Hi @DaveR, Question about my Sketchup model, I think I made a mistake, I modeled a frame and made it into a “Group” now when I add to the drawing a grey dotted line box expands to include whatever I add to the model. If I want to pull an object of the model away from the model to make a “scene” the dotted line box grows as I drag the objects. What can I do to disable the grey dotted line box? If I go in and re-save “groups” as “components” will the dotted line box go away?
What you describe is that you are opening the group to edit it when adding stuff to it. The dotted lines indicate the group is open for editing. That’ll go away when you exit the edit mode either by right clicking and choosing Close group or by clicking out in space with the Select tool. The expanding dotted line box makes sense if that’s what you are doing. The group is sort of a container that holds the contents. If you add more contents, the box has to get bigger. That box also has to get bigger if you move some of the contents away from the other contents.
The last version of your model that I saw still had all of the geometry massed together as if it was carved out of a huge block of stuff.
The better work flow for the sort of model you are making is to have each part that needs to be made as a separate component. when you add the next part, it is created outside of the other components. You can edit a component later if you need to add features to it but don’t add the geometry for another part to a component.
Here is a view of the model I referred to previously. I’ve selected just the horizontal components here. Notice how the blue bounding boxes fit tightly around the geometry.
Here I’ve opened one of the components for editing.
Ok, that makes sense. Is there any way to disable the group and turn it into a component?
Do you ever use group?
You can convert a group to a component. Right click on it and choose Make Component…
I personally don’t use groups. Only components. I won’t tell you to do the same because it makes some people loose their ■■■■. 
Great thanks! I’m going to start doing components only. I took out all the components that I had put inside my group 
my model is acting a lot better 
Is there a way to hide measurements?
You can create a tag to give the dimensions and then turn the tag off when you don’t want to see them.
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I consistently have this same problem with importing files from SU to LO, and it makes me crazy! I have tried selecting Preserve Scale on Resize, but there’s just now way for me to see the entire image. Also, text appears overlapped that is not overlapped in the original SU document. I assume this is something obvious, but I even though the OP had the same issue the suggested solutions don’t seem to help. I’ve attached the LO file- any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you
northwallLO.layout (173.8 KB)
Where to start?
First, you should be adding text in LayOut, not in SketchUp. I would add the dimensions in LayOut, too. FWIW, when I opened your SketchUp file the text is overlapped there, too.
Second, you should create a scene in SketchUp for the view you want to show in LayOut. As it is, your LayOut file will be difficult to deal with if you have to go back and make edits to the SketchUp model. You’re showing the Last saved SketchUp view so if save the SketchUp file with the camera in a different location, the model will appear to move in the viewport when LayOut updates the reference.
Here I’ve create two scenes in your SketchUp file. One shows a perspective view of the model and the other the elevation view in Parallel Projection. I copied the text of your notes in the model and added them into a text box in LayOut and deleted them from the model file. I also deleted the dimensions from the model and added them in LayOut. And I changed the style to the default Hidden Line style so there’ll be no ground or sky color to print. The Elevation viewport is shown with the scale set to 1/4" = 1’0".
Here’s the LO file. Right click on a viewport and choose Open with SketchUp to see the SketchUp model file. And look at the Layers panel in LO .
northwallLO dr.layout (162.5 KB)
thank you so much Dave! This is really generous of you. Unfortunately I still can’t seem to make sense of it! When I open the LO file attached in your response I don’t see any graphical images at all, just text, dimensions, and yellow warning triangles where images should be. And, even after making a scene in SU and then exporting that to LO I still see a cropped image. For example, in this case, I only see the center third of my stud wall. Somehow in the process of sending the image to LO I am missing some basic step, and I, despite looking extensively through various videos on the subject, cannot seem to identify what that step is. I am sure I am the source of the problem here, as this always happens when I use LO, and the only recourse I have is to go back to SU and zoom further out.
Open the file I shared, with the Select tool drag a right to left selection window from the yellow triangle up and to the left. In the SketchUp Model panel tick the box for Auto.