Layers vs Outliners: When Do We Use Which

Loads of individuals ask me how we keep our SketchUp models sorted out; there is by all accounts a lot of disarray about when to utilize Layers and when to utilize the Outliner. The two gadgets let you control the perceivability of various pieces of your model, however every has its own qualities and shortcomings.

Basics: Make groups and components - We generally use groups and components as our essential methods for association. This is basic whether or not I'm utilizing Layers or the Outliner. Why so?

Utilizing Layers doesn't keep geometry secluded; edges and faces on one layer can (and will) meddle with edges and faces on another layer - UNLESS those edges and faces are ensured as a major aspect of a different gathering or part. Utilizing groups and components is the surest method to abstain from going through hours fixing your work.

The Outliner (Window > Outliner) is fundamentally only a various leveled rundown of the groups and components in your model. Just these two kinds of things appear; "free" geometry (ungrouped edges and faces) doesn't.

In the event that you need to utilize the Outliner to control the perceivability of various pieces of your model, you have to make groups and components.

Why should we utilize the Outliner more often than not:

We like utilizing the Outliner in light of the fact that it's a direct method of seeing all the odds and ends of our models: If I've been mindful so as to name everything as we come (the main spot in our life where we show neatness), the Outliner makes overseeing everything generally simple. we can stow away and show groups and components by right-tapping on their names, rather than delving through the geometry in our model with the Select instrument.

We will in general utilize the Outliner considerably more than we use Layers since we see settled groups and components as a consistent method to sort out items in 3D space. Some random substance can just exist inside each gathering or part in turn. This implies when we conceal a gathering or part from the Outliner. We can be certain that everything inside it is hidden, as well. On the off chance that we unhide a gathering or segment and something inside it despite everything isn't obvious, we realize that we should simply turn on Hidden Geometry to discover it.

With Layers, it's feasible for a gathering or part to be on one layer and the elements it contains (edges, faces, groups, components, and so on) to be on a totally isolated layer. Turning on one layer is no assurance that all that it contains will get obvious. At the point when this occurs, turning on Hidden Geometry won't help - stuff that is hidden on a layer which is killed doesn't appear, in any event, when Hidden Geometry is turned on.

Utilizing Layers to control the perceivability of individual elements in your model can be extremely precarious. Layers have, now and again, made me need to toss our PC through a divider.

How we use Layers: Their occasionally disappointing nature in any case, Layers are really significant as we arrange complex models in SketchUp. we can consider two significant reasons why:

To improve framework execution

We use Layers to control the perceivability of huge arrangements of comparative articles - furniture, plants, scale figures, vehicles - that we need to have the option to kill on and at the same time, paying little heed to which gathering or segment they're a piece of. For the most part, this is with the goal that we can control the manner in which our model performs on our PC. Killing "substantial" stuff like trees speeds things up.

Assume we have a structure with three stories (see underneath). Each floor has some furniture on it. We model each floor as a different gathering with the goal that we can show and shroud it effectively by means of the Outliner. Each gathering contains the furniture on that floor. The structure envelope is a different gathering.

Utilize the Outliner to control the visibility of individual groups and components

So we can rapidly kill on and the entirety of the furniture in the structure (which will make the entire model simpler to work with), we move every furniture part from Layer0 (the default) to another layer called "Furniture".

You can use Layers to turn on and off arrangements of comparative items that "cut over" groups and components. Presently we can without much of a stretch control the perceivability of individual parts of our structure autonomously. Having the option to kill on and the furniture at the same time makes it much simpler to complete things.

To keep a few things truly independent

As we referenced before, turning on Hidden Geometry just shows hidden geometry on layers which are noticeable. we exploit this reality to ensure that when I'm modeling and we have to turn on Hidden Geometry for reasons unknown (like perhaps to unsoften an edge), we don't wind up getting confused by each hidden element in our model.

We use Layers to sort out huge, clumsy pieces of geometry that we don't have to see constantly, yet that we can't erase. Instances of these are form lines, imported CAD drawings, past structure emphasis, and a lot of company (trees, furniture, and so forth). we keep these things on independent layers (as a feature of groups, obviously) and we turn them on just when we need them.

Plenty of modelers use Layers and almost never use the Outliner. Which system you choose is entirely up to you -- there's no right or wrong way to do things. As long as your big models aren't driving you crazy, you're doing fine.