So, here I am at work and it looks like I have a little time.
1. Always, always leave Layer 0 the active layer. You can see that it is active by the dot in the circle to the left of the layer name in the Layers dialog box.
2.Add layers by clicking
Add.
3. Immediately after clicking
Add type a name for the layer. You can double click on the layer name later to change it if you want.
4. The check mark in the box to the right of the layer name indicates the layer is turned on. Turn layers on or off as desired with these check marks.
5. The colored squares on the right side of the Layers dialog box shows the color of geometry if you have
Color by layer turned on. This is accessed in the fly out menu under the arrow button in the upper right corner of the dialog box.
6. After creating your layers move geometry to those layers byselecting it and changing the Layer in the Entity Info box. It is best move both the component and its geometry to the layer. This is a two step process. You select the component (or group) and set the layer and then open the component for editing, select all of its geometry and set the layer again.
Think of layers as layers of clear plastic sheets or as tracing paper on the drawing board. You can have some components drawn on one layer and others drawn on another. You can look through the entire stack of layers or remove layers as desired. The active layer is the one on top. It's the one you can get at with your crayons to draw on.
Imagine you're working with the model from the picture. You have set the box layer to be active and start drawning on the cylinder. The box layer is on top so you're drawing there. Now suppose you want to turn off the Box layer. The stuff you just drew on the cylinder gets turned off too. Drat! This would be pretty easy to fix with only three layers and two components. It gets to be pretty difficult when you have lots of layers.
If you are making multiple views and using pages to do that, you might choose to turn some layers off and others on. You could make multiple door copies for a cabinet, rotate the copies and move each to its only layer to make it appear the door is opening. Or you could draw different door styles with each one on its own layer. Then you could quickly change door styles by changing pages.
Here's a SketchUp file you can download that demonstrates a use of layers. Run the slideshow to see it in action.
http://forum.sketchup.com/attachment.ph ... 1166016677
