Text-labeling to work as would seen sensibleā¦
A simple solution would be to add a modifier key to the native Text tool, so if you pick a point for some Text whilst holding down Shift it then always displays the top-level container, otherwise it says the nested partās name OR the main container name IF the clicked-on object is raw-geometry or an unnamed-group.
TIG: Just saw your post on Sketchucation and was about to post your response here for Gully and others here. You beat me to it. And thanks for āknowing thisā although I am amazed you did. I tested as you describe and this indeed works.