Controlling Visibility with Tags
What Happened to Layers? SketchUp’s Tags are an updated form of what was called Layers in older versions. Tags provide the same functionality that Layers provided and more.
Tags help you organize the objects in your SketchUp model and control their visibility. SketchUp allows you to hide Tagged objects in one click rather than select each object individually. Hiding large chunks of your model using Tags helps to find geometry faster and even speed up SketchUp a bit too. You can use Tag visibility to not only set up scenes in SketchUp, but also to set up your model for efficient operation.
By default, any new geometry you create is untagged. While you can Tag individual faces and edges, Tags work best on groups and components. Before assigning Tags to entities in your model, make sure you understand how groups and components work. For more information on grouping geometry or making your own components, see Grouping Geometry and Components.
Note: In previous versions of SketchUp, Tags were referred to as Layers.
Navigating the Tags Panel
You can create and manage Tags using the Tags panel, found in the default panel tray. It is also accessible by selecting Window > Default Tray.
The Tags panel contains the following features:
- Add Tag (
) – Adds a new Tag to the list of Tags in your model and allows you to name it. - Add Tag Folder (
) – Creates a folder you can use to organize your Tags. Grouping Tags together in a folder can help you organize models with a lot of Tags and manage visibility for all Tags in that folder. For more information, see “Working with Tag Folders” below. Filter – A search bar to help you find a specific Tag or folder.
- Tag tool (
) – Activates the Tag tool. See “Using the Tag Tool” below for more details. - Color by Tag (
) – If you have assigned a color to a Tag, clicking Color by Tag changes the color of all objects with the selected Tag to that color. - Details Menu (
) – Contains the following Tag management options: Expand All – Opens all folders, showing all Tags within them
Collapse All – Closes all folders, hiding the Tags within them
Select All – Selects all Tags
Show New Tags in Scenes – Description Here
Delete Tag – Deletes the selected Tag
Explode Tag Folder – Deletes the selected Tag folder
Purge Unused – Deletes all Tags not assigned to an entity
Select All Tagged – Selects all entities with the selected Tag
Apply Tags to Scenes – Applies currently selected tags to scenes in your model.
Dashes – Sets the dash pattern for a Tag selected in the Dashes column. For more information, see Applying Dashed Lines to Tags.
Sort – Selecting the Name header sorts all Tags and folders alphabetically. You can sort by visibility by selecting the Visible column header.
Material – You can set a material for each Tag in your model. SketchUp assigns a Tag a random solid color by default. To change the material for that Tag, click it and use the Edit Material dialog to choose a new one.
Tag Visibility
) appears next to each Tag in the Tags panel. The eye helps you control visibility and shows if Tagged entities are visible or hidden. An open eye means all Tagged entities are visible. A closed eye means all Tagged entities are hidden. Clicking the eye toggles the visibility for that Tag.You can select multiple Tags or Tag folders using the Ctrl or Command keys. If you have multiple entities selected, you can toggle visibility for all of them at once using the visibility toggle.
Using the Tag Tool
) helps you quickly apply a Tag to an object. You can find the Tag tool in the Tags panel, Large Tool Set, and Tools menu. If the Tags panel isn't already open, select the Tag tool from the toolbar to open it. To use the Tag tool:Select a single Tag in the Tags panel. If multiple Tags or a Tag folder are selected, the Tag tool will not work.
Select the Tag tool icon in the Tags panel or in your toolbars, if you haven't already
Select an entity in the modeling window.
The entity will flash purple to let you know that Tag is now assigned to that entity.
Using modifiers, you can change the mode of the Tag tool to perform the following actions:
Tool mode | Modifier Key (Windows/MacOS) | Functionality |
Sample | Alt/Command | Makes the Tag associated with a clicked entity the selected Tag. Sampling a Tag in the modeling window is a fast way to select that Tag in the Tags panel and have it ready for use with the Tag tool. |
Replace All | Shift/Shift | Replaces the Tag of all entities that share a Tag with the clicked entity with the selected Tag in the Tags panel. |
Tag All Instances | Ctrl/Option | Tags all instances of a component with the selected Tag in the Tags panel. |
Working with Tag Folders
The more complicated your model gets, the more the Tag window will fill with a list of similarly named Tags. A long list of Tags can be hard to scan and may slow you down when you want to do things like control visibility. To help make your Tag list more manageable, you can group your Tags together in Tag folders.
To create a Tag folder:
- In the Tags panel, create a new folder using Add Folder (). If no Tags are selected, this will create an empty, unnamed folder. If you have selected Tags, those tags will move to that folder, but you’ll still need to name it.
Type the name of your new folder and press Enter to continue. If you don't name your folder, SketchUp automatically assigns a number to it that it uses as the folder name.
Select one or multiple Tags and drag them into your folder.
To add a new Tag to an existing folder, select the folder you want to add it to and click Add Tag. The new Tag will appear in that folder. You can add new folders to an existing folder in the same way.