In a 2D environment, layers are quite important because they can obscure things that are assigned to layers further to the “back” or overlay additional information for something in a “deeper” layer. But in a 3D environment, that physical relationship is contained within the model itself without any need for layers.
So what’s unfortunate isn’t that SketchUp’s layers don’t do what you initially expected, it’s that the show/hide visibility function shares the same NAME with the 2D layers concept that’s completely different.
Additional confusion is added for people who use Layout (a Pro only feature after the 30 day free trial). In Layout, layers work as they work in other 2D environments. So for someone trying to learn both SketchUp and Layout at the same time, you have to switch between two completely different functions with identical names!
Before I started creating my model I watched a number of videos about the program, notably this one - Sketchup #35: Layers - YouTube about layers.This is what gave me the impression that you create individual layers, for example, for the basement and different floors, so that you could work on an individual layer without viewing any other floors that might be in your way. I would then also assume that if I wanted to render or print the basement detail showing all the off-grid technologies I would just turn off all the other floors and the roof so that only the basement would be visible and rendered. Maybe I misunderstood the video?
This is at the heart of the misunderstanding. Indeed, turning off layers will make them invisible so that you can see what you want to work on. But in SketchUp that does not isolate the contents of those invisible layers from interaction with visible geometry. To isolate geometry you must use groups or components.
You have been SO incredibly helpful that I hate to even ask you one more thing, but after some three hours just trying to draw a simple wall I’m tearing my hair out and I don’t have much to tear. You will see that I placed some bathroom fixtures in the second story bedroom above the garage. All I wanted to do was draw a simple wall to enclose the bathroom and put a door in it. So simple! But not for this me! I tried everything from drawing a line then attempting to offset it the width of an interior wall, to drawing a rectangle, which was a total disaster, to drawing a smaller rectangle then trying to size it then move it (another huge disaster because it was stuck to the other wall). In everything I’ve done in tons of other programs drawing a wall is fundamental to the program but I can’t find any such thing in Sketchup. I just can’t see how you would always need to draw a rectangle then offset it if you only want one wall. I know I’m missing something here and I hate that I am losing patience. I really do want to learn. Another thing that’s frustrating and I haven’t had an answer on is why can’t I do anything with the arrow keys? I’ve tried every key combination but nothing works. (I can’t upload the file because it’s more than 3k)
In SketchUp, arrow keys are NOT for moving around the model. They are used to constrain various operations. For instance, when you are moving a set of geometry, pressing an arrow key ONCE will lock the movement into a single direction as follows:
Up arrow limits movement to the direction of your Blue axis
Left arrow limits movement to the direction of your Green axis
Right arrow limits movement to the direction of your Red axis
Down arrow limits movement to be parallel or perpendicular (depending on context) to an inferred reference.
Pressing the arrow a second time releases the lock.
I highly recommend that you expand the “Instructor” in the Default Tray. Pay attention to it and the Tool Tips (below your drawing space, near the left) as you learn to use the basic tools. You may need to scroll down in the Instructor to see important information. And don’t be upset if your modeling seems slow - the instructor takes a fair amount of processor power when expanded.
Again the videos. I thought I saw something about being able to “nudge” using the arrows keys. I do remember using them to lock a certain direction so I must be wrong.
I am again trying to include the drawing about adding a wall in the bathroom. I need to figure how to add walls or I’m basically done using __.
What good is an upload limit of 3000k? My drawing copy is just one room and it’s already 10000k.
You may be remembering something from other CAD programmes - I seem to remember a ‘nudge’ such as you describe - perhaps AutoCad? Or DesignCad? It was long ago, anyway, when I last saw reference to it or used such a thing.
Some 2D drawing programs may have had that instead - perhaps CorelDraw or PowerPoint?
And in response to your latest post, which I’ve just seen, use a file sharing service like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive to share a larger file.
Nudging can be done with plugins. The first one developed is called Nudge. Originally, no one thought it was possible - this was back during the @Last days - but Todd proved them wrong. This was also one of the first plugins that was offered for sale. Todd took a lot of grief for wanting to charge, but he stood firm.
Mover controls movement of components and groups with a arrow dialog. And one of the tools in RpTools also move things with a dialog window, but it’s not limited to groups and dialogs.