As always, we are looking to make videos that show users great information and I was wondering what your one tip would be for other SU users looking to get more out of LayOut.
No hold barred here, but I am looking for your tips to use LayOut as it is… I know it can be tempting to submit your ideas or how you think things could be improved, but there is really nothing I can do with that input… looking to help spread YOUR LayOut tips to the rest of the world!
What you got?
Speed up your workflow by having your SketchUp template(s) keyed to your LayOut template(s). When working on schematic design I can ‘send to layout’ to a couple of different client templates and the scenes come in pre-populated on pages ready for me to make a few fine tune adjustments, change the ‘Client Name Here’ that is on a Title Block layer (on every page!) and add some key dimensions and notes - then export and off to the client. I do 40-60 of these a year and this setup is a huge time saver.
Autotext - learn how to use it! You can get clever with the page names and page titles, as well as detail call outs. I also use it when doing shop drawings for joinery notes - when the engineer changes something I can edit the autotext and it updates across all my pages.
Copy / Paste - when I am stacking SketchUp model views I will copy / paste - then immediately right click and assign to my second ‘SKP’ layer. I can then toggle off the lower layer, adjust what I need, and turn the lower layer back on.
Leverage the idea of symbology in SketchUp before sending to LayOut. Having a 2D symbol on a different tag with the 3D geometry inside the same component is a very good way of speeding up performance.
Templates are your friend. Anything that you do repeatedly should become a template that has typical dimensions, text, graphics outside the paper area. Nothing against Scrapbooks, but since they are just another LayOut file, I find having the things you need right in the file on the right Layer is a bit faster and uses less brain power. That’s good for me!
Draft Mode. Learn to use that K key to toggle Draft Mode for ease of dimensioning and annotation.
Sorry, Aaron, I see I put three items in here rather than one. I’m always struggling with either authority or attention to detail! 
More than one thing probably.
Keep the SketchUp model clean, streamlined, and use tags correctly.
Set up scenes correctly so you don’t have to spend a lot of time fixing that in LayOut viewports. For elevations the model should be aligned from scene to scene. Also set up scenes so they can be used for multiple viewports. Reduces the number of scenes to manage in SketchUp.
In LayOut use layers to separate entitiy types (viewports, text, dimensions, etc. For stacked viewports, each viewport on its own layer so you can access the ones lower in the stack. A
And most important, do not override the Camera properties for viewports in LayOut. Doing so generally creates way more work than it saves, especially if there are dimensions and labels attached to the model. Well, it can be OK for one-off throw-away things that you’ll never need to go back to.
As DaveR showed me years ago – think about keeping your various styles in a separate folder that is accessed by Layout and apply styles to your viewports in Layout.
I just have the one fast style in SketchUp.
(although doing this means you access these styles in a very tight, non-sizable window in the model inspector)
Excel can be used with LO to manage template notes sometimes better than Autotext, especially if the info is spread into different LO files e.g. Project Titles, address or common block annotation.
I have a system of drawing production that allows me to use Excel to manage revision notes.
If you want to streamline Layout workflow, do most you can in Sketchup.
Learn what double clicking does and on which objects. Learn how many double clicks is enough, and never, ever, double click too many times on the same object.
Jokes aside, I will second Dave’s point about using layers for all different kinds of objects. Especially dimensions, where my protip is this: if you make a superficial change to a model that breaks a dozen dimensions on a page, a simple fix for that is to right click your dimensions layer to select all of them and batch reconnect them in one go instead of fishing for them one by one. I’ve found that if I try to select all on page including other objects it generally doesn’t let me use reconnect.
Custom styles folders do not work on Apple platforms. Layout cant see them. Which makes this a great video @TheOnlyAaron. Good to show a great tool on a PC that isnt available for Apple so Apple users dont have to plow the forums for answers
Would love to see a series of videos on the use of external spreadsheets. How to connect Excel, Sheets, Numbers, any others. Why do it. When to do it and when not to. How does it affect workflows and speed boost.
Professional page layouts. Not just small scale samples working with a small house, but legit residential AND commercial plans, elevations, sections, site plans, details. How do people layout pages? Nick Sonder vs Luke Whitelock? Single person firm vs 20 person firm? Prove that Layout can do great drawings. You could just find examples and do a video on how to recreate a single drawing or effect. Site plans come to mind. How do offices setup site plan line work from a sketchup terrain model?
