I seem to have screwed up a layering issue. I had started building out a building I"m working on, then realized that I should separate the original building from the addition. I exploded the exterior wall group, pushed the addition walls to be 2d, and then selected everything while deselecting the parts to the addition and made a new group. I then rebuilt the addition, and made it a separate group. All looks good except for when clicking off and on the layers. For some reason When the Original Exterior Walls layer is deselected, I lose most of the Addition Exterior walls.
I’ll try to upload if someone can look at it and let me know if it’s a simple fix, otherwise I’ve already gone back to an old save point and reconstructed. I’d just like to know where I went wrong and how to fix such things when I do it again.
I put all the geometry back on Layer 0 where it belongs. That should make it easier to get on with. Remember, Layer 0 remains active at all times and all edges and faces remain on Layer 0. fedup.skp (262.5 KB)
When you explode a group, it unhelpfully puts all the raw geometry on the group’s former layer.
That’s probably what happened to you.
If you have to do it again, I’d suggest first, using components instead of groups which are only a special sort of component. I can’t remember the last time I chose to use a group.
But if you continue to use groups, remember to change the group’s layer to Layer0 before you explode, or after exploding, select all and set the layer to Layer0.
The only drawback I know of using components instead of groups is each component definition take up a line in the component browser. Groups don’t appear there. For some people, that’s important if they need or just prefer to have an uncluttered component browser.
The other big drawback of using groups in my view, is that if you delete one by accident, you can’t get it back except by going back and Undoing the deletion - which if you didn’t notice it for a long time, is at best tedious.
Whereas until you purge unused components (or delete the component definition in the component browser), you can always replace a deleted component instance.
Thank you both DaveR and john_mcclenahan! It turns out that is exactly what happened, when I exploded the group all the little pieces were in the Original Exterior Walls layer and the only way I could eradicate it, was to delete the two layers and bring the groups down to Layer 0 then create new layers and reassign.
I’m currently going through a video training course to sharpen my skills and we’re currently using groups. I’m sure components will eventually benefit me in these scenarios, I just want to try to stay in my course and hone the skills already developed.
And thank you DaveR for the file, but in this case I wanted to perform the fix myself so I know how to fix this when I do again (inevitably).
I fixed your model and uploaded it so you can see how it should be set up properly regarding layer usage. If the video training course is teaching you to put loose geometry on other layers or to make other layers active as you are working, I would suggest you need a new training course.
And that was helpful as it let me confirm I was back on the proper path, thank you Dave. I was just mentioning that finding the cause was also important to me as a learning lesson, not just the fix. The loose geometry was a result of the explosion that I performed, not by any course material. I am fully at blame for this particular screw up.
I wouldn’t say that. Not everyone, even longer term users of SU, know that exploding a group assigns the former group layer to the constituent raw geometry.
And, adding to what @john_mcclenahan wrote, many of us consider explode’s layer behavior to be a bad design; a trap lurking in wait for the unsuspecting.