OK @dezmo thanks anyway.
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This is one of the reasons āweā preffer WORD over LO.
Missing automated features like the index, and my collegues can not use LO so they preffer WORD as a template. 
Hoping this thread is still relevant as I have some thoughts on Table of Contents and Page #'s.
Consider the following image:
A.#'s are for plans and elevations
S.#'s are for sections
D.#'s are for details
R.#s are for product reference and details
With the auto-text features I can create 4 different numbering auto-texts in the table of contents. What I canāt seem to do is assign A sheets to sheet numbers 1-100, S sheets to sheet numbers 101-201, and so forth.
Actually I can do that in the auto-text formatting but there doesnāt seem to be a way to assign those same numbers to the āPagesā panel. The right side of the image shows my detail pages at 90-95. This will change if I remove any pages above those in the list.
My question then is if there is a way to ālockā a set of pages at a certain number set so that when I use a function like <pagenumber(101)>, I will always get that page even if Im adding or removing pages further up the list in the āPagesā panel.
Theres no Section or Chapter Numbering function in LO2023.x, which i think is what youre asking for ?
The usual approach is to ise multiple LO files and treat them as if they are each a chapter or drawing set.
Of course that has drawbacks, eg possibly more updating of references , saving/retreiving files, etc.
I know many use the multiple LO file method. Itās good for speed especially and for this very issue. But Im trying to eliminate the multiple LO file solution just to keep the deliverable simple. I donāt enjoy having to print a few different files and then re-assemble.
Section or Chapter numbering would be a great add to Layout. How would that work?
Would that be a āPagesā panel function? A right-click context menu for that panel that allows the user to set sections/chapters and the page number parameters?
Iām simply taking a screenshot of the pages, copy the text in Preview and paste it into Layout. It doesnāt update, but itās better than manually typing everything out.
A LO means for inserting the Page titles on a TOC with the respective pages would be good. Extra points if we could have automatically updating page numbers for Section Planes overview page.
i definitely agree ; hyperlinked TOC is a must have - shame this thread has started in 2016 and until date not given an answer.
i use pdf element as pdf editor
as i make a screenshot of the PAGES list in LO
1-pdf element delimits the exact frame of what to shoot
2- allows to extract text with the frame and copy as text
i then paste it in LO where i can change how it looks
NO AUTOMATED UPDATE - BUT FAST
Why donāt you book the separate pdfs generated into a single file?
The speed advantage of seperate LO files along with easily accessing specific sheets far outweighs the time and inconvenience of creating a TOC, especially with drawing types that are so consistent in architectural projects.
I have a ādata sheetā in LO that already has a TOC. I just edit it for the specific project that maybe takes 10 minutes at most per project.
I have wrestled with this recommendation of yours for many years actually. Read both your books, watched your videos, if there was mug to buy it would be on my desk.
Maybe I need a refresher course in what a TOC needs to cover, because manually doing that each time and then the additional times when changes happen and rooms are coming and going and details are being added or deleted, is not for me a 10 minute process.
I can see your point in terms or averaging the time losses with the time gains. Multiple files will save 50% and manually changing a TOC will cost 20% but we are still saving 30%. Makes total sense. Im going to be reconsidering this for sure.
However, on the other side of the coin, there is this part of me that wants this new feature in Layout really bad so I donāt have to spend 20% on anything and im getting the full 50% savings. Itās just done. Pipe dream Im sureā¦which is probably the better professional mentality to haveā¦donāt waste time fretting over things that might never happen, optimize the app as it is; at least Im getting that 30%.
I canāt see that ratio making sense. Multiple files will speed up everything you do in LayOut. Manually updating a TOC shouldnāt take anywhere near the time savings of watching a beach ball or waiting for things to render project wide over and over again.
I have a text box that I generally just copy from file to file and delete what I donāt need or add a few lines based on the unique pages in a project. Yes, itās a PITA, but it works, and of all the things on LO I donāt like this is at the bottom of the pile - but we should still hope and request this because itās a no-brainer - let the computer compute and fill the thing out. It might require a few more auto text fields but would be a great feature.
The ratio is arbitrary; multiple files will not save more than 50% on a good day. If it takes 5 days to build a Layout file, having multiple files will not save 2 1/2 days. No way, no how unless one is still on a an i5 with 4gb of ramā¦maybe it saves a day or 4 hours but even that sounds crazy so 50% must be an exaggeration. 20% of 5 days is way to much for the time it takes to do a TOC, maybe itās 1% of 5 Days.
But I never wait for beachballs nor do I wait for renderingā¦ever. I have a text box TOC as well, but I never copy/paste because I have a template. My examination is based on just the time to do the work, not wait for Layout. Which means that sweating 1% is a waste of time when I can get much more from going with multiple files as Nick, and yourself, have said.
This discussion is about having an automated way to do TOC anyway. The sad reality is that this topic is moving into 6 years old and no in-app solutions have been presented by Trimble. Which was the point I was poorly attempting to make with the ratio. Stressing about Trimbleās indifference to Layout is a total waste of time; optimizing Layout as it exists is The Way, which in many ways is Nickās point.
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I think the ratio they were referring to was the time savings of multiple files to the time you stated for creating a TOC. A TOC takes minutes to create even without automationā¦especially if you use templates. Loading an entire project into one LO file can cost you days of work over time, so really no comparison there.
As to how much time multiple files save over a single file will depend on project size and LOD in the documents. For me it is far more than 50% since my drawing sets can reach over 100 sheets. It is absolutely a much faster method for me that achieves not only speed, but better organization for making revisions and accessing specific files.
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Hi All,
I too have struggled with the best way to handle this and have dabbled with a Sketchup Ruby script that would probe a layout file to get all the page names like soā¦
layout_path = UI.openpanel("Open Layout File", dir, "*.layout")
puts "#{layout_path.inspect}\n"
if File.exist?(path)
layout_doc = Layout::Document.open(layout_path)
puts "pages in doc: #{layout_doc.pages.length}"
layout_doc.pages.each_with_index { |this_page, this_page_number|
puts "#{this_page_number} - #{this_page.name}\n"
}
end
This version asks you to pick the Layout file but if you have naming conventions in place like we do, you could do something like below to automate things a bit. All our Layout files are named the same as the Sketchup files they referenceā¦
layout_path = Sketchup.active_model.path.gsub("skp", "layout")
Anyway, it worksā¦ now What???
Maybe I could create a dummy component in the sketchup file that would contain the text then use a Layout Label to put the text on a page?
Thoughts?