Just want to point out this from the bugs-fixed-list of the new release:
You can now use a Layout viewport properly even if it references a Sketchup scene that does not have camera position saved to the scene. Setting scale, ortho, standard views, it all works.
THIS IS HUGE, and means you can update your viewports without the “oops - model shifted sideways” issue.
It also means you can properly use 1 scene as basis of multiple different viewports, say a plan view and a perspective view of the same plan.
All scene updates carry over except the camera position that you turned off.
You can safely save your sketchup scene with the changes you made without worrying that maybe you changed the viewing position as well, as long as you have those scenes set to not save camera.
It means you can regard your, say, 1-floor scene as a work_and_model-scene, and not just a presentation scene.
It will take some practise for me to get my head around how this works , but it sounds good.
It seems that a Scene can behave much like a Style, ie, you can apply it to differnet model views, except that a scene also remembers tags and object visibility (hidden/non-hidden) wheras a style won’t.
I’m still not clear if Trimble developers are wanting us to control Tags primarily in SKP or in LO? I’m still finding SKP is more reliable and i get to see the changes easier than if I use LO. Plus in SKP you can copy such settings between scenes, whereas in LO you have to copy the model View and then you risk losing your Tag visibility if you have to reset.
I think that, at least for me, this will mean that I will try to reduce the number of Sketchup scenes that I create, to keep things easier to manage. I certainly have had issues with Layout viewport content moving around when I updated scenes not thinking about my model position on the screen in sketchup.
Obviously, if I make my floorplan scenes without camera position saved, they will not necessarily be shown in plan view when I visit the scene in sketchup. But when I work on a scene I orbit and zoom all over the place anyway, so I dont think that will be a problem.
I have advocated for a " lock camera position" tick for a viewport in Layout. Whether this is still something one would want, is a little unclear.
I haven’t fully digested what you said in the first post Odd Håkon Byberg.
I’m curious - why not have a dedicated SketchUp file with scenes just for Layout?
I model a primary file and have secondary files that reference the primary model. The secondary files are then used for Layout or exporting as images, DWGs, etc.
That is certainly an option. But it is a bit of extra work, and brain strain, from managing updates between models, so not having to do it seems better.
yeah: if you dont save camera position, the scene will show your style, and also what geometry you see, so parting up the model, with tags, hidden lines, and section cuts. But you dont have to care about whether the scene has perspective, or where the model is at when you update the scene.
In the beginning of my troubles with side shifting in Layout I found I mistakingly often updated scenes as a kind of model save, not thinking that you could just leave the scene, and it would be in the same position once I revisited it. But still, I update the scenes a lot especially when going back and forth between Layout and Sketchup when I present my work, as I find that it is when I present stuff I realise what it is I need to change in sketchups scene setup, and also the model itself, in order to be happy with what I see on my page.
I have just tried this out. I made a very simple model and a scene with camera location switched off. In SU, it is in perspective, as normal for modelling.
I then exported to LO and used the options there for things like top and side views. For standard roof plans and elevations, that could save a bit of work (and scene proliferation) in SU - if you don’t mind not seeing what you’re going to get before exporting. But what do you do if you have a building off axis or for floor plans. Does it still work?
In my dedicated SketchUp elevations file for layout I use the solar north extension to a set solar north so that the elevation in question is not in too much shadow.
If you are using Layout to access a view from, say, just one scene in SketchUp you wouldn’t be able to control solar north…?
hm. you´re right. The standard views in Layout dont use the axis system saved to the scene. That´s a pity.
Not a real problem in my workflow, I keep my detail-project always with axis same or parallel to the global axis of the file, and only orient the project in a separate file with landscape/surrounding environment. That file is oriented as the map with proper north, and reference to map coordinates.
apart from the axis thing everything seems to work ok for making plan views from scenes without saved camera view. Im already used to tilting and then realigning my plan views when working with them in sketchup, usually going to top view after having made some changes, to see what the plan looks like after my changes.
Using standard views dont really work together with the axis’s saved to the scene in sketchup either, so there’s that…
that sounds like an interesting workflow. Although I dont really understand it … If you have a sections file with scenes made specifically for sections, you can certainly have a different north in that file even without the extension. I guess it depends on you method of bringing geometry over. If you copy/paste in place, you could bring your sluff over to a file with other solar north ( from the extension) than the master file, or if you update a placed component of the master file in your sections file you could use chosen orientation in that file, as the updated file will still come in oriented as the original component.
But if you have many sections with different cut angles, how can you control shadows with solar north for all of them?
For each section plane I will have a dedicated scene.
( Before tag control in Layout I would have existing and proposed section scenes )
( In SketchUp I have some code that allows me to toggle existing vs proposed groups with a keyboard shortcut.
Each section scene would have solar north set for the best shadow look.
Have I missed something - are we able to control solar north without the Solar North extension (other than rotating the model) ?
For each secondary SketchUp file that I might have, I file > import the primary model.
I don’t quite understand this unless you are doing, say, landscape architecture.
My Top View of a typical building would be a roof plan. If I want to show floor plans (and I so do), I create sections at appropriate heights and make a scene for each. Top View wouldn’t work for that would it? I guess you could sort of make it work for the top floor if you had the roof on a tag that you turned off, but even then it would be unlikely to show window and door openings, without modelling in a very peculiar way.
I like the idea of using Layout to minimize scenes created in SU but I actually think a better way would be to have a more advanced way of showing scenes in SU to keep tabs and lists short. Many suggestions have been made over the years…
ok. obviously I should not go into teaching.
From this simple example, a box with a door and a window, and a section cut, in a perspective scene, but camera not saved to scene:
This means my sketchup scene can be a work scene, and one where I dont care about the placement of geometry on screen when updating a scene.
Only problem is it has to be placed along global axis in sketchup, otherwise you would have to rotate the actual Layout viewport…
this is just experimenting with what now works, and didn’t before: That a scene without camera saved to the scene can be manipulated in a Layout viewport, set to different scales, views, just like a scene that has camera position saved.
There would obviously not be just one scene in a sketchup file, but I dont like the idea of having lots of scenes that is there only for presentation.
In the old days when one drew a section by hand, then that was to explain the project, but it was also to understand and develop the section/heights and connection of spaces vertically in the building.
So it was presentation, but it also revealed what you needed to work with, so thats why you needed to draw it over and over again.
Some scenes are there only as work scenes, like a scene without outer walls would be just for work.
So yes, if the example was actual work, I would regard that as a work scene + a presentation scene.
The good thing about that is that one can move around in one floor scene, in perspective, as that is sketchups mode of operation, and develop ones project, turning the section cut on and off as needed, and hit top view to see what its like as a plan. Then that work scene is also presentable in Layout as your floor plan.
If you have a sections file with scenes made specifically for sections, you can certainly have a different north in that file even without the extension. I guess it depends on you method of bringing geometry over. If you copy/paste in place, you could bring your sluff over to a file with other solar north ( from the extension) than the master file, or if you update a placed component of the master file in your sections file you could use chosen orientation in that file, as the updated file will still come in oriented as the original component.
are you using SketchUp to draw in 2D?
