some advice please:
I do some changes to a scene in Sketchup ie. to change the tags visible in that scene. I probably zoomed or panned some when doing that, and then I update the scene to save those changes.
In Layout the scene has then reflected my zooming and panning, and suddenly my floorplans position on the page needs to be adjusted to show my original content.
How can this be a useful feature? I get that in a 3d view you might want to adjust your perspective in a sketchup scene, and have that reflected in Layout, but for a plan view in Layout, when I have “ortho” set, and a plan view, and a set scale, why would anyone want to update their scope of the drawing in sketchup, and then have that update change what you see in your viewport in Layout? It seems to me that this is a result of viewports being originally meant mostly for 3D content, while, if you use Layout mostly for documentation drawings, this is a “not wanted” behavior. Could Layout just ignore zooming and panning of the Sketchup scene when updating 2D scenes?
I guess I could just “Lock” the scene, or put it on a locked layer, but then I cannot update it to show my intended changes…
If I wanted my viewport to show just a portion of my plan view, I would adjust my viewport borders accordingly, in Layout, and expect that viewport to always show the same content until I change the viewport borders or zoom.
I guess I could have all 2d content on locked layers, and just go to a page with 3d content, and update the model from that viewport. But that does not seem like a well crafted workflow.
This certainly can be a useful feature. In cases where you don’t want that sort of thing, though, you could choose to update only the scene properties that are to change. So in your example it sounds like you want to update the visible tags but not the camera position. When you update the scene, then, untick the box for Camera Location in the Properties to update panel.
Or you could avoid moving the camera and make only the changes you need to make to tag visibility and update.
yes. I could have the scene in Sketchup not saving my camera location, but then I don’t have my plan view set at all, and if I visit a 3D scene, that scene´s perspective will show up when I revisit my plan scene in sketchup.
But you are right. In Layout, if the right scene is set, and a camera standard view is set, then my content will not move about when I update the scene, but stay in place. I also found that in preferences, unticking “enable Sketchup model editing” will stop the unintended sudden effects of rescaling ones viewport if one double-click the viewport by mistake. Those two settings combined makes locking the viewport unnecessary, and then I can still access my update button for a selected viewport. That works well as long as your buildings are boxes so you can set the facade equal to a standard view. Luckily I mostly make boxes
I think you misunderstood me. If you already have the plan view scene set up in SketchUp and then decide to change properties such as visible tags or maybe styles or shadows, you can update those properties without changing the current Camera Position property by unticking the box in the Properties to Update panel.
Of course if you have Camera Position unticked in Properties to Save then the camera position won’t be saved when you create the scene. Properties to Save and Properties to Update are two different things.
Yes, you could set the standard view for the Viewport in LayOut if you wish although that could create other problems down the road. My preference is to avoid making anymore changes to the scene settings in LO than I have to.
Ah. - of course. Thanks. They are two different things, so there’s the solution.
If I always remember to untick camera location upon update, if I have fiddled with zooming, then that will not be a problem.
I still think though, that Layout should make it easier for me to not disrupt my carefully crafted viewports. For instance that you could update model instances without selecting a specific viewport, as they are maybe locked, or that you could access the update button for a selected locked viewport. After all, locking a viewport is not so that it cannot be updated, but so it cannot move about.
Anyhow I cannot understand when zooming or panning ones facades and plan views in Sketchup so it changes what content Layout shows is useful ?
You can do that now. Go to File>Document Setup>References, select the .skp file and choose Update.
I don’t find locking viewports all that important. I just lock the layer.
It seems surprising to me that you don’t see it. Suppose you wanted to change the position of the camera for the scene. You are basically indicating that you want to give up the option to do that. So then what? You would be forced to create a new scene instead.
SketchUp needs to know what properties you intend to save when you create a scene and what you want to change when you update it. There’s no way for SketchUp to know that you didn’t want to update the camera position after you have orbited or zoomed the camera unless you tell it.
