Strange behaviour when zoomed in

I see the clipping you mean - I think it’s something to do with the style: I copied and pasted into a new blank skp and it’s all good.rose.skp (1.3 MB)

interesting - I followed all the tips but couldn’t find it! I wonder what I was doing wrong. Will try again to find it!

Thank you! This works now, but I see the survey layer has gone, so that must be where the problem is. I’ll try to find this darn car in the survey and delete it, but if not, will work with your version!

I still can’t find this! If I hide all other layers and only have the survey layer turned on, and do zoom extents, the main survey fills the screen! I can’t figure out why I can’t locate this extra geometry!

I found the car: View | Hidden geometry is on, turn on the survey layer, then [ctrl+a] to select all, then [ctrl+g] to group, then you can zoom to the far corner and delete the car.

(not sure that it fixes the clipping tho)

big smile!!! turning on the hidden geometry found the extra stuff and I was able to delete it, and now the clipping problem is fixed! Thank you, you guys rock!

@rose

A great deal of this conundrum is your improper use of Layers, compounded by the use of Hide.

I find mass amounts of raw (not grouped) geometry scattered across multiple layers.

I suggest you stop and learn how to organized your models using Groups and Components
Then study how Layers work in SketchUp.

Groups and Components

Now see…
Does SketchUp Support Layers? — SketchUp help

Ouch! You really think this is what’s causing the problem? I think it’s to do with the CAD survey I imported being a bit messy! I do put components on different layers eg existing trees, proposed trees, furniture. I don’t see what I would stand to gain by more grouping of geometry than I currently do. Yes, my steps could be made of multiples of a single step, but I find it easier to edit it this way, ungrouped, and it’s not as though I’m building a large and unwieldy model (apart from the imported dwg base - not my fault! My way of using sketchup is all about shaping space and I want it to remain intuitive and accessible.

What @Geo observes wasn’t the direct cause of your problem with that model - it was the stray geometry - but the way you have used groups and layers made it harder to detect and correct.

For reference:

  • Never put any primitive geometry (edges, faces) on anything other than layer0. Violating this guideline is an almost certain route to confusion because things you think should be visible and selectable may not be! This was happening in your model.
  • Group related geometry to keep it from “sticking” to other geometry. “Hide” doesn’t isolate geometry, it just means you can’t see or select what your new geometry is hitting! Either unhide all or view hidden geometry when strange interactions seem to be occurring.

I’m curious what you mean here - I don’t put primitive geometry on anything other than layer 0, though I did find one face which had accidentally been associated with another layer. I still think the problems were down to the messy dwg import. Not that it really matters, but if I am doing something wrong I’d like to learn not to do it again!

I use ‘hide’ quite a lot to avoid having lots of lines showing on the model, just to make it look tidier. Isn’t that normal practice?

By the way this link isn’t working - it’s a private video apparently!

The clipping issue isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom of the problem.
The problem is model organization and technique.

The bulk of the model and a fair portion of the site plan are an inseparable mass or raw geometry.
Assigning raw geometry to layers other than the Default Layer 0 won’t fix that. It will only make matters worse.

Yes, that is common practice, but you need to be wary of what it does and does not do for you. In particular, if you draw an edge, hide it, and then draw a second edge that crosses it, both edges will be split at the crossing despite the fact that you can’t see or select the first edge! You can also get inference snaps from the hidden geometry. SketchUp does not warn you when this happens, so the results can be very confusing. Only use hide for this purpose when the hidden geometry is well out of the way of the new stuff you are drawing.

PS: hiding groups and components is always ok, though layers can work better for that purpose.

For some time the SketchUp Team has been in the process of updating all the video tutorials.
It seems the link to the video in the Knowledge Center article broke.
Here’s the new Layers tutorial.
Many more here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL190C90DCE62242C9

Layers

It’s a good way to create problems.
There’s a far more efficient (and safer) way to control visibility while modeling.
Group/Component Edit > Hide Rest of Model/Hide Similar

Dear Ms Rose,

The general issue you are facing can be prevented. The reason because the object within the same file you have either download from 3D warehouse or construct it by yourself might be different in size tremendously. For instance, 10mm and 100m objects working at the same time will cause the strange look on the object when you zoom in closely. Furthermore, even though you hide it or organise it into difference layer, SketchUp (SU) will still recognise it as part of your model.

On the other hand, the best solutions are as follows

-unhide all the objects
-delete those objects that are not relevant
-delete all the SU guidelines maintain the important objects in the main file (mf)
-open a new file to work on the small object transfer to mf after that

Lastly, hope it may help to lighten your burden while modelling in SU.

Yours sincerely
Martin Tey

this is a useful video, but doesn’t cover what I was referring to. My comment was about all the lines that a model has when, for example, I pull up a horizontal plane which has a curved edge (like when creating contours) - if necessary to make this look less messy, I hide vertical lines. It’s just cosmetic. Is this bad practice?

I still don’t see what I would stand to gain by more grouping in this model. It suits me to have things like garden walls, water feature, steps etc all on layer 0 so that if I edit one, the others are affected. I use layers and groups or components when I am inserting discrete objects like trees and pergolas, where I want to be able to change them without changing the geometry around them. I don’t see the logic of not having the raw geometry on layer 0, at least not at the scale I am currently working at. I don’t mean to be argumentative, but would like to understand why you are so critical of the way I have organised my model. Remember that the original problem of clipping was caused by the CAD import having a hidden entity far away from the origin (not my doing!) - now that that has been found, all the rest works fine!