Sketchup imports missing from Layout pages leaving yellow yield sign w/exclamation point

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 4:07pm

My sketchup drawings are disappearing from layout pages and leaving me with the exclamation point. Please advise. Thanks.

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 4:10pm

Could you share a Layout file that exhibits this problem?

It could be something very simple causing the problem but without seeing the file, it’s difficult to tell.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 4:13pm

1319.LO15.Kon.Bathrooms.layout (241.7 KB)

I’m not sure that you can drag the file over this way.

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 4:29pm

I’m not sure what you mean by that.

I opened the LayOut file and there are a whole lot of missing references? I dug into the file. There are a few PNGs but no SKP files. Is it possible you unlinked the SKP file(s) from the LO file? Have you tried relinking?

Barry · March 31, 2016, 4:31pm

It’s always better to File->Insert files rather than drag or paste. Do File->Document Setup->References and manage them there. If you learn to do this, then updated models can automatically update. It’s a lot of the reason that LayOut exists, and it’ll save you lots of time.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 4:35pm

I do not know how to link or unlink or relink but it sounds like you are getting to the bottom of the problem thanks. Please advise.

Anssi · March 31, 2016, 4:37pm

And all the SKP references had a single slash as the name? Usually the models are embedded inside the file, but this one has none (it is easy to check as a LayOut file is a ZIP archive in disguise). Are you using “illegal” characters in your file names?

Anssi

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 4:41pm

Is a period an illegal? Caps, lower case, numbers and periods.

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 4:59pm

Did you drag and drop from SketchUp into LayOut as mentioned by Barry? If so, there’ll be notning to relink but if you look in File>Document Setup>References, you’ll see what files LayOut is referring to.

If you were dragging and dropping, don’t do that. Use either Send to LayOut from SketchUp’s File menu or File>Insert in LayOut.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 5:16pm

Every file is inserted from the opened Layout file. I save the Sketchup file, close it, open the Layout file, go to the desired page to insert and do file>insert, I then highlight the Sketchup file and click.

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 5:23pm

Are you inserting a different SketchUp file for each page?

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 6:05pm

Most of the time they are different views of the same Sketchup file and other times they are different Sketchup files. Usually my first Layout page is a foundation plan, the next page is the first floor plan and so on. After the foundation plan is complete, I go to first floor page. Then I go back to the Sketchup file, close the basement layer, open the first floor layer, then save as ( increase the file number by 1 ), close Sketchup, go back to layout. While on the first floor page, insert the latest Sketchup file with first floor plan, then detail the page for construction documents. Then repeat.

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 6:16pm

So it becomes a huge number of separate SketchUp files. It appears there were 61 SKP files in the LO file you posted.

It would be much better and easier to manage if you would make scenes in a single SketchUp file with each showing the view and layers you want to see. then use the scenes you’ve created as the viewports in LayOut. Once you’ve inserted the SketchUp file on the first page, you can copy the viewport to the other pages and select the appropriate scene for that page. Or you might have multiple viewports of different scenes on the same page.

When you look at the References window for the file you shared, do you see all of the missing references? If so, I thinkyou have two options. Either try to rebuild the project by reinserting the SKP files, or set it up as it was intended with scenes in a single SKP file.

It makes me kind of sad to think about the work that must have gone into this; more work than it should require and that the work is gone.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 6:40pm

By scenes do you mean that I should have every floor on the same plane ( not stacked vertically ) and slide the window up and down and left and right to find the view I’m looking for?
Will this solve my problem going forward? This is the big question because I can rebuild to finish this project but I can’t deal with this happening again.
What a reference window?

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 6:51pm

No. You don’t have to have all of the floors on the same plane. You could build a 3D model of the building and use section cuts for the floor plans. Make each floor a group or component to keep it separated from the rest of the model. assign groups to various layers. You might have a first floor plan layer and a second floor plan layer. then control what is displayed for a given scene by turning layers off or on as needed.

Probably. I don’t think it is possible to say exactly why your files got removed from the LO references but your current work flow certainly didn’t help the situation.

That was "ReferenceS window. Look in LayOut’s file menu for Document Setup>References.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 7:30pm

How do you turn layers on and off in Layout?

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 7:40pm

I looked in references. I reads; ‘Missing’. So they are somehow being erased and what is the ‘leader lines’ being pulled to the corners? I’ve been working with Sketchup since it first showed up on the market and this never happened. Could it have something to do with different versions of Sketchup being used somehow?

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 8:06pm

I was referring to turning layers on and off in SketchUp and creating scenes in SketchUp.

Layers in LayOut are turned on and off by clicking the eye icon next to the layer name in the Layers panel. That doesn’t have any impact on the layer visibility in SketchUp, though.

The viewports are gone so the anchor points for the leaders don’t have any place to anchor to.

So you’ve been using LayOut, too since version 1? Have you always worked this way?

Are you inserting files from different SketchUp versions into the same LO file? Or do you mean different versions of what started out as a single SKP file? No matter what, I think it is your process that is responsible.

brownbuilt · March 31, 2016, 8:35pm

When you are turning layers on and off do you have the Sketchup file open the whole time or do you save, close and then insert?

DAVID LAWRENCE BROWN, AIA, NCARB
ARCHITECT • DESIGNER • BUILDER
WWW.BROWNBUILT.NET
BROWNBUILT@YAHOO.COM

DaveR · March 31, 2016, 8:38pm

Which layers are you referring to?

I think you need a sort of SketchUp and LayOut basics tutorial. Maybe we should make arrangements for a little one-on-one session.