Adding lights does not show up in viewport

[andy_smith]

I've been working on a scene and have suddenly encountered an issue whereby when I click to add a new rectangular light, as I do my clicks to set the start point, etc, the arrow and lines that will eventually become my light (once I have done the final click) are now black instead of blue and red. Also, using the cursor keys at this stage no longer locks the rectangular light to the axes as it should do.

Further, when I do the final click, the new light does not show up in the viewport for me to click and rotate and move, etc. But it DOES get added to the light list in the asset editor and DOES show up in renders. If I click the new light in the asset editor, I get a bounding box (blue) in the sketchup viewport which I can move around, etc but it's just an empty blue box - not easy to work with!

However, as soon as I click on one of my "scenes" to go to one of my previously-placed camera positions, the light appears correctly, in blue and red with arrow and all... Does anyone know what is causing this and how to prevent it?

Thanks,
Andy

[natalia.gruzdova]

Hello andy_smith,
Thank you for the deliberate description of your issue.

There are several thing that can be checked:

• Check if when you create new lights the Hide V-Ray Widgets tool is enabled. Try to enable\disable it and see if all Lights appear in your scene.
  
• If the Lights appear try changing scene views and see if the Lights remain visible.
• If this does not help try to unhide all, go to Edit > Unhide > All. Possible Lights were added to some invisible Tag - check if this is so.
• If none of the above works, copy paste your geometry into a new file or open a new file and import your scene with File>Import.

Let us know of the outcome.

[andy_smith]

Thanks Natalia - I will try this this evening. I’m hoping that I’ve just accidentally shortcutted the “Hide V-Ray Widgets” option somehow. This definitely wasn’t happening in this file for most of yesterday and only suddenly started happening later in the day.

When I now am in the process of initially placing a light, as I say, it is a series of black lines with a black arrow between the first click to set the start corner for the light and the second click to place the end corner of the rectangle. Normally these lines would be blue and red.

Also now as the black lines are moving around while I decide where to place the second click, it cannot be constrained to an axis. This constrain function still works fine for regular Sketchup geometry.

Then, when I place the second click, an entry appears in the V-Ray asset editor lights list but, as the click happens, the black lines that I have been orienting disappear completely as if I’ve hit ESC rather than placing the second click.

If I right click on the new light in the asset editor and click “select object in scene”, a blue bounding box/selection appears in the Sketchup window and can be CTRL-X’d or moved or rotated or anything else but it just looks like you’re manipulating an empty box with nothing in it.

However, as soon as you click on one of your scenes/saved views, the camera takes its expected position/direction and suddenly the blue and red lines/arrows of the previously-invisible light appear.

Hopefully this description might help someone else if this happens to them in the future - I’ll post back with an update later. Thanks!

[natalia.gruzdova]

Hi again,

Also now as the black lines are moving around while I decide where to place the second click

This may have something to do with the SketchUp Styles. Perhaps the Style of the Scene you are working with is set to such representation.
Does it look similar to my screenshot?



Try setting some default Style to the Scene you have troubles with.

[andy_smith]

Hi Natalia,

It was the "Hide V-Ray Widgets" option that I must have somehow inadvertently triggered. This issue is now resolved. However, am I misremembering or should I be able to constrain a rectangular light to the three axes when I'm placing it in my scene? I don't seem to be able to do that anymore: the cursor keys do not do anything between the first and second clicks.

Thanks,
Andy

[natalia.gruzdova]

Hello andy_smith,
I am not too sure what you mean regarding the

should I be able to constrain a rectangular light to the three axes when I'm placing it in my scene

but when you place light source you should be able to snap either to other objects or to axis themselves. Also you can start placing the light from the axis.

Please see the gif I’ve made.


Check also if perhaps you have Length and Angle snapping disabled under Model Info > Units.

If you need to change the placing after creation right-click on light and Flip it Along the axis. Alternatively, in SketchUp 2023 you can use a new option called Flip (available on the Large Toolbar).