Great information would be why Layout is a rock solid replacement for AutoCAD, ArchiCAD and Revit for professional workflows and when it is and when it is not.
Auto-Text. Do a series on entry level to advanced use cases of Auto-Text. I know there are IFC people doing crazy stuff with Auto-Text. Show us. Are there advanced use cases that only Layout developers know about? Can you put those on display?
Advanced Lineweights - did you know that in architectural drawing best practice it is taught that a darker framing line is drawn around an entire element within a drawing? Did you know that you can accomplish this by copying a viewport and stacking it below and assigning a thicker line weight to it? The top viewport has the lighter line weight for all the “interior” lines but the entire element is now surrounded by a darker line that is showing thru from the lower viewport because it is thicker than the above lineweight.
Using unassigned layers as banners between different types of Layers. Say you do stacked viewports and you do different styles between plans and elevations. You can have a set of layers for both and have a layer banner “----Elevations-----” and “-----Plans-----” as a header above each group of layers to keep things organized.
Additionally, learned this one from DaveR, keep layers you never touch like title blocks at the bottom of the layer list and the ones you use the most at the top so you can avoid scrolling a long list of layers.
Have been learning more about guides for Scrapbook placement. Setting up a guides layer is a great idea and then placing markers down where you have common placements like detail pages is very helpful. Additionally, you could show how to set the anchor point for a scrapbook detail so you always place it in the same location every time. Learning that took a lot of trial and error.
Sketchup Live Link to Layout…seems like people still don’t know about that.
Someone else mentioned 2D elements in Sketchup components on different tags. I love this one and am currently mining the possibilities. Another ongoing series would be how to use this technique to populate data in reusable components that then populate in Layout with different effects depending on the use of the component in plan, elevation, section or detail views. (this is one of those places where I would absolutely love a standard text box in Sketchup so I could add a note block on a 2D object in a component that would then show in Layout…oh how cool that would be…but it is meaningless here so apologies 
)
I never use Layout to “draft”. I suppose this is because I use Sketchup to get all my work done in Layout. Wondering if advanced “drafting” work in Layout would be a cool series? Find a great elevation of a building and “draft” it in Layout only, no Sketchup. See what the surprises are and what the fails are.
Finally: @TheOnlyAaron This is a rare post from Sketchup honestly. Like many, Im a full sketchup and Layout workflow person. Build Sloped on that premise. We have commented many times that Sketchup needs to do more to position Layout as a pro tool for construction documentation so that all those who purchase Sketchup Pro or Studio know about it up front and have to come up with strong reasons why they AREN’T going to use it their office.
This post from you is encouraging as it seems to indicate to me that Sketchup might be starting to address that issue. Hope so.
Interface improvements:
Create a second tool Tray on the left hand side of the screen and use it to control Colour, Stoke, Pattern, and Text styles.
Shortcuts can be set to match what you use in Sketchup. The best Layout shortcut is a key to toggle Object Snap on and off. I use the ` key for this.
Keep the application fast by using only Raster rendering, and setting the display resolution to Low or Medium.
Use Vector rendering only for exports to DWG/DXF.
Get good-looking output by setting the Output resolution to High. Don’t use JPEG compression for your PDF exports. It makes SketchUp views look terrible. You can use a PDF editor’s optimizing functions to make the files smaller if needed.
Excel import is buggy so we stopped using it. It’s a pitty since it’s an important feature.
Hi, could you please be specific with some of the issues you have with excel import so we can make sure we have them logged internally for fixing? What is the single most important thing that we are not doing correctly right now? We may need to investigate the library we are using to for our table import.
Thanks,
Adam
Pick your favorite:
Can you explain this?
@adam check your bug tracker… It’s been posted under ISS-0977.
I have been waiting for this to get fixed since 2021 Importing Excel table problems
If you modified line weights or colours for tags in one viewport you can copy and paste them to another viewport with eyedropper tool.
Sadly, it can’t use as a scrapbook file to apply to another file has the same tags name. I have tried.