Has anyone thought of a feature request of “create component on-tag”? Very often in my drawings critical elements are drawn and belong on their own tag/layer (sorry, layers make more sense than tags)… It would be handy to be able to triple click, and _create component on new tag_ or something to that effect. I currently create the component, then have to go create the tag, then assign the component to the tag.
A search of the Extension Warehouse turned up Make Component and Tag. Maybe that does what you want.
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Your wording suggests inverted understanding of SketchUp’s tags: you put a tag onto an entity, not vice versa. This is a very common misconception based on how layers work in 2D drawing apps, including Layout, and is the main reason the term in SketchUp was changed from layer to tag several years ago.
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If you work with sensible templates you wouldn’t need to create the tags, just assign them to the groups or components… you can even then speed up your workflow by having scenes that have certain tags on / off without moving the camera or changing anything else so you could magically work (for example) on the exterior of a house, click a specific scene and work on the interior from the exact same viewpoint, with the exterior walls and roof turned off but the interior turned on…
I appreciate all of your input. Dave’s extension seems to make the most sense. I dont think I am inverted in my thinking (but maybe so). I create an element in sketchup, make it a component, that component (to then be implemented in scenes) needs to be on its own tag(layer) to allow it to be hidden/shown in various scenes. It would be far easier to have an option, or even two options, when creating a component where you:
”make component and new tag”
or
”make component and add to tag”
This would allow you to make a component and create a new tag with the same name as the component being created….. OR make a new component and instantly add that component to an existing tag.
For instance, many of my drawings have global tags like “concrete”, or “retaining walls”, that house numerous individual components. Having to make each component then go an assign it to a given tag is an added step.
Further, many of my components reside on their own individual tag (specifically for scene management). In that case I have to make component, name component, go into tray, tags, create new tag, name the tag THE SAME NAME AS I JUST NAMED THE COMPONENT, then go to tags drop down and assign the component to the tag.
This could all be consolidated into a single step “make component/tag” or “make component and assign to tag” at which point a secondary tag drop down appears and I just assign that component to an already established tag.
All just thoughts to eliminate clicks.
I think if you invert your point of view on this it would make your workflow easier.
You need to give a tag to the component.
What are you modeling that every component needs its own tag?
In both of these statements the “on tag/layer” wording is ingrained in people’s minds and illustrates what I meant. Things are not “on” a tag in SketchUp, a tag is on them. Think of it like the price tag on an item in a store. The item isn’t on the tag, its vice versa. Saying something is “on a tag” implies that the tag is a place the thing can be or a collection that can own the thing, neither of which is true in SketchUp.
Sorry for my tone, this wording is a pet peeve of mine because we see so many novices and some experienced users here on the forum who have made a confusing mess of their model because they don’t understand this basic concept.
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If you have established scenes your workflow is a steaming disaster pile… how do you manage adding a component and creating a new tag after you have 30 scenes setup? Unless you are using yet another plugin to manage new tag visibility on existing scenes (which is fraught with its own issues…) you must be spending lots of clicks going back to already created scenes and toggling tags on and off…
A better workflow is templates in SKP and LO, an existing Tag structure for your type of work, Scenes that reinforce the types of documents you make, and your SKP template keyed to a LO template so sending to LO does not require tedious setup.
IMHO with good thought put into Tags + Scenes and judicious use of the outliner you could really streamline your workflow a save clicks.
But if you are keen on doing things your way I’m sure a developer could easily write an extension for you…
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I am frequently (most always) modeling as-built architectural and site drawings and then offering numerous proposed alternatives. Imagine a stadium, with as-built site and form work, seating, and so on, curviloft/terrain elements that are represented in an as-built drawing, then perhaps 2-3 proposed alternates which require being able to hide X wall(s) or X Terrain(s) and in subsequent scenes show alternate walls/terrains in the exact same space as the as-builts.
All of my core geometry that will not be up for subsequent change is drawn in groups and typically left untagged unless its an exact duplicate somewhere in a symmetrical site (read baseball stadium, football stadium, or other project with complete symetry).
Having components on tags for anything that may possibly change in the project allows it to be tag’d and shown/hidden which is extremely advantageous in presentations where you are showing a before and after.
While again, I am likely wrong, this is a massive point of tags/layers/scenes. I can show an entire project as built on scene1 and phase 9 on scene2 OR I can break up into scene 1-9 showing every phase of progress simply by showing and hiding tags on each scene.
Tomato/tomato… put on, tags given, is irrelevant. Assigning a tag, a tag is given, a component is “on” a tag (on a layer)… this is all irrelevant
A tag is simply a layer, tag, assignment, that allows that content to be shown/hidden. We can call whatever we do to attach that geometry to that tag whatever we want.. its simply a way to hide/show that geometry.
I think I am contrary to your concept of “collection” but I understand what your saying. To the point of “collection” I may have a “tag” called “vertical formwork” and under that “tag” will be dozens of components throughout a project that can all be hidden with a single click or show/hidden in scenes with that same click.
Tags, in my usage, are nothing more than a way to show/hide elements (usually in conjunction with scenes). Whether someone says the geometry is “on” a tag, “tagged”, has XX “tag applied”, has no relevence to me what so ever.
The concept of layers to show/hide has been in place for decades with some caveats that merging and various methods of combining/flattening of those layers in other software (photoshop, Acad, etc.) carry some further capacity. But in SU layers/tags are merely a way to compartmentalize elements you wish to be able to show/hide.
If you’re not going to use keyed templates as Mike suggests, you can save your tags as profiles with the Tag and Folder Tools extension. Then load them to avoid having to re-create them each time. But that doesn’t solve the scenes problem.
Make Component and Tag can create components with new tags. If the tag already exists you can still type the ‘new’ tag name and it will be added. But if you already have components (with or without tags) you might want to use Object Outliner. That extension shows a tag dropdown so you can switch tags without re-typing.
It seems like (not sure) you use the same tag for different components (as a way to control what appears in scenes). If you want to be able to see which groups and components have which tags, Tag Outliner does that.
Move to Tag Move To Tag - New Free Extension - context fly-out menu - Extensions - SketchUp Community might be a little quicker for you too.
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