My project has suddenly begun behaving slowly in Layout

Oh my. Tag folders. Someday I need to go though some tutorials on the latest version of SketchUp. I am always just working on deadlines, only scratching the surface of what is possible. Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.

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I get it. the thing is with the correct work flow, and clean efficient modeling, this stuff can be really powerful. Unfortunately when you dive in without a real clear understanding of it all, you canget in deep and become a “wedged bear”. :wink:

Happy if it helped.

It helped a lot. I can actually work on the drawings again. Could you please recommend a good course for learning SketchUp and Layout? Do you just follow tutorials on the SketchUp site? I thought I had found a great resource but it did not occur to me that it would be so outdated. I really like using templates rather than starting and creating everything from scratch. But that assumes that the templates are always updated. There are so many plug-ins and extensions that it is overwhelming.

Glad to know it helped.

I guess I would start with the tutorials at learn.sketchup.com

You haven’t indicated what the resource is. It may not be all that outdated. Tag folders are relatively new. They, along with some features in LayOut have really changed things and made it much easier to work between the two applications.

Templates are an important thing for making your work easier and more streamlined in both SketchUp and LayOut. I have found, especially with LayOut that templates do tend to evolve over time as I find things I can do with features added. That’s OK, though.

Don’t get overwhelmed with the extensions and plugins. Only get ones that help you do your job better and more easily. And if you find you aren’t actually using some extensions, uninstall them so they aren’t cluttering your workspace.

It’s a book called SketchUp & Layout for Architecture by Nick Sonder. It comes with 2016 template files.

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Those templates are still fine. Back then Tag folders did not exist. Matt and I utilized a layer hierarchy system utilizing prefixes LO, OB, and SP that in a way do the same thing when used correctly. Using that system you for instance do not need separate layers for objects on each level since all objects are then nested inside the overall group on the LO layers. So you could have a ten story home with only 1 OB_Wall layer.

What is outdated are the styles. We are doing a second edition this year with an all new sample project and templates.

Overall I recommend keeping your layering system simple. I personally would not have each appliance on its own layer as an example. A two story house has 18 layers for me. 19 if it’s 3 story. Elaborate layering systems are not necessary for SU and LO.

I do appreciate having fewer tags. Using tag folders will mean multiple wall tags, etc for each floor. But the benefit to using tag folders is that I am not clicking into nested groups. So there is a trade off either way. I do love having your templates to work with. I look forward to updates. I am really committed to learning to use SketchUp and Layout properly rather than hacking my way through it.

This was a pain for me.

I used AutoHotKey to configure the tab key to perform a double click - holding it down I could get into deeply nested groups fast without mouse clicking.

Then I discovered Curic’s DIO tools and have never looked back.

I see that extension. It looks really powerful and useful. I will try it out. But I have to be careful. Like a kid in a candy store, I keep adding new tools but need to slow down and savor what I already have. :grimacing:

Double clicking will likely be faster than layer assignment. If set up correctly you only double click into the LO group to edit the nested groups, so only one more double click than you would replacing folders for the LO layers.

If you are layer intensive in your process, that’s where folders come into play. That will never be me though. For me simple is fast and consistent. I think the desire to have a huge layer list really stems from ACAD or Revit drafting experience. It is simply not needed for the work I do which is custom residential.

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