- Hey, guys. In this video, I'm gonna help you avoid the
things that trip people up when they're first getting started with LayOut for SketchUp Pro. We've helped thousands of
professionals learn LayOut, and we've heard countless stories about the problems they run into before they take our classes. Our goal in this video is to
help you avoid those problems. I'm Alex Oliver, lead
instructor at SketchUp School, the place where professionals go when they're serious
about learning SketchUp, and today I'm gonna show you
the seven critical things you need to know before you
get started with LayOut. Keep watching. (soft chiming) (mouse clicking) So, what kind of problems
do people run into? Here's a story from one of our students. Martha is an architect who
started her own design firm. She knew her way around SketchUp, and she loved being able
to turn hand drawings into accurate 3D renderings. But when she needed 2D
plans and elevations, she still had to hire somebody to draft 'em for her in AutoCAD. She knew of LayOut and figured her SketchUp
skills would translate, so she dove right in, only to end up wasting a ton of time and failing to get the
results she was looking for. Having learned SketchUp with us before, thankfully, Martha knew
to sign up for our course to build her LayOut
skills from the ground up. After completing the course, not only was she able to easily produce accurate 2D CAD drawings, but the stress of not
being able to quickly respond to builders and
contractors with design changes had completely disappeared. What we learned from talking to Martha and other students like her is that they were all getting
stuck for similar reasons. They were making mistakes
in SketchUp first that caused them to
struggle in LayOut later. We've come up with a list
of the seven key things you need to get right in SketchUp before you get started in LayOut. Now, these seven tips won't
magically teleport you from complete beginner to LayOut expert, but they will get you
started down the right path. And by the end of this video, you'll know enough to avoid
many of the bumps in the road people often hit when they're first getting
started with LayOut. Before we jump into the list, let's quickly review the basics of how SketchUp and LayOut work together. First, you create a well-organized
3D model in SketchUp. Next, you send your
SketchUp file to LayOut. Then In LayOut, you set up Viewports that are
linked to your SketchUp file. You'll set as many viewports as you need, each one showing a different
view of your SketchUp model. And finally, you dimension, label, and use LayOut's documentation tools to produce anything from
2D plans and drawings, to a full set of detailed
construction documents. It all sounds easy enough, but there's more to that
first step in SketchUp than most people realize. That's where these seven tips come in. Ready to learn 'em? All right, let's get
started with number one, create Scenes before Viewports. When you send your
SketchUp model to LayOut, you'll see a Viewport
that's linked to your model. From there, LayOut makes it
easy to document your design. But here's the problem, and it's hands down the biggest problem that people run into when they
first try to learn LayOut. Seemingly out of nowhere, LayOut will suddenly switch
what you see in your Viewport, messing up all your
annotations in the process. It's so frustrating! But it turns out that LayOut's
just a computer program doing its job. Unless you tell it otherwise, LayOut's job is to show you
your last saved SketchUp view. Because your SketchUp and
LayOut files are linked, if you go back to work on your
SketchUp file and save it, the Viewport in LayOut will update. That's good for design changes, but bad when it messes up
the Viewport in LayOut. So how do you make this work for you, rather than against you? In SketchUp, you need to set up Scenes that represent the exact
views you wanna see in your LayOut Viewports later. In LayOut, you set your Viewports to the appropriate SketchUp Scenes, and voila, everything works beautifully. Any design changes you
make to your Sketchup model will carry over without messing things up. Now, in order to help you set
up your Scenes for LayOut, follow the next tip. Number two, get the right Camera views. Let's say you wanna set up a plan view. Trying to use SketchUp's
navigation tools to do that is not only frustrating,
it's actually impossible. So, what's the right way to do it? Well, it turns out that the
answer lies in your Camera menu. There, you can jump
directly to a Top Down view without having to try
to orbit there manually. By default, your camera shows Perspective, so you'll need to turn that off to get a more traditional 2D plan view. Lastly, use Pan and
Zoom to frame your view. It'll be the same framing you'll see in your LayOut Viewport later. Then save your scene. Of course, this isn't
quite a plan view just yet. That's where the next tip comes into play. Number three, give each Active
Section Cut its own Scene. Whether you need to show a floor plan, an elevation, or some other
cross sectional drawing, you'll need to add a Section
Cut to your SketchUp model. Here's the problem. Once you add a Section Cut, it can be tricky to get it
to show up when you need it and disappear when you don't. And if you have multiple section cuts, it's even more of a headache trying to isolate the one you need. So, how do you avoid this? To get to the answer, let's talk about best practices for setting up a Section Cut. When you add a Section Cut,
it will be the Active Cut. To get a view perpendicular to the cut, right-click on the Section Plane and Align your View to that plane. And be sure to hide the Plane if you no longer need to see it. Then, pan or zoom as needed and Save a new scene, or update an existing scene if you're already working with one. Be sure to repeat this
process for each Section Cut. In short, if you make the mistake of adding Section Cuts as an afterthought, you're gonna make your life way harder. So, always give Active Section Cuts their own Scenes as you go, and you'll definitely
thank yourself later. (phone ringing) Hello? - Hey, it's me. Well, it's you from the future. Anyway, I was just calling
to say thanks, man. - Uh, you're welcome? Now, once you've added your Section Cuts, you may find that you need to adjust which parts of your drawings are visible. That's where the next tip comes in. Number four, use Layers the right way. When you're in LayOut
setting up your viewports, you're gonna need scenes that show specific things in your model, and hide everything else. To do that, you're gonna need to know how
to use Layers in SketchUp. SketchUp's Layers work
a little bit differently than Layers do in other
programs you might already use. To be successful with Layers in SketchUp, you need to understand
the following concepts. In every file, you start with a default
layer called Layer0. It starts as the Active Layer, which means all the
edges and faces you draw will be on Layer0. As you create new layers, there are three simple rules to follow. Rule number one, don't ever, ever touch the Active Layer. It should always be Layer0. I'm serious about this one. If you don't follow this advice, you will ruin your SketchUp model and eventually have to start over. Second, organize everything you draw into Groups and Components, and assign all of your
Groups and Components to new Layers that you've created. Make sure to plan ahead
for the Layers you'll need, and you'll have an organized model that's easy to work with when
setting up Scenes for LayOut. And third, when you need to hide and show related Groups or Components together, select them all and turn them into a new higher level or Parent Group, then assign that new Parent
Group to its own Layer that you can hide and show. This last idea is a super
powerful feature of SketchUp, and allows you to easily
set up complicated views. Of course, you're gonna
need to invest some time developing your own
strategies for organizing and layering your SketchUp models, or you can start with the ones that we recommend in our LayOut course. Okay, let's move on to our next tip. At this point, you're properly using
Layers, Section Cuts, and Camera Views together
with your Scenes. You're probably feeling
ready to jump into LayOut. Well, don't pause this video just yet, 'cause you'll miss our next tip, which answers the question
I, (record popping) seriously? Guys, this is the question I
get asked the most by people who try to learn LayOut on their own. Where are my Line Weights? Number five, control
Line Weights via Styles. Line Weights are hands
down the biggest mystery for people that jump right in and start trying to make
things happen in LayOut. The only mention of Line Weights in LayOut is this setting right here, and when you click it, it
doesn't do what you'd expect. So, how do you control
Line Weights in LayOut? At this point in the video, I'm sure you can guess that
the answer lies in SketchUp. In SketchUp, the Styles window is where you go to control whether you see
Materials, flat colors, or just a white model, as well as where you control
the background colors you see. But it's also where you'll
be able to set the stage for controlling your Line
Weights later in LayOut. For any Scene, you can have
essentially three Line Weights, One for your Edges, one for Profiles, and one for Section Cuts. The numerical values you assign to the thickness of the lines are ratios, so Edges have a built-in value of one, and it's up to you to decide
whether the other Line Weights are two times, three times, or however many times thicker you like. Then in LayOut, you can further refine things by dialing all the Line Weights up or down in thickness together. Now, I know what you're thinking. I need more than three Line Weights! Not to worry. I've got a bonus tip for you. It's true, when you set your
three Line Weights for a Style and save your Scene, the linked Viewport in LayOut will be constrained to
those three Line Weights. But you can stack more than one Viewport on top of another in LayOut! That means you can have as many
Line Weights as you'd like. And while this might feel like a workaround for Line Weights, it does actually allow for some other powerful
Viewport stacking effects once you get the hang of it. Okay, let's move on to the next tip. Number six, name your
Groups and Components. In LayOut, you use the Label tool to name things in your drawings. If you have lots of things to label, this can mean a lot of typing and plenty of chances to make mistakes. What's a better way to do this? Well, back in SketchUp, when you make your Groups and Components, take the time to name them properly. Later, in LayOut, the Label tool is smart enough to automatically display the name without you having to type
it over and over again. This can be a huge timesaver. For Components, you name
them when you make them. For Groups, you can name them
in the Entity Info window. All right, one tip left,
and it's a big one. Number seven, draw some
2D symbols in SketchUp. In LayOut, you'll likely
need to show 2D symbols that represent objects in your design, like door swings or furniture symbols. If you're like most self-taught
students I run into, you're likely to make the mistake of drawing 'em in using LayOut's tools. But what if you need to
reposition things in your drawing, or worse, you have to make design changes in the SketchUp model? It can turn into a real mess. Okay, you may already see where I'm going with this one, right? Sometimes, it's best
to draw your 2D symbols in SketchUp first and group them with their 3D counterpart. Let's use a door for example. First, find or create a 3D door model. Next, draw the 2D door swing symbol and make it into a Group. Then, create a 2D Symbols Layer and assign the swing to that layer. Finally, group the 3D door
and the 2D door swing together into a Parent Group that you can move and position
together in your design. For any plan view Scenes, toggle on the 2D layer so it's visible. For perspectives and elevations, turn off the 2D layer so only
the 3D elements are visible. Okay, that takes us through
the seven key things you need to know before you
get started with LayOut. Just by watching this video, you've already prevented your future self a lot of pain in LayOut. Did you learn something
new in today's video? If you did, do me a quick favor
and give this video a like. Also, before you go, let me know which tip
you found most useful by leaving a comment below right now. If you wanna download a checklist of the seven things you need
to get right in SketchUp before getting started with LayOut, I've added a link to it in the cards. From here, it's definitely possible to learn everything on your own. But, if you don't have the time to figure out what you need to know and you can't afford to
pick up any bad habits, I recommend you check out
our video course library. It's filled with $8,700
worth of SketchUp training exclusively for professionals, including our LayOut course. Head over to our SketchUp School website and try it for free. Oh, and one more thing! If you don't wanna miss our next video, make sure to subscribe to our
YouTube channel right now. Just click on the subscribe
button below this video. Until next time, happy sketching! Hey, it's me! I mean, it's you. Hey, it's me! I mean, you in the future. (laughs) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, it's me! Hey-hey-hey, It's me! I'm, wait, let me, Hey, it's me. Well, it's you. I could just keep doing it. I mean, I might eventually get it.
