Creating Documents in LayOut

LayOut is packed with tools and features to help you create high-quality documents and presentations of your SketchUp models.

To give your document visual appeal and organize elements on each page, you can draw lines and shapes using shape tools that work similarly, but not exactly, to the way SketchUp's drawing tools work. The key difference is that, in SketchUp, you're drawing in three dimensions, whereas in LayOut, you're drawing in only two dimensions.

When you want to select a color for a line, shape, or other element, LayOut's color picker gives you several ways to select a color, including a color wheel and RGB or HSB sliders. Choosing Colors explains all the ways you can select color in LayOut's color picker.

LayOut enables you to do all the basic editing tasks, such as copying, pasting, erasing, and more. You also have several ways to view your presentation and manage and navigate all the pages in a LayOut document.

Tip: One of LayOut's most powerful features is the ability to insert SketchUp models into a document. LayOut enables you to orbit or pan to change how your model looks in the document. Even better, if you need to make updates to your model in SketchUp, LayOut enables you to update the model references so your LayOut document reflects your model updates - without your doing any extra work!

In addition to SketchUp models, you can also insert images, such as a company logo or other branding.

Text often emphasizes key information you want your audience to take away from a document. In LayOut, using tools similar to those you find in SketchUp, you can add text, labels, and dimensions.

To organize elements in your document, LayOut enables you to move, arrange, and scale entities. You can also group entities or separate elements on different layers.

LayOut has several features that enable you to reuse settings and content you use repeatedly. Styles enable you to save and apply settings to elements with a single click. Scrapbooks enable you to save elements, such as a specific arrow style you want to use consistently across all presentations, in one handy place. Templates store document settings, titles, or other elements you use in many or all of your presentations.

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