Your profile says you’re using the web version, so what upgrades are you talking about?
Clearly more investigation on the learning front is required ! 
In the UK, youngsters use the word ‘SICK’ for being good… 
I recall when I purchased this programme from the @Last initial software developers & confess it did take a little more understanding how you organised ‘Layers’ now tags, coming from an Architectural CAD background. But in principle, the ‘Layers’ in SU was understood, i.e. its a visibility thing & everything was drawn on the first default Layer, now Untagged & you assign the screen elements/groups etc to tags.
It seems the need to change the ‘Layer’ name to something else was required, but perhaps not an issue for experienced Cadders ! The replacement name of Tag was an interesting choice, I wonder what other words were on the short list that could describe a Layer-view ?
The layer name was never an issue. The only important thing was to follow a strict rule: do not change drawing layers (use Layer0) and assign layers to groups and components, not to other entities, at least in common usage.
Changing the name of the layers did nothing.
In GIS a layer represents a feature such as a stream or a highway etc. As with CAD features / layers visibility is often managed by zoom level. Layer order is also important with 2D CAD and 2D GIS and is used for rendering order.
3D doesn’t work the same way therefore no zoom level and no rendering order thus layers are now named Tags and are visual attributes
The ‘layers’ in SU were never actually layers. You can’t draw on a SU ‘Layer’.
Tags (Layers) in SU were always about visibility of objects. Layers are a conceptual reference to when all CAD was 2D and just lines and fills on a plane. One could conceptually have the layers at different levels/distances from another layer or have layers on the same plane to denote different functions/features of those 2D objects.
The concept of layers never worked in SU in the way 2D programs used them and as a result, for new users who never used a 2D CAD program, there is no reference where the concept of layer makes any sense in SU. One can use Tags to simulate a layer if one wants often utilizing it in combination with Scenes and the hiding function, but there is no real way to use layers in the way SU models things. Layers were also problems for users who were coming from Photoshop and Illustrator as layers in those programs relate to objects and functions done to those objects ‘below’ that layer. Again, features which don’t relate to the narrow way SU uses Tags, formerly, Layer functionality. Overlays in SU are adding that functional ‘layer’ over the model akin to but quite different from what PS does with its functional layers. When PS added functions to layers it was also more than a bit controversial back when it was done and did confuse folks but it did follow the conceptual stacking of 2D elements and the ability to turn their ‘visibility’/effect on and off.
Tags are effectively ways of managing the visibility of components of a model and very little more regardless of them being 2D or 3D. How you choose to organize the objects and how they might be mixed together, is up to the user.
As someone who has taught many people (starting in 2004), often those coming from a traditional Autocad back ground, the term Layers in SU was a huge problem and was a difficult thing to work through, particularly with Layer 0 which suggested to users it was Z=0.
Scenes with Cutting Planes with rendering type in combination with Tags can offer all of that same functionality and more relative to a layer concept in 3D SU.
I am happy to see Layers as they were in SU in the rear view mirror.
1 Like
Maybe not for you, but for a lot of new SketchUp users who were accustomed to other software like Photoshop it was an issue! Layers and now tags in SketchUp have never worked the way they did/do in other software… Thinking they worked similar to what they were used to created a lot of confusion and badly behaving models. This forum is filled with questions about those bad behaving models… After the change to tags those questions gradually got less and less.
My thoughts are LOL! TROLL?
1 Like
wondering what modeling program is “better”?
1 Like
The concept of “Layers” in a 3D world makes no sense, since every object is either in front of or behind some other object, until you rotate the drawing and then it’s all reversed. Tags do take some getting used to, but once you figure it out they do well pretty well. I’ve been told I’m doing things on SU that many people do not attempt. My biggest problem with SU is doing organic shapes and pushing/pulling (extruding) any surface that’s not parallel to the surface being moved. It then requires some form of “solid tool” to extract one object from another, or using the SU’s “Intersect Faces” facility. While that works, it’s a great deal more trouble cleaning up after your perform the operation.
That said, I’ve got Blender, Meshmixer and Fusion 360 on my MacBook Pro, and find them difficult to master especially since there are so many variables that I have to pick before drawing anything. I’ve been using SU since ver 1.0 in 2000, and therefore, find it difficult to really get good at another package. I’m also 78 so I have an excuse. But, it can produce some fantastic work all of which I produce for resin 3D printing. This is an example:
Get a bourbon, take a few deep breaths and get back at it.
8 Likes
Maybe look into Joint Push Pull extension, a great tool. Love the battleship work you have been doing, Keep it up. 
I know what you mean and agree totally that layers in a 3d environment makes no sense.
But your statement is not entirely correct. Since SketchUp has no form of collision detection, it’s totally possible for different objects to occupy the same space…
For instance 2 faces wich than create the Z-fighting effect. And maybe this is where the layers confusion comes from when people are trying to use layers to “separate” them like you could do in Layout or Photoshop…
Sketchup è un buon programma e facile da usare.
1 Like
I’ve been having a similar problem, where I inadvertantly create a copy of an object that’s lying directly on top of the original (by hitting the option key with my right hand instead of the left arrow). The result is trying to reverse faces or other actions and nothing seems to be happening because I’m working on the doppleganger instead of the original object lying below. When I finally suspect what’s going on (often after a lot of fussing around), I hit delete and expose the original.
1 Like
It is the same concept, except that Photoshop is a 2d bitmap software, and SketchUp a 3d vector software.
If I understand correctly, some are disturbed not by the operation (although it is not completely obvious to a beginner) but by the name which would refer to the tracing object (of paper).
About new users, some have experimented other 3d software that has layers. The name “layer” is commonly used in other 3d software, not “tag”.
well, new year, new me, now I’ll announce it beforehand :
I’m about to be a bit sarcastic.
(but since this thread went completely off topic / troll-y, meh.)
Geez, you people must have hard lives if your main issue is the name of the tags / layers in sketchup.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire the energy 
but hum… it’s been 3 years. talk about holding a grudge.
New users never experienced the layers (gone in SU21).
Old users shouldn’t care much, because appart from the name, nothing changed. Even the classic licences holders are on tags.
it’s just a word. I used to work with calques, then it became balises, but because of this forum I had to learn the english name of all the tools and panels to help, and it became the layer / tag thing, although in my sketchup it’s still balises, and from time to time I read about calques.
it’s just a word. Anyone interacting here in english while using SU in another language is already making word substitutions on a daily basis…
I see you’re a new user, this is the only thread you’ve interacted with for now.
Go out on the forum, introduce yourself, ask and answer questions, start a thread, show your work maybe. Don’t just stay on this thread. it’s not a very good one.
(that last part isn’t sarcastic 
)
4 Likes
I guess you don’t use gmail, do you? Because emails are sorted with labels/tags and not in folders like in outlook for example, or do you try to eliminate the label/tag concept in the forums?
1 Like
I think we’ve got sidetracked off topic. Do we need to rename this?
pretty sure there was no topic to begin with… 
2 Likes
The OP did what seagulls do flying over a marketplace. Drop what they drop, and disappear. It’s time to let the thread die.
6 Likes
I’m under the impression the questioner has left the room…
1 Like