Looking for an extension that would allow me to insert a sketchup component into layout and have it automatically display iso,front,right,back,left,top and bottom viewports without me having to create and align all of those viewports manually. This will be used to create shop drawings more efficiently.
Components cannot be imported into LayOut. You need to create scenes in SketchUp that show views of the component If you don’t want to make multiple scenes of a single copy of the component, create a scene with multiple copies of the component rotated as needed so you can see the appropriate faces of the component and then use that scene for a viewport in LayOut. There used to be a plugin that would make the copies and arrange them although I’m not sure it’s still available. I create these sorts of views all the time and don’t’ find it at all time consuming or inefficient to make the copies and position them for third angle projection.
Here’s an example from a recent plan.
The scene in SketchUp shows the required two views of the leg component.
And the viewport in LayOut:
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Thanks for the reply. I understand creating scenes in SU and inserting the SU model into layout and referencing specific scenes.
I have a structure with 150+ components so I need to create 150+ scenes in the SU model in order to create shop drawings for each of the individual components of the structure. Now I’m faced with creating multiple viewports to create third angle projection shop drawings for each component. Just trying to figure out the most efficient way to achieve this?
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I tried this extension. Unfortunately, it doesn’t function in 2017 SU pro.
Interesting. It’s too bad it creates a new SketchUp file for each component and it appears to only create first angle projections, not third. A separate SketchUp file for each component certainly isn’t efficient.
Why don’t you download a 2018 trial and check if it suits your needs?
I haven’t tried it, yet, I just happened to stumble upon it yesterday!
A new file for each component is perhaps needed to easily calculate the scale and preparing the scenes instead of distracting it out of the major file.
I don’t now how you can control the views or templates etc.
Still, repeatitive work calls for extensions, I guess?
I don’t know why that would be but maybe just the way the extension is written. That by itself made me lose interest in it. It’s fine if you know for a fact that you won’t need to modify those components but it would be a PIA to manage when (not if) components need to be edited. I’ll stick to my process. It’s plenty efficient, keeps everything in one file, and viewports can each be scaled as needed for the document.
Maybe for some people.
@rnerico the API for LayOut is introduced with version 2018, still, not live but through SketchUp.
I do not think there is ‘downward’ compatibilty, so there won’t be any extension that will do what you want.