I get the impression that you will be very excited when they add the mind reading feature although I imagine you won’t like the color of the helmet you have to wear when you use that feature.
yes. obviously for a 3D viewport, its important to be able to update the camera. For a 2D view, one will change ones scale, and set viewport boundaries around the content in Layout. One does not zoom and pan a flat view in Sketchup in order to change what Layout shows. Not having the viewport change afterwards by accident is important to me, and with as few steps to it as possible. I agree that always unticking update camera upon scene update will fix it though.
ok. I think I have found my way through this. The half good solution, to always make sure I don’t do anything stupid and rearranges the zoom and pan position in sketchup before I update a scene does not work for me, It seems I will do those mistakes, and they cannot be undone, there’s no ctrl Z for that. However If I always have my orthographical scenes saved after “zoom extent”, then that seems to be a positioning of the model that I can always come back to. So if I forget to hit zoom extent on a page update, or forget to exclude camera position from properties to update, then I can always redo it, before I update Layout, and also If I found that that my Layout viewport got messed up, I can zoom extent in skechup , update the scene again, and my Layout scene is back the way it was. That seems to work even if I resize my sketchup window, and establishes a fixed placement of the model into the viewport. My own “best practices” will then be to always have othografical scenes set to zoom extent before I export, and have my sketchup template with readymade scenes have that property.
As long as it works for you that’s fine. Since I naturally gravitate toward the easy solutions, I just do as I told you a few days ago and untick the Camera Location in Properties to update before I update the scene. And since the same process also works for changes to other properties like active section planes, shadow settings, and hidden objects, it’s a sort of one-stop-shop.
Well this has certainly been an important issue for me today. After thinking I had this problem sorted as below- I’ve found that I’ve completely destroyed my camera setups in scenes and wasted most of my day!
Yay Go Layout.
If you leave this box UNchecked, you can’t move the model within the viewport. There’s no need for a Lock Model Position tick box.
If you leave that unticked, keep your mitts off of Standard Views and the Ortho tick box, you’ll never have a Reset button in the Camera section nor will the model ever move unexpectedly within the viewport.
The only way then for the model to move within the viewport would be to move the model relative to the camera in SketchUp and then update the reference. And if you’re surprised by a change in LayOut after you did all that, maybe it’s a sign you need a break.
well, moving the model relative to the camera upon updating the scene is the thing that makes this happen in the first place. Sure, its a user error, and sure, there are procedures to prevent it, as you have outlined. Still, I think it happens to a lot of people, especially if they have not made it into template heaven yet, where one has dozens of presentation scenes that one never touches.
Also, if you leave the “enable sketchup model editing” unchecked, there is no way to combine a presentation of plan views with viewports containing perspective views, because those you surely want to be able to interact with, as your presentation comes along.
So locking per viewport is then better than an overall editing lock that anyway doesn’t fix the problem of not undo-able user error inside the sketchup scene.
The problem that arises from messing up your viewport inside Layout by double-clicking into it can, after all, be undone by a simple undo.
Screwing up the viewport in LayOut is what makes this happen in the first place.
Sure there is. I have plan and elevation views combined with perspective views in every LayOut project I do that includes SketchUp model viewports.
Assuming you catch it right away. Reset will fix it, too. Of course if you’ve added a bunch of annotation and dimensions linked to the model, that stuff gets messed up when you reset the viewport.
I’ve written this many times. I don’t override the scene’s Camera properties in LayOut and I never have problems with my model moving unexpectedly within the viewport. It’s not a difficult thing to do.
I do too. And my very few perspective scenes gets reused for many different viewports, and I copy and edit them as I need. Then I need to “enable sketchup model editing” This is after all the default setting.
many long time users that have discussed this advocate for the massive amounts of presentation scenes that one never touches, so you never need Layout overrides, but I think being able to lock the model content position makes for a more friendly and flexible experience, where you can set up your workflow in different ways, and with less scenes in sketchup.
After all you can update your scene in sketchup from right clicking the scene tab in sketchup. You mess up your scene, go to the forum, someone will tell people not to use that feature, and the thing goes on and on.
right. its getting a bit heated, so I’m gonna end here. The gist of it is that if you update with the scene tab then you dont get the choice to exclude camera position from the saved view… You see the scene the way you want it, and hit update on the scene tab or a quick shortcut. WYSIWYG and all, everything looks nice. Except the Layout viewport will punish you for thinking simple thoughts like that.
