after buying a house I’m back into Sketchup to plan some things I want to change on the outside.
I first build the house and now attaching the different things I want to build on the outside.
So I created a layer for the basics of the house.
For every object like Veranda, Garage or whatever I created at least one more layer. So I’m able to display them or hide them.
Now I created some wall decoration panels at the front of the house. But doing this “destroid” the wall of my house at some points. Unfortunately I’m not able to repair it I would like to have the wall intact even when the panels are not displayed.
To give you a better understanding I attached some screenshots.
As you may see in the screens I’m from germany… so sorry my english is not perfect
Screenshot - “All layers” show the whole project
Screenshot - “panels” show only the layer of the decoration panels
Screenshot - “panels-hidden” show the whole project but the panel layer is hidden. On that screenshot you see the issue. It looks like parts of the wall are part of panel layer now. But I’m not able to fill that again in the house layer…
EDIT: Looks like new users are only allowed to add one attachment. So I had to be tricky… and merched them into one file. Screens are in order like described above.
You need to separate geometry by grouping it, not by use of layers/tags. They are for visibility controle only, not to separate geometry.
Basic (raw or ungrouped) geometry should always be untagged (“on” Layer0).
You should study some SketchUp fundamentals training to learn about groups, components, and layers (renamed tags in 2020). Your model has many edges and faces using other than layer0, which usually indicates a basic misunderstanding of what they do in SketchUp. They are not like “layers” in 2D drawings or photo-editing programs. Likewise, you have only a single component in the model. You need to use groups or components to isolate things from sticking to each other. Layers won’t do that.
You are using Layers incorrectly.
SketchUp’s Layers [renamed Tags in the newer versions] control the visibility of the objects assigned to the layer…
So you always leave your active/current layer set to Layer0.
Draw all of your geometry - edges+faces - and they are assigned that layer.
Group logical geometry - e.g. a roof.
Then that roof-group and assign another layer to that group - e.g. ‘ROOF’.
Now you can switch the visibility of you roof on/off…
You can also use a Component to contain the geometry - it’s a special kind of group which can have multiple instances - so e.g. door components can be assigned layers DOOR1 & DOOR2 to allow the doors on different floors to be on/off. A component appears in the Components-Browser and additional copies can be inserted into your model as desired. If you edit any one instance of a component then all others reflect the changes - useful if you are changing a door style - one edit & all doors change - conversely to affect only one instance and leave others unchanged you use the context-menu to ‘make_unique’, so you duplicate the component and then any editing only affects that new one…
Using layers does not separate geometry even if they are on/off.
So if you assign one layer to a wall’s face and another layer to the wall’s edges, it’s a recipe for disaster and confusion [as you have found !]
If you switch off the layer and hide the wall’s faces they remain linked to the edges on the still visible layer.
Now delete one of those edges and switch the wall’s face layer back on. The faces which relied on the deleted edge have gone too.
So to recap - all geometry [edges/faces] should always use Layer0.
Then use Group or Components to contain related geometry and assign those ‘containers’ to other layers, so you can switch their visibility on/off.
Any other approach will surely lead to madness…
Yes I think I got it now.
I guess my problem is that I’m a webdesigner… so I’m very used to Photoshop. I transferd my understanding of layers from that tool to Sketchup
Because I’m a “newbie” on SketchUp it took me a lot of hours to create this. Any advice on how to fix it without completly redoing the model?
You could use something like my LayerWatcher extension:
Get a free SketchUcation membership and download that tool’s RBZ, and then install it…
It stops you making these mistakes, and let’s you fix some other issues that you have made…
Reset the model’s active/current layer to Layer0.
Ensure that all layers are ‘on’ and there’s nothing ‘hidden’ otherwise.
Select All, the use the context-menu item to assign “Selected-Geometry-To-Layer0” - if there are any selected groups/components will also prompt to fix their geometry - choose to do so.
Now you’ll have all ‘raw’ geometry using Layer0…
Next use groups/components as explained to separate logical sets of selected geometry, and assign layers to those ‘containers’ to control their visibility…
Use Scene-tabs to save various set up of layers, so that you can quickly flick between them…
SketchUp shouldn’t allow the active “Layer”/Tag to be changed. This encourages people to draw different objects in the same context, thinking they are separated on different “Layers”. In SketchUp a “Layer”/Tag has never acted like a layer in this way, but is a tag applied to entities, not a container separating the entities. The proper way to use SketchUp is to draw every separate object as a Group or Component, and optionally apply “Layers”/Tags to these to control their visibility. Sadly this isn’t clearly communicating by the UI.
Also SketchUp really needs to keep the “Layer”/Tag inspector hidden by default and instead show the Outliner, as that is the interface best reflecting Layers in other programs, and helps finding and editing groups.
Not all is lost if you consistently drew on the layers. Turn Layer0 to be active, set all others but one to non-visible, Ctrl A, change the Layer Assignment in the entity info panel to Layer0. Then Make it a Group (rightclick on the selection and choose ‘Make Group’
While still selected, change the Layer assignment of that group to the original Layer.
Turn of and proceed with the next layer…
I would like to have the wall intact even when the panels are not displayed.
