Things to know

Skatter is non-destructive

Everything you do in Skatter is fully parametric and non-destructive. This means that you can always go back and edit your work, even after closing and reopening SketchUp.

A same set of parameters should always produce the same end result. If for some reason, you want a slightly different result than what you see on screen, simply change the Random seed value of a composition, or click on the "New seed" button in the Options section.

Projection

For scattering and masking instances over surfaces, Skatter often uses projection. Here's how it works internally:

1. First, Skatter generates points on a flat plane, at the top of the surface's bounding box.

2. Then, all these points are projected down until they reach the surface.

In this example, the projection is vertical (-Z).

However Skatter can use any axis of projection, which is particularly useful