Continuing a discussion here, still no solution - Layout Model Style Control Issue (still no solution that I’ve seen posted): Whoever is in charge of forum management, why close the post I’m referencing above, or the post that this was orginally continued from if an issue hasn’t been solved? Please keep the posts open until an issue is solved.
Hi everyone. I have seen a post recently between two people I’ve chatted with, seems like from what I read there was no solid resolution or anything solved as to what the problem could be with styles changing on preset viewports in layout seemingly randomly.
I setup a custom viewport overlay, for example I make a layout viewport set to only show the roof above in dashed red, once I overlay that onto the primary layout viewport that represents the main sketchup scene back in sketchup, I go to work on other things. Sometimes when I come back into layout, usually I’ve seen things change when I open layout again, the viewport that I’ve set to show the roof above in dashed red lines in the wireframe style, the style changes. It changes where I see everything as it should be, but instead of looking like a total wireframe, it creates a white fill in everything, dashes stay the same, colour, etc, but now it’s not true wireframe anymore because the contents has a white fill in it making it so that I can’t see the viewport below it (the style on that viewport is different than what I’ve originally set it to).
@DaveR mentions to untick the checkbox for the shadows setting on the effects of the layout sketchup model window. This is not a solution so far for me in my experience or from what I’ve read. Does anyone have any info on this problem? This is a big time waster. While we are at it, layout, it would be great if we could rid of this link between tag visibility and edge styles sometime this year? (Hopefully the next release)…
@PaulMcAlenan, has what dave has said in the last referenced above post of yours fixed this issue for you?
Tucker, I should have posted an update to that discussion I had with DaveR.
That specific issue has not occured since, but it wasn’t specifically to do with the shadows settings, i.e. it wasn’t a workaround - it was (as I understand Dave - and do understand) about inconsistent settings across my scenes and not applying one consistent style across all of the scenes in the SketchUp file that I use for Layout presentations.
Doing this does not prevent the ability to use stacked viewports for presentation - it means that all viewports have a default style that is the one set across all the scenes in the SketchUp file… and therein lies the cause of an occaasional viewports changing issue that I have (??) but is probably to do with me being sloppy with my viewports as was the issue I reported in the post you refer to.
(this occasional issue is seemingly random and I haven’t been bothered to note what is happening or if there is any pattern and it happens so infrequently that it’s easier just to fix the specific viewport and move on)
Oh okay! Good to know and I appreciate your reply.
For some final clarification:
So it sounds like you’re still not sure about what is causing a layout viewport style to change and have the results I’m talking about or something similar? I have unticked all the shadow settings for all my layout viewports except for the main primary ones linked to sketchup that show the native sketchup scene. Every other overlay I use I have unticked the shadow setting to off. Do you think this makes a difference? Do you have any other possible solutions? I imagine it won’t be a huge pain for me as well regularly, however just curious if you have any other possible solutions or hunches.
As I see it, it’s not about ticking or not the shadows toggle, it’s about having consistency.
When Dave mentioned about shadows I checked my Layout files and found that my SketchUp scenes were not consistent, i.e. one scene would have one style and no shadows, another would have another style and shadows, and so on.
When I applied the one style to every scene in the SketchUp file and then applied my style overrides as required on the particular stacked viewport in Layout, the specific problem I had disappeared.
It may well have been the case that it was my viewport and style sloppiness that was my problem and that one doesn’t necessarily have to have all scenes in SketchUp have the same one style for insertion into Layout - just that it should be logical and consistent…
I notice that: When I change the style of a viewport in LO using a default style that is NOT in my model, the viewport eventually reset. For example: In my model, a scene is set to HIDDEN style. From LO, I have the viewport from the scene, but I over-ride it with a WIDEFRAME style that I pick from LO which is not available or loaded in my model. Eventually, the viewport style will reset to HIDDEN. (After a reopen perhaps) To fix the problem, I just need to be sure that the style WIDEFRAME is loaded (used or not) in my model. This way, I notice, the “reset” does not occur. Hope this helps. This said it’s definitely a bug because if LO offers you to use a different style than the one loaded in your model, it should not reset it. Otherwise, it should not be available to pick.
The problem I was having and occasionally have now involves styles loaded from the SU model.
Actually today I was having some issues: on one page I copied a viewport with an overrided style (loaded from SU), created a new page and pasted the viewport expecting the viewport to be pasted with the override style, but no, it was pasted with the SU scene style.
This happened a few times and LO seemed to have problems letting me re-override the style. One time LO crashed.
