Sketchup question

[Ljohnsaw]

I put the money down for SU Pro v.8 and got Layout 3.  A little quirky but I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Dealing with the styles, senes, saving and then updating in Layout gets a little troublesome/frustrating.  I wish there was a way to see who is using what.

I do have a question about sections (or even if they are the right thing to use).  I need to do a first floor plan, a second floor plan and, eventually, a rafter/roof plan.  I can turn off the layer for the foundation and do a section and get the first floor joists just fine.  When I try to do a section above the second floor, I still see the first floor and it confuses the image, the roof plan will be even worse.  I suppose I could add even more layers, but...  Is there a way to take a slice through the building, effectively isolating the second floor joists and beams?

[timberwrestler]

One way would be to put rafters, bents, 1st floor plan, 2nd floor plan, etc. on separate layers.  And then you can turn on or off the appropriate layers for each section.  (You may want to check out the ruby called 'add hidden layer'.)  That's what I do.

A second way would be to make a dummy white sheet below the floor joists for that particular section.  The white sheet is just a big rectangle, with white fill.  It also needs to be on its own layer. 

[Ljohnsaw]

timberwrestler,

Thanks - great ideas.  I have about 30 layers at this point so one more wouldn't hurt - just getting cumbersome.  Do you know a way to "see" what styles are attached to which scene, in one nice report?  I touch one style and seem to mess up something else.  Or I make a different section plane active and it affects something totally (seemingly) unrelated.  I've got a long way to go and I'm almost at an impasse.

Thanks,

[timberwrestler]

30 layers is a lot.  It's not a big deal, but you can also consolidate some of them if you want. 

I only use about 3 styles in total.  I might have one with a green ground/blue sky background.  One that I use 90% of the time which is all white background with simple lines.  Sometimes I have one that I use for sections.  Some of the sketchy styles are fun as well for cover page images.  In styles, you can click on the 'in model' button to see what you're actually using.

The styles can cross over between scenes.  It's really just the 'look' of what you see.  So yes, if you change the style, and that style is used throughout the model, it will change all of the other instances.  Once you find what you like though, there shouldn't be much need to change your styles.

The TFG forum has a separate software subforum, that is frequented by Mike B (check out http://mikebeganyi.com/category/timber-frame-design/) and Clark B, who are both really really good at SU and Layout.

[Jim_Rogers]

Of course you can always make copies of your existing plan.

Make one for just the second floor joists, delete all unnecessary timbers and then you won't see them.

Do another for just the rafters.

In my drawing program I may have several copies of the final drawing with certain things added and certain things deleted.

Jim Rogers 

[Ljohnsaw]

Thank you for all your help.  The light finally clicked on!  Sometimes I read something and it just doesn't register.  When I was saving my scenes, there is a bunch of check boxes of properties to save.  It just didn't click until now that the "style and fog" and the "active section planes" were referring to what it is RIGHT NOW.  Duhhoo!  With the help of some masking sheets, I think I can accomplish what I want to do.

Jim, I don't want to have separate copies of my plan as it really isn't finalized (I keep finding little mistakes) and keeping them all in sync would be really difficult.  I like the concept, but it just won't work for me at this time.

[bmike]

This video might help:

https://vimeo.com/44538194

Its a basic intro into how I setup my SketchUp models and LayOut files.
For a typical TF project I have 2 models - frame, and then a second model with specific joinery.
For a typical building project I might have 3-4 models all referenced into the LayOut file.

Getting a handle on layers, scenes, and some plugins will make your life much easier...