It’s very inconsistent. I haven’t identified a pattern that triggers the words being cut off. It’s extremely vexing so if anyone knows how to prevent or fix it that would be great. I’ve never had this happen in another SketchUp project before…
It’s hard to tell from just a screen shot but it looks like the text is positioned so it passes through the face. Sharing the .skp file would be helpful.
I would add text in LayOut instead of in the SketchUp model. You’ll have better control of the way it looks and it will just look better in the resulting output.
Are you still using SketchUp 2022?
I will try to use layout, but I frequently edit the location of the texts/the area that they are in.
Is it dynamic enough to edit between the 2 apps?
I couldn’t see if it was attached to a face. I did group the tags with the circles but for some reason that didn’t trigger it everytime.
Sketchup 2024
Thanks for replying
sketchup model name tag issue.skp (330.5 KB)
You have placed the text so it’s passing through the face.
Moving it up will fix that problem.
It’s easy enough to move the text in LayOut if you need to do that. Leaders for labels created in LayOut will remain attached to the objects in the viewport. And if you were to create components for each of the trees and give them appropriate names, the labels in LayOut would be more dynamic in that if you change the name of the component in the SketchUp model the text will update in LayOut. You would also be able to add a lot more information by utilizing the component description field along with the Advanced Attributes and fields created using the Dynamic Components attributes.
BTW, I see you are using tags incorrectly. This can lead to problems in your model and just creates more work.
Don’t change the active tag as you have. Leave Untagged active at all times.All edges and faces should be left untagged and only groups and components should be given tags.
This is the result of fixing the incorrect tag usage.
A side note regarding using components for your plant symbols: You can create a local collection of those symbols with names and whatever other information you might want to include. Then you would just drag them into your model and place them where you want them. No need to draw circle after circle and type in their names. If you need to add a plant you don’t already have, you can create the component and then save it into your collection. Expand your collection as you need it.
Please update your forum profile with that information.
Edit to add: Here’s what your labels look like when the file is inserted into a LayOut project. I doubt that’s the way you want them to appear.
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My mistake. I’ll fix it.
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Thank you for the extensive reply. Lifting the text up did make it appear totally visible. I didn’t realize that the text would have the same face-to-face issue as two planes.
As for the tags, thanks for the tip. I was trying to organize it in a manner that I can make the new vegetation/plans disappear and keep the existing stuff visible for reference.
So if I’m understanding you correctly, I need to make a circle and label (each tree/name) a component, and then group it with the others, and move each group to a certain tag?
Does making a component in sketchup automatically make them dynamic in sketchup or is there something else I need to do?
That component idea is going to be very useful. In the component tab, is there a way to export the group of component or does it sync with any local sketchup project?
I’ll give layout a try with the components.
Thank you again for a comprehensive and helpful reply!
That souunds like more work than I’m suggesting but I’m still on my first cup of coffee.
What I’m suggestion is that you make the the circle a component and give it a suitable name. I would also place the component’s origin at the center of the circle to make inserting it into the model easier. I am not suggesting that you include a label in SketchUp. that’s better done in LayOut. If you must add the label in SketchUp add it into the component.
As for tags, I think it would be easier to think of putting the tag on the component. Depending on how you need to manage the model you might have one tag for all of the trees, another for all of the ground cover plants, etc. Or you might have tags for each species of tree. Put the “Maple” tag on the maple tree components. and the “Mulberry” tag on the mulberry tree components.
No. It doesn’t automatically make the component dynamic. You can give the component attributes in the Component Attributes panel. These can be simple editable text things as I show here.
You could even set it up so the radius of the circle changed with the age of the tree or you could set up an attribute to change the color based on some property you choose.
Components are incredibly useful because of the information they can carry as well as many other features. I’m not sure what you are thinking about as far as exporting them but you can create a collection of components that can be used in your projects. No need to create a new oak tree component every time you have a new project that needs an oak tree. Instead, you can drag in an instance from a local Tree component library. Here’s an example from my local components library.
I have a Hardware library that is subdivided into categories.
And here is the Hinge category.
If I need a hinge for a furniture project I first check here to see if I have one “in stock”. If I do I can click on it and add it to my project. No need to model a butler’s hinge (the yellow one) every time I need a butler’s hinge.
After you’ve started a collection you can always add to it. No need to add a Yugoslavian balsa tree component into your collection until you have a project that calls for one.
To emphasize my point about labels. Labels in SketchUp are not dynamic so if something changes you have to edit the label manually. If you use labels in LayOut, they can be dynamic and update with changes to the model. In my Oak component above, a label in LayOut could include text from the Component Attributes. If you have reason to change the age of the tree, for example, you would edit the field in the Component Options panel and apply the change. (remember that could be set up to change the radius of the circle, too.) Save the file, update the reference in LayOut and the label would update to show the updated age of the tree, and the radius of the circle would update if you had that setup.
Maybe I should preface my use case to help explain what I’m trying to do. I intend to use this (when it’s completed) as a design plan for plans, with the sketchup drawing serving as a guide on where things are going. So just black and white, with simple shapes. The other usage is that I would export the sketchup scenes as PDFS (which NEVER works right anyway… always so grainy and pixelated because the vector/eps export creates unusable files) and then create a stylized drawing over it, basically hiding everything that came from sketchup.
Point is, I’m thinking that it might make the most sense to mostly do what you’re saying; putting the (labeled) components into a collection that I can belt out.
You can also see how somehow one of my components incorporated the ENTIRE model and now I can’t delete that component. I tried to ‘make unique’ my base model, but I worried that it would actually end up breaking my existing groups and/or components, since I would have to select the entire model.
When I search for ‘blackberry’ in the select menu it force searches the 3d warehouse. I can’t search my own components???
Why is the label visibility so inconsistent? Both of these are components consisting of labels and circles. I don’t understand how the labels are sometimes getting attached to the faces. I’m using the topdown view so there shouldn’t be any articulation in the actual label. Plus, sometimes they are fully visible when I move the viewport. I can move it all up as before, but I’d like to know why it’s behaving like this, especially when I’ve never had this issue before.
I’m trying to use layout and the image is just way too pixelated and if I would have to add the text labels everywhere again, what is the advantage of using it over sketchup? Beyond the dyanicism you just described.
I kind of assumed that. Black and white is fine. I only mentioned colors as something that is possible, not that you have to use colors.
You would get a better PDF export from LayOut and if the viewports are rendered as Vector, they’ll be crisp and clean for reference. Or you could export a high res PNG to use as the reference.
So the In Model components panel will show all components in the model space. That shouldn’t be a problem but if you don’t want the entire model to be shown there, explode the giant component and make a group instead. Or maybe there’s no need to create a group or component containing the entire model. That is likely unneeded nesting anyway.
If you do explode the component of the entire model, then click on the Details menu to the right of the search field (black arrow button) and click on Purge Unused.
If you notice, the search field contains the text “3D Warehouse”. That what that search field is for. So no, you can’t use it to search for your own components. Making categories for your local collections of components helps to reduce the numbers of components you have to look through. You might have a “Fruit Tree” category and one for “Throny Berry Bushes” or something and separate your components as appropriate.
We’ve gone over that. Some of the labels are placed above the face and some are not.
It’s pixelated because you have the viewport rendered as Raster. Switch to Vector rendering and it won’t be.
If you were doing what I described it wouldn’t be adding the labels again. It would be just adding the labels. Besides the dynamicism the labels will be easier to control for location so they don’t wind up cluttered as your labels did in my example from a couple of days ago and they won’t end up passing through faces in the model.
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