That’s the point I was trying to make. There’s absolutely no need to chase the active layer IF you leave it set to Layer 0. You never need to touch the radio button in the Layers window. Leave it on Layer 0. Assign components/groups to other layers as needed after you’ve created them. With all geometry created and remaining on Layer 0 and Layer 0 always being the active layer, there’s nothing to do when you need to edit a group or component. To be honest, I can’t understand why anyone would want to have to remember to change the active layer.
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Never say never.
You want to export DXF and your CAM program does NOT support block inserts. So you put the geometry into a group - assign it to a layer and then explode it. Sketchup has now assigned the geometry to the layer that the group was assigned to.
Then export the DXF. The geometry is assigned to a layer other than layer0
That specific situation is taken care of automatically when groups get exploded. Byut why would you wish to chase active layers while creating the model in the first place? We read frequently of the problems some users have because they are not following the basic guidelines about using layers. They forget to change the active layer, the wrong things are made invisible when a layer’s visibility is turned off, etc. That’s not a problem for users who leave Layer 0 active at all times. Why make things more difficult than they have to be? I guess since SketchUp allows it, those who like chasing the active layers can do it. I have enough other things to worry about without worrying which layer is active.
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Personally I have never had to “Chase” layers. But I have made good use of them from time to time. Incorrect usage of Layers is an educational thing. It is very prudent to use layer0 for geometry in most situations.
Some have stated that they would like to see geometry to be automatically assigned to layer 0 when exploding groups and or components. That in itself will create other problems for users like me. However I would be all for a switch - perhaps on the Workspace Preferences page. By default it could have a setting such as “Move all geometry to layer0” and have it checked.
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Additionally - if Sketchup allowed us to export Groups as geometry and use the groups layers and only export true components as block inserts then I would most likely have very little reason to ever assign geometry to a layer other than 0
Another semester has passed. Another frustrating time trying to stop students from changing the active layer away from Layer0. I literally spent a quarter of my course trying to overcome that pitfall. It is so frustrating!
Of course my favourite solution would be to re-define it as a Labeling-System, because metaphorically labels “attach” an attribute to an object, instead of placing said object in a spacial relationship (“on a layer”).
But I would gladly go for the original proposal of this thread of simply removing the Active Layer Part from the UI by default.
Also having geometry NOT be placed on a group’s layer when exploding the gorup would be important…
Please Trimple, make this happen! It would save so much frustration. And I would probably be able to convince significantly more students to keep using SketchUp!
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I too want this to be fixed. For now the only thing I can think of to ease the problem is to consequently say “assign layer to object” rather than “move object to layer” to emphasis that a “layer” is a property of the object, not a place the object is located at.
+42! 
I’m curious. If SketchUp were to do this, where would you have the geometry go? I can see 3 approaches:
- Layer0
- No change to layer assignment of geometry - since some things (dimensions, text, guidelines) are occasionally reasonably place off Layer0
- Force a choice between availables layers (perhaps with Layer0 as default selection)
Just stick to whatever layer is already assigned to the geometry. If the user wants to assign a layer to the newly exploded geometry they can do it separately from Entity Info.
This is the simplest and easiest to understand implementation. It can be used by users who don’t even know what layers are without causing any confusion or distracting them from what they are doing. It neatly separates moving geometry throughout the hierarchy (group/components) from layer assignment.
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When I asked, I didn’t think at all about my preference, just brainstormed possibilities. But I find @Eneroth3’s logic compelling, hence I now support option 2 (bold emphasis added):
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So…if there are instances or elements of a file that have a legitimate reason to be on a layer other than layer0 then why not make those layers a standard part of the UI by default with default names like Layergeometry, layer dims, layer guides, or what ever other layer you need to separate from the rest of the file to keep them from being exported to some other software?
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One reason might be that a few people have mastered the interaction of geometry on layers other than layer0 with various combinations of layer visibility to the point where they can use the things that confuse many to advantage in their modeling. There’s not many (and I’m not one of them), but they do exist.
A few years ago I wrote LayerWatcher [ SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation ] to cover most of these issues, and its features could easily be incorporated in native SketchUp.
It currently has about 2,600 users…
It does the following:
- it questions resetting the Current-Layer to be something other than “Layer0”. You can still do this - e.g. for multiple text/dims/guides - but at least you were warned !
- It always assigns “Layer0” to all manually added Geometry [Edges and Faces] - irrespective of the Current-Layer.
- If there is a suitable Selection…
- There is a Context-Menu, ‘Explode-To-Layer0’ - for any geometry coming from exploded Groups/Component-Instances - rather than taking the container’s Layer.
- There is a Context-Menu, ‘Selected-Geometry-To-Layer0’ - for reassigning selected edges/faces - e.g. after a native-explode has messed up layer-assignments: it optionally includes reassigning any geometry that it finds nested inside any selected Groups/Component-Instances.
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I never have the layerpanel in the default tray in our (beginners) course, first, they need to implement grouping for isolating Geometry. When it is time to ‘hide and seek’ I’ll introduce it.
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SketchUp already preferences the layer- and texture-assignment furthest down the hierarchy. So if you have a group with Layer1 assigned to it and inside a bunch of faces / edges with Layer2 and you explode the group, they will keep their Layer2 assignment.
The only exception to this Rule is Layer0!
So theoretically, we would only have to remove that exception… 
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I’m quite confused what you mean by this. Are you suggesting to have unused pre-defined layers in the templates? If so they would just be removed as soojn as the model is purged anyway.
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Uhh, Didn’t it take about Seven and a half million years for Deep Thought to resolve the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything?
Are you sure you want to wait that long for this solution, here?
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