Creating and Organizing Scenes in SketchUp for Efficient Workflow

Alright, in this video, we are going to talk a little bit more about scenes and how to create scenes to be used for certain aspects of turning on and off layers, different views, different styles, etc. We looked at them earlier in the SKP 101 course and earlier in this class, where we were adjusting between turning on and off the floor plan or adjusting our axes on each layer.

So, let's go into our Scene tab. We have these true north axes and project north axes. We don't need to use these anymore, so we can delete those.

Those are really good when we're modeling, but right now they're just taking up space along this very important bar up here. So, I'm going to select both of these, and I'm going to delete them. Click this little minus key right here and delete these scenes.

So, the first one that I like to create is a working style so that way you know these have the thick lines. So, I'll create a new scene, and this one I want to adjust. I don't want the camera location to be saved for this scene.

I would like there to be visible tags available. Active section plans, yes. Style on fog, yes.

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Shadow settings, no. I want to reserve that for specific view settings. Axes location, yes.

So, basically, it's everything but shadows and camera location. And so, I'm going to rename this one "working style." I do not want this to be included in the animation, so I will uncheck it.

And now, I want to update the style for this specific scene. So, I'll go to Styles, and I want to turn off profiles. I do not want profiles to be in this style.

And then I want to also go into my Tags, and I want to turn off the plants and trees. So, that way, when I'm working, it's really a fast, quick way to see. And I want to update the style, and I want to update the selected style.

And I want to update based on turning off the specific tags as well as changing the style by removing the line weight. I'm going to update the scene, and now I'm going to create a new scene. In this one, I want to call this scene "export."

When I like to export files and images from SketchUp, SketchUp reads the line thicknesses a little bit differently from how they are viewed on the screen. I like to export with the thicker lines. So, under Styles, I like to include profiles and the depth cue around 2 and 2. And then, in the export scene settings, I want to uncheck everything but style and fog.

And then I will update the scene, update the selected style. Now, I have a working style, which, when I selected, updated the scene. I actually updated the previous scene. So, I want to undo this and update this and save it as a new style.

Now, I have this style saved and then this style saved. Now, let's save some camera views that we would use for exporting the various renderings. So, let's go see that we want to maybe possibly do an aerial view, right? So, let's create another style or scene up here that includes the landscape so we can turn on and off the landscaping.

So, working style has no landscaping, and then let's add another scene, and we'll call this one "final." And so, this one would include, go into our Styles, this one, and then go into our Tags. This would include the trees and the plants. We'll update that, and now we can orbit around and find specific views that we would like to use in our model.

So, you know, I think this is a really great view right here. It shows kind of the landscaping to the side, got a nice view of the tree. You know, you can see that the eye heights are very similar across each of the people, meaning it's a very level scene.

Something like this. So, I'll do, I will right-click up here and I can also do "Add, " and so what Add will do is actually duplicate the same settings that I had previously. However, I don't want the same settings, so I want to edit this, and I want to actually uncheck everything but camera location and shadow settings, and I want to include this in my animation. I will name this view "exterior view one, " and I will update it.

Now I have this view saved, but when I go into working style, it turns off the plants. "Final" has the plants, and "Export" has the thicker lines for exporting. I'll go back to my exterior view.

I realized I had a misspelling here. I forgot the "r." Let me add that back. I'm going to go back to my working, my final style, so I don't have the thick lines, and let's see, let's make another view.

Let's say we want to do a view that's maybe more of an aerial-type view of our clubhouse. Maybe something that's kind of right over here. We'll right-click, "Add, " and we can see that because the view that I was previously on was final, and that had all the other tags.

So, I want to uncheck all of these and make sure that I have shadow and camera location saved. Now we'll rename this "exterior view two, " and now let's make another view, and let's make a view that's maybe a little bit more parallel to our plaza. It's more like this.

We can also change the view range to be maybe more like 55. Something like this, and if there is a specific plant or tree that we don't like, we can actually click into the model group, and we can actually hide a specific tree. Now we're kind of having a view that looks somewhat like this.

You bring it down a little bit lower so we can get some plants down in the foreground. I'm trying to get this more centered around the building. I want to add, and this time I want to make sure that I show hidden objects so that way the hidden geometry and top-level hidden geometry are saved in this view.

I'm going to update this and rename this "exterior view three." However, now that I saved this view with these hidden objects, if I were to go back here, that same hidden object would be gone. So, I would need to go into this tree group and go to Edit, Unhide Last to get that tree back, and then I can check the top-level hidden geometry and then update, and similarly, I would do the same thing for this as now that has that same view.

So, I want to check top-level hidden geometry and then update. Let me go back to my exterior view three to check to see if that tree was hidden, and it was. Then I'll go back to view two because I want to use this layer state where this tree is still here, and orbit around to this side of the building, kind of orbit so we can get a nice kind of tree and plants that go around it, but we still get a good sense of the plaza and the patio space. I will add, and I can move this to the right by right-clicking, "Move, " right-click, "Rename, " and I can actually rename it right from here knowing that I have my settings saved how I like. Then, the final exterior view that I would like to do is a lower view down here. I want to change my view perspective to be around 55 again so I can get a nice, wide-angle view of this area, maybe get a little bit higher so I can get the plants in the front.

I want to make my camera angle and make sure that we're in a two-point perspective, which keeps our verticals straight. Then we will go to "Add, " and then rename this as "exterior view five." Let's again, let's go back to each of our views to see if we're happy with how these look. I think I want to change the view range to be a little bit wider on this one, right around there. Go back to my view three, make sure that my verticals are straight, so I'll go to Camera, Two-Point Perspective, make sure my verticals are straight, and center this image. Go to Update, then I'll go to "exterior view two, " get my perspective set right here, and I'll update, and I'll go to "exterior view one" and I'll check this geometry. I want to make this a little bit more of a wider angle as well. We'll do 45 and then zoom in a little bit. We're kind of right in this perspective. Go back out a tiny bit, just like right there, and I'll do Camera, Two-Point Perspective, and I will update. Now, we'll save my file.