Why dotted lines through solid shapes

My view now shows dotted outline of shapes in background, through solid objects

Sounds like you pressed K to show Back Edges. Press K again to make them go away.

Dave,
Must’ve hit it inadvertently.
Thanks.
BTW, I was a design/builder for many years, a very highly regarded one: http://www.congodog.com/congodog.com/PIECES.html.
I moved on to tech startups, inadvertently, and retired at 53. I use SU for my personal furniture design and for small architectural designs for ‘insiders’. As time passed, many of the so-called “improvements” in your application began to obscure its primary intuitiveness, so much so as to make it unusable. This is a common side-effect of said ‘improvements’ In many software platforms and serves only to be a marketing ploy to invigorate sales.
I am currently in up to my waist in a staged remodel for my son and find SU almost too much to bother with.
My early work is strong testimony to SU’s usability. I could provide you examples for your marketing, in all modesty. I am a self-taught design/builder who rose to a very high level of recognition thanks to SU. I was associated with John Henning of Lane Publishing (his brother Gene was the primary designer on the Japanese compound pictured briefly in that link) and could have landed my name/work in any, if not all, of the top tier magazines. But the clients valued privacy over limelight and I was in line with their philosophies.
I never wanted for work or bid a job.
SU was key to my success as I was able to design almost as fast as I could think thanks to it’s intuitive grace.
Maybe you could steer me to a simple path for use of my new SU Pro license. My first taste was the free edition via Google, I believe. Now it is as complex as AutoCad and needs some ‘dumbing down’. Maybe I could help your developers with that problem: Making SketchUp Pro powerful and usable.
Please pass this on to others in your organization who might see value in it’s words.

living%20toward%20kitchen.pngfront%20musco.png

All Best,

Fritz Stoop
Moraga CA 94556
510.701.1226

Apparently you’ve mistaken me for a Trimble employee. I’m not. I’m just an avid user who has been helping others learn to use SketchUp.

I don’t know what improvements you are referring to that you think obscure its intuitiveness or how you can claim it is unusable. I’ve been a user since version 3 and certainly wouldn’t go back to an earlier version. Not even back to SU2019. I find the features in the current version to be very usable and I appreciate what the developers are doing to make Sketchup and LayOut faster and more capable.

Please complete your profile with the SketchUp version you are using. That information can be helpful to us when you have questions about using it.

I wonder if the complexity you experience is due to a set of extensions that you have chosen to install, rather than due to SketchUp’s native toolset? I’m curious: if you open the Extension Manager window, how many extensions do you see installed and active? Do you have a lot of toolbars opened and arrayed around your screen?