This appears to be a new buggy issue that I can’t recall experiencing before…
@adam@Mark . Speaking of bugs, and maybe not best to go into this on this thread. Layout crashed on me almost 30 times in one day using a brand new laptop and my powerful desktop (specs are not updated on my profile).This all had to do with unticking the auto render box to off, when the auto render is set to off layout would crash repeatedly, the problem of crashing was only fixed when I turned auto render back on. This is a huge problem because layout is extremely slow when auto render is set to on, so I’d like to have it off most of the time but don’t now because I worry layout will crash again during important work. This needs to be addressed and hoping this can be fixed before next update.
Paul:
Yea looks like there are some bugs with this. This is not the end of the world when you only have to update a few viewports, however it’s very annoying and with a larger project it could be a huge pain. I hope this is fixed soon…
I’m glad to hear that others are having LO viewport issues. I have spent a lot of time trying to fix issues. Mainly, viewports switching to a wireframe style which I never use. I want a vector or hybrid render and LO seems to have problems with that. The tutorials I have seen make it look so simple. I can’t show wireframe to a client. Didn’t have these issues with my older versions. Is this a v. 2021 bug?
I have moved entirely over to DaveR’s method of having a single style in the SU model and having all my override styles in Layout. It’s a neat way of handling styles in Layout!
Than you for your reply and comment. I guess I was hoping to have it all work and not be limited to a certain way or having to do “work around” fixes. We produce so many drawings and just need things to work as expected.
I’ve never had the style associated with a scene/viewport change unexpectedly. I’ve seen files from other users in which the style changed due to something the user did but in every case it was easy enough to sort out with a look at the file.
As Paul mentioned, with the release of LO2020 I no longer have any need to bloat the file with a bunch of styles in my SketchUp model file. I only have my default working style all other styles are selected in LayOut. This isn’t a “work around”.
I have to say, thanks to DaveR, my feeling is that my issues with “buggy” styles in Layout have been down to having a casual understanding of how SU styles work and the interaction with Layout.
As Dave says, in my case, what I’ve done to get things working how one expects them to, are not workarounds. I’ve just been more rigorous in my workflow…
Thanks for the comment, Dave. Can you explain a little more about using the default style? Are you using a standard style provided in Sketchup? or are you using one style overall that you have tailored for you?
I don’t know if it is the right approach, but I still export a lot of images straight from Sketchup and then into photoshop. I still would like to have multiple styles available for exporting the images. I mainly use hidden line, Architectural Design, fineliner, and one using style-builder.
Attached is a screenshot that shows one of the viewports that changed to wireframe when I switched to vector.
It is just a little odd to me that using the same workflow, I have never had this issue before switching to 2021.
Really appreciate your comments and suggestions!
My default SketchUp template uses a style I created. It’s nothing exotic. Profiles on and set to 1, Dashes off. Back face color set to a green instead of the default blue, section planes, cuts, and fill off.
What does this mean? Are you copying and pasting from SU to LO? Or are you sending to LO once and then copying the viewport once you’re in LO?
In SketchUp I created a collection of styles that I use in my LO projects. Some of these are set up with viewport stacking in mind and others for showing hidden details or other features. When I get into LayOut, I choose the appropriate style for the viewport. Again, my SketchUp model file normally only has my default working style.
I’ve never had that problem in any of my own files. I’ve seen it reported by others over the years, not specifically with LO2021. I’ve seen some of those files and managed to make them behave.
One thing I am kind of AR about is not modifying the Camera settings for scenes. With LO2020 and 2021, that means not making changes that result in the dark gray background in the Camera settings of the SketchUp Model panel. This seems to prevent a load of problems.
Thanks, Dave. This is helpful.
I am a novice at layout. 99% of what I have done in the past has been more for presentation work. I model and get the sketchup image to look as close to what I want and then export it to a 2D graphic in png, jpg or pdf format.
Sometimes I export multiple versions to get shadows on separate layers etc. and then use photoshop to get the final image.
I have only recently, (in the past 2 years) used layout as a tool. My office was almost all using Revit. We hardly ever used layout for CD’s.
[quote=“james226, post:18, topic:156994”]
and then export it to a 2D graphic…
…I export multiple versions to get shadows on separate layers etc. and then use photoshop to get the final image.[/quote]
I often do the same sort of things. Sometimes I combine rendered images from the model with direct output or, as in the following, a sketchy lines only image with a shadows only image so I can manipulate the shadows without affecting the lines.
Like SketchUp, LayOut is very powerful. The problem with both applications, if you can call it a problem, is that it’s easy to get going down a less than optimal path and wind up creating issues that make things difficult later. I see this quite often from students who have been instructed to use SketchUp and LayOut but haven’t been given the training to use them efficiently and effectively. It’s important to learn and use best practices and to be always thinking ahead as you are working.
That sketch is beautiful and is very similar to some of the things I have done.
I feel like my sketchup training has been pretty good. I took the course from Alex Oliver’s Sketchup School a couple of years ago. It had some layout training but that’s obviously where I can improve.
It just hasn’t been emphasized at all in my previous office.
