THE MOST UNDERUSED SKETCHUP TIP – Save Time with the Outliner!
In this video, we talk about the benefits of using the outliner tool in SketchUp to save time and stay organized. This SketchUp tip WILL save you time when working in SketchUp!
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The way it works is simple – whenever you create a group or component within your SketchUp model, it shows up in the outliner. As you can see, my default model, which is a component, shows up with its name in the outliner.
Another example – if I create a box in SketchUp, then select it and make it a group, you’ll notice that it now shows up in the outliner.
Note that a group will show up with a single box next to it and no brackets. If you create a component, it contains a set of brackets and may have an instance name associated with it, but we can talk about this more in a bit.
You can rename an object in the outliner by right clicking on it and selecting “rename,” or by going up into the entity info for your object and renaming it there.
Note that you can use the outliner to quickly select different shapes in your model – when you click on an object in the outliner, it also shows up in the entity info, where you can then edit it.
In addition to showing individual objects, the outliner will also show nested objects, meaning groups inside of groups – if I create a copy of this box, then right click and group it, you’ll notice that you get a new group within the outliner that can be expanded and minimized. This makes it really easy to get to nested objects, and also allows you to keep a really compact view.
For this example, lets create a couple more types of shapes – some cones and cylinders. What we’ll do is name the individual shapes, then group them by shape type, then group all of them into a group called “Shapes.” You can rename all of these groups so that you know what’s contained in them, and get to them really quickly without having to do a ton of clicking.
Components will show up just a bit differently – they’ll have brackets around the component definition. This is the name all copies of this component will share. For example, no matter how many copies of my “Me and Bonnie” component I make, they’ll all have a definition of Me and Bonnie #1. However, in addition to the definition, each one of these individual components can have its own unique “instance name,” which is the name of the individual object.
One of the features that was added to SketchUp 2018 was the fact that section cuts now show up in the outliner, so you can use the outliner to organize your section cuts as well, which is really important because the only way you can have multiple section cuts active at once is to have them inside different groups.
You can also adjust and see different visibilities inside the outliner. For example, say I wanted to hide all the boxes in this model, I could simply select both of them by doing a shift click, then right click and select the option for “hide.” This would hide your geometry so that it’s not visible, bit it would still be grayed out in the outliner, indicating that it’s hidden. To unhide geometry, simply right click on the hidden geometry and select the option for “unhide.”
One thing to note is that geometry that’s on a layer that’s turned off will not show up in the outliner until the layer is turned back on.
Finally, you can also move and change groupings of objects within the outliner. You can move objects to other groups by clicking and dragging, and you can explode already created groups by right clicking and selecting the “explode” option.
Overall, this is one of my favorite tools inside SketchUp, and I think it’s very underutilized. Keeping your model organized can save you TONS of time, especially if you organize as you go, so give it a try today!
About Justin Geis
Hi, I'm Justin Geis, and I'm the founder of The SketchUp Essentials. I started using SketchUp as part of my work as a general contractor in 2008. I quickly realized the power of the software and started using it for personal projects. I started The SketchUp Essentials as a place to share easy to follow SketchUp tutorials and tips to help everyone harness the power of 3D Modeling in their lives. When not working with SketchUp, I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my wife and our two dogs.
