I’m wondering if there are any recommended settings in SketchUp when drawing cabinetry that will later be dimensioned in LayOut.
I’m having trouble placing dimensions in LayOut because I can only clearly see the edges for a moment when zooming in. As soon as I try to add dimensions, the edges of the cabinetry appear very thick.
For example, I have a 3 mm gap between drawers that I need to show, but the edges of the drawers and the gap end up looking like one thick line.
Is this something that can only be fixed in LayOut by adjusting the Line Scale in the viewport, or is there a better way to set this up in SketchUp?
If you uncheck “Enable Draft Mode” in the preferences, you can then toggle Draft Mode on and off as needed. When it’s on, the lines are all shown as thin and it’s easier to dimension things.
As @d13tz wrote, turn off Draft mode. That will prevent things going blank when you pan and zoom around the page.
It might be that you need to use a thinner line scale for the viewport (or at least the associated tags) or maybe you need to display the viewport larger on the page. If you have thick profile edges in the style you can edit the style to set them to 1 or turn them off. Or maybe you need to add a detail inset view of the model to show that tiny detail.
There might be something you can set up in the SketchUp model or maybe you already have the needed setup and just need to adjust the way you are using it.
Can you share the LO file so we can see exactly what you are working with? If you can’t make it public, send it via a PM by clicking on my name and then “Message”.
BTW, please update your forum profile to show the SketchUp version you are currently using.
First thing you need to do is set up scenes correctly you aren’t modifying the Camera position for the viewports. The way you have the viewports set up makes your LO file more difficult to work with and if the Camera gets reset it creates a lot more work for you.
FWIW, the viewports aren’t set to 1:20. They are at 1:30.
You’ve already got the line scale for the viewport so thin those lines might not even show up in a printed copy depending on the printer.
A detail view would make the most sense for showing tiny dimensions. This is just a quick thing after I created a scene for the case work you are showing in the front view viewport. The larger copy uses the same scene but at a scale of 1:10 and an ellipse as a clipping mask.
OK, so just to confirm — are you saying that the scenes I set up in the SketchUp file for each cabinet should already show the exact view, rather than adjusting the position later in LayOut?
I do present details in the way you showed, but my question is more general about the line thickness when dimensioning cabinetry. The lines appear quite thick, which makes it difficult to read smaller gaps.
For that reason, I’m wondering if this is something that should be adjusted in the SketchUp file, or if it’s better to simply change the Line Scale in the LayOut viewport.
Yes. And avoid doing anything in LO that results in the dark gray background and Reset button in the Camera section of the SketchUp Model panel. Overriding the scene’s Camera properties makes the LO file harder to deal with especially if something happens to reset the Camera. I was going to say it makes the LO file unpredictable but in reality, one could predict what will happen.
In your LO file you already have the Line scale for the viewports set to 0.10 pt. which is equal to 0.0035 mm thick. Any thinner and you might as well turn off all edges in the style. (You wouldn’t be able to add dimensions but …)
Imagine standing in front of the real cabinet at a distance that makes it appear about 45mm tall. You’d see the gap as a dark shadow line maybe, but not as a gap.
You can’t make edges any thinner in SketchUp. You have Profiles turned off so you are only seeing normal edges. Nothing more to do on that end. And you really can’t make them thinner in LayOut.
FWIW, I went through your modelfor just this one cabinet unit and set up scenes for the standard views. The way they are set up makes it a simple thing to layout the viewports when you get to LayOut. Notice that after I set the scale for the first viewport I’m not doing anything to the subsequent viewports expect selecting the scene and moving it.
OK, I thought the whole point of using the Camera tools in LayOut was to do what we normally set up in SketchUp.
When finalizing a project in LayOut, I usually have many scenes showing each room from different angles, plus floor plans, mood boards, etc. If I start creating separate views for cabinetry in SketchUp instead of adjusting them in LayOut, won’t that make the SketchUp file even heavier?
Do you think your approach would be better to use going forward?
Well, you can do that but as I wrote and showed, it can create problems for you when you have dimensions and labels attached to the model. You do what you want. My advice comes from seeing the problems many users have created for themselves by overriding the Camera in LO. The viewports might not get reset but if they do …
I’m just trying to save you work that you won’t have to do if you create the scenes in SketchUp instead.
Additional scenes won’t significantly increase the file size.
It’s the approach I have used for more than a decade on using LayOut and I never have any problems with the views getting changed unexpectedly. I don’t have time to go back and repair LO files for stuff like this. I want my files to be stable and predictable. I guess I have no skin in the game if you want to go forward using the approach you have in your LO file here but I’m just trying to save you unneeded work. Making the correct scenes in the first place will take less time than repairing your LO file.
