I make a kitchen model with about 15 layers, and scenes, and components and groups and everything.
Then, when it’s complete I save it as a new file and want to only look at the Drawer boxes. So I delete everything that isn’t a drawer box. Then I go to delete all the old layers. Some of them delete just fine, but SOMETIMES when I try to delete a layer a message pops up saying that there are still objects on that layer.
What’s the deal with that?
I am careful to only put “solid groups” on layers, or sometimes a group of solid groups.
Things aren’t on layers in SketchUp. Layers are tags that given to components and groups (all raw edges and faces should be assigned the Layer 0 tag and Layer 0 should always be the active one.)
Turn on hidden geometry and make sure you haven’t got something hidden that has the layer tag you are trying to delete.
Also turn off the visibility for that layer and see what might disappear. If you have been using layers incorrectly by not leaving Layer 0 as the active one, you could have that layer assigned to raw geometry.
Sharing the .skp file with us would make it easy to give you an exact answer. Without it, we can only guess at what you’ve done.
@DaveR is likely on the money: you can’t select objects that are hidden unless View->Hidden Geometry is on, and if you can’t select them you can’t delete them. Also, if you have nested groups or components and have assigned a different layer to the nested contents, if you hide that layer, you won’t be able to delete the layer of the parent container.
Hmm. I don’t hide objects for this very reason, but also I always check if anything’s hidden and it doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe I’m still missing something. Here’s a file where I’ve deleted everything except the drawer boxes.Test1.skp (10.5 MB)
Components, materials and styles are held in the file even if they are deleted from the model. The only thing you are doing wrong is not purging the file after deleting stuff you aren’t using.
For modeling some things I leverage the fact that components are still "in model’ after I’ve deleted the instance(s) from the model space. I also have a keyboard shortcut set up to purge the unused stuff when it’s time to get rid of it. I use TIG’s Purge All which generates the little report.
FWIW, the file size on your Test1 file should be a dead give away there’s more in the file than those simple drawer boxes. There’s no way that file should even be 1 Mb with only those three components.
That way you can keep components for use later. If you delete all of “window 1” from the model, some people may wish to be able to get that back if the design needs it later. Of course it is unlikely that you would want to delete the window layer in that case as well.
OH WOW that’s good to know! I looked at the Components in this model and found some old parts that I had deleted. Then when I “purged unused” they went away. Very interesting. Thanks!
Yes each model has it’s own collections of resource definitions … ie, materials, components, styles, etc.
After deleting the “uses”, sometimes called instances, these collections will still have the definitions until you choose to purge the collections. You can purge each collection individually (via each collection’s inspector panel,) or as shown above all at once via the Model Info > Statistics panel.
