With LayOut’s Style tool (
), you can sample the style settings applied to one entity and apply those same settings to another entity.
To apply a style from one entity to another, follow these steps:
- Select the Style tool () from the Main toolbar or select Tools > Style .
- Click any entity in the document area or scrapbook to sample the entity’s style settings. The cursor changes to a paint bucket (
). - Click the entity you want to apply the sampled styles to.
- Press Esc anytime to start over.
The Style tool works with shapes, images, text boxes, SketchUp model entities, and scrapbook items. Here’s a few tips for using the Style tool based on what you are trying to sample or how you are applying a sample: :
- Dimensions – If you sample a dimension, all Shape Style, Text Style, and Dimensions Style panel settings are sampled. After applying sampled styles to another dimension, you can then edit the extension line style, dimension line style, and the offset distance.
- Text Boxes – If you sample a text box, all Shape Style and Text Style panel settings are sampled.
- SketchUp Models – If you sample a SketchUp model, all Shape Style panel settings are sampled along with the scale, render method, shadows, fog, and style settings in the SketchUp Model panel.
- Pattern Fill – If you sample an entity with a pattern fill, the pattern fill's origin is sampled so that you can line up pattern fills across multiple entities. For example, your brick pattern can line up correctly across two different faces of your elevation.
- Filling a SketchUp Model – When you apply a style with a fill to a SketchUp model entity, the fill is applied on top of the model’s background.
- Strokes – When you apply a style with a stroke, the stroke is applied to a shape’s edge or the bounding box of an image, text box, SketchUp model entity, or scrapbook item.
When creating a new entity, you can apply a style with the Style tool right away using the Style tool’s default shortcut, B. For example, if you are creating a dimension with the Linear Dimension tool and it’s the wrong style, press B to activate the Style tool, sample the existing style you want to apply, and click the dimension you’ve created.
Customizing Line Widths and Styles introduces you to LayOut’s stroke settings. Filling Shapes with Colors and Patterns fills you in on how to select a fill.