Layers

Layers let you show and hide parts of the model together, such as the furniture, the roof or a site plan, without erasing or grouping them.

Every edge, face, group, component, guide and annotation is on exactly one layer. Everything starts on the Default layer, which is always shown, and new geometry goes there too. Layers only change what you see: geometry on different layers still connects and still forms faces.

The Layers panel

Open the Layers panel from Window → Layers. It opens by itself when a file with layers loads.

• Add Layer adds a layer, named Layer 1, Layer 2 and so on, with its own color.
• Click the eye next to a layer to hide or show everything on it. Hidden layers have dimmed names.
• Click a layer’s name to select it. Its Name and Color fields appear under the list. Type a new name and press Enter to rename it; click the color to change it.
• Delete removes the selected layer. Everything on it moves to the Default layer.

All of these can be undone, and layers are saved with the project.

Put things on a layer

Select what you want to move, then choose a layer in the Layer field of Window → Properties. Choose Default to take things off their layer. When the selection is on more than one layer, the field is empty until you choose one.

Hide a layer

Hiding a layer hides the edges, faces, guides and annotations on it. A group or component on a hidden layer hides with everything inside, whatever layers its contents are on.

Things on a hidden layer can’t be selected, and View → Hidden Geometry and View → Hidden Objects don’t show them; show the layer again instead. Double- and triple-clicking, and the commands under Edit → Select, leave them out even when they connect to what you select. In the Outliner, objects on a hidden layer show a slashed eye.

Hiding a layer doesn’t change the hidden state of what’s on it, so things you hid yourself stay hidden when you show the layer again.

Groups, components and copies

• Explode puts the contents of a group or component that are on the Default layer on the layer the group or component was on.
• Splitting, extruding or otherwise changing geometry keeps it on its layer.
• The solid tools put their result on the layer of the solids when they share one. Otherwise the result goes on the Default layer, and the faces from each solid take that solid’s layer, as when exploding.
• Pasting into another model keeps the layer: Modlumi uses the layer with the same name there, or adds it.

SketchUp files open with their tags as layers. See SketchUp files.