How to Use the OUTLINER in SketchUp! (Everyone Needs This!)

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Hi everyone! Let me know if you have any questions about the outliner in the comments below! :)

[@mapit07]

I use the outliner all the time and put its powerful search engine to good use. I struggle to understand how the Tag function is to work with Outliner. Your thoughts?

[@coolfunk2004]

Hey Justin, it feels amazing when I find such an informative video. Keep up the great work! I have just started learning Sketchup 2020 and following your videos to get going. One question, is there a way I can convert the sketchup 3Ds to a 2D spec CAD file?

[@miyahollands6136]

Hi Justin. This could be a cool way to include options within a building model, enabling toggling between options very easy

[@rishi.v3930]

Thanks for this video Have a good day dude

[@ericgrando4759]

Im Just curious, besides physically being able to name every group that you make, what is the advantage of this? I make groups so fast and so many, that I like to select certain things and turn them into tags for viewing/layering.

[@sajit63]

Is there a means to structure by tag and outliner a house design that was made without doing so?

[@ashokmoghe8035]

Hi Justin, Just learning sketchup. Saw your 2 part videos and they were best beginner videos. That part 2 video recommended the outliner video. I am using Sketchup Free version. Do I have access to the Outliner tool or do I need the Desktop Pro version? Also, if the free version doesn't have this tool, what is the best way to print and make a list of cut list for my woodworking project. I am just a home DIY'er making something for myself in the garage and not a professional. Thanks in advance for your help.

[@ryanparina1380]

hello, do you perhaps know how to convert a bubble diagram into a floor plan using sketchup?

[@cindysanford7554]

Hi, I am new to sketchup and after installing do not see any option to open a default tray. I followed your instruction's in the tutorial and when click on windows in the tool bar, there are no tray options. ?

[@Maschinengoth]

My main problem with the outliner is the ridiculous performance hit SketchUp takes once a certain amount of groups and subgroups are involved. Having the outliner open in these cases makes working almost impossible :(

[@yairdiaz8227]

Is it possible to access the Outliner and create a TXT or other text file?

[@KingBigBabyJesus]

Under the file menu, 'General Report' may help. I've only used it to make make a parts list which required labeled components but it says it can do so from groups or components. Google says .grt file. I can't remember what it was when I was playing around with it tho

[@myalmamyalma1314]

Benzer gruplari saydırmak istiyorum nasil yapabilirim , teşekkürler ?

[@FabianReyesBahamon]

Thanks a lot, i was massively angry because i didn't find this tool!

[@Thesketchupessentials]

Massively angry?

[@FabianReyesBahamon]

@@Thesketchupessentials I mean, i didn't find the tool in SK 2022, and finally i find here what i was looking for. Thanks

[@jdeso3]

Is there no place to download sketch up make 2017.

[@miamaxim7662]

So SU Outliner = Layers panel

[@arayahomes4308]

Nice video, but I have to comment only because of the "everyone needs this" part of the title. The outliner is COMPLETELY useless in my experience so far using sketchup for almost 7 years designing homes, construction details, etc and all while using layout to output my models into drawings..... I have never needed it....... I think if one is quantifying things from the model than I can see it's use, but otherwise for many people in many sketchup design scenarios, it's just totally useless from my experience over the years...... Tags are what automate layout drawings, not the outliner and tags can be setup as a template so that you don't have to keep renaming things over and over again for each new model, unlike using the outliner.... I don't get it.....

[@Thesketchupessentials]

I mean...ok I guess? I laid out plenty of reasons why it's useful in the video, including organization, quickly editing nested groups and components, using it to move objects inside our outside of groups, toggle things off and on, etc. If you don't want to use it for any of those things, that's fine, but just for editing nested objects alone it's a big timesaver and saves a bunch of clicks

[@arayahomes4308]

@@Thesketchupessentials well I'll watch it again perhaps and give it a think... Saving clicks might be useful but I don't know... Thanks for the reply and I'll give it some more thought. I've always tried to find the real use out of outliner and I guess I just don't see it yet.... I'll come back to this... Thanks

[@MarkMuller1000]

@@arayahomes4308 I kind of feel somewhat the same way as a regular user of SKP & LYT, but....outliner is very useful in finding and selecting components that might be randomly scattered through the model and not easy to see or drag a window around. Say you have a lot of trees/shrubs/cars/people to move or put on a tag, they can be much easier to search for and select in outliner. I'm also going to say Justin you did not mention the search function at all which is more useful in a model with hundreds of components.

[@arayahomes4308]

@@MarkMuller1000 Thanks Mark for your comments on this! My thoughts on your comments are that for me personally if I am the designer of the model, than I know where everything is, sure there might be some instances where I am not sure or I forget some things but that's rare and typically minor... So at what point I guess is what I'm saying do you decide to name objects that you assume you'll forget about where they are? I think this also comes down to the strategy of organizing and how things are organized in containers of groups and sub groups and utilizing tags so that you don't have to tag every instance in a model but you are tagging the container of objects so that things are easy to find that are hiding due to using proper scenes and tagging strategies..... I've literally NEVER found a use for the outliner, again though quantifying objects in my model might change my mind on that, but other than that it's a useless feature for me personally and a complete waste of time. One thing as a designer that I'm sure you can relate to is that we often over complicate things because deisgners are typically over analytical people etc, simplifying the system is much harder to do than over complicating things is what I've learned over the years haha.... Using the outliner and naming objects is just a huge waste of time for most scenarios in my personal opinion.......

[@arayahomes4308]

@@Thesketchupessentials Another comment I'd add is that the amount of time spent to name all objects vs if you want to quickly edit nested objects than you just find the object and click into it and edit..... I don't see why it would be any faster to name everything vs if you want to edit something just find it and click on it to edit it.. And again, if one is not quantifying the objects in a table or something than naming it seems like it's only useful if you said you want to edit it and find it easily? If one is the designer of the model than they know where everything is so they should find it and click on it to edit in my opinion. It's also way easier for people to visually find something based on shapes and sizes and objects of where it is in the model than it might be to scroll through a list of text in the outliner, but maybe that's scenario dependent, might be advantages to both. All in all, the time spent naming things vs just clicking on something and editing it is just simply not worth it, it's complete over organization for no real time savings and that's why I've never needed it. This is all of course my opinion and experience though and am just challenging what you say so...... Wondering your thoughts because if there is use out of it that can actually save time in the scenario I just mentioned than I'm definitely open to hearing about it.

[@Spacekriek]

First :D LOL