SU Layers and Pages

[Dave Richards]

Here's a quick little illustration of a way to use Layers and Pages in SketchUp. Download the SU file and under View, click Tourguide and Play Slideshow.

Bouncing Ball SKP (http://forum.sketchup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=178564&d=1161347207)

The same idea could be applied to opening doors or raising table leaves or any number of things related to woodworking projects. SU Pro5 can output AVI animations from pages which makes it easier to show others. I don't believe GSU can do that however.

[J. Scott Chambers]

That made a few things much clearer for me regarding the use of pages and layers.

Thanks.

[Dave Richards]

Ah, good. I'm glad. Of course there are many other ways to use them, too.

I used this idea awhile back to work out the geometry of one of those tables with the slide out leaves where you lift the top and pull the leaves out. I can't remember the name for that sort of table but one of our fairier members sent me some photos of one she built and I worked from that.

The animation allowed me to see how the mechanism worked and that I had things correct. You could also use this to show the order of assembly for a complex piece or check for conflicts between opening doors or whatever.

[Art Mulder]

So what is the purpose behind assigning colours to layers? I just noitced that running down the right side of that bouncing ball layer menu.

[Dave Richards]

You can set the display to show color by layer which can make it easier to track what layer various bits are on. That's probably handy when you have lots of layers to deal with or when trying to straighten out a problem.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/colorbylayer.jpg
Here's a screen shot of the bouncing balls with all layers turned on and Color by layer turned on. It is accessed under the arrow at the top right of the Layers box.