LayOut’s most distinctive, time-saving, awesome feature is its ability to display SketchUp model files and synchronize your SketchUp file and your LayOut file almost automagically.
For example, after you import a SketchUp file into your LayOut document:
- The scenes you set up in a SketchUp file are ready for you to use in LayOut.
- You can adjust SketchUp view settings and styles within LayOut — no need to jump back and forth between the two applications.
- If the SketchUp file changes, you can update references to the SketchUp file in your document with a few easy clicks.
Note: Depending on your computer’s memory and graphics capabilities, large SketchUp files may have trouble displaying in LayOut. If you experience an issue, check out ways you can work with or improve the problem.
Tip: In LayOut, you can change a SketchUp model entity into an image. Although you lose all the synchronization features between SketchUp and LayOut, if you’re certain these features are unnecessary, this image can help with performance issues and managing file sizes. To transform a SketchUp model entity into an image, the model entity must be rendered in raster mode. (See the section on rendering model entities in the article, Editing a SketchUp Model’s View and Style Settings in LayOut.) When you’re ready to create the image, select the model entity and choose Edit > Explode or context-click the model entity and select Explode from the menu that appears. Note that if you explode when a model is rendered in vector or hybrid mode, the command creates a group of vector edges and faces either instead of or in addition to an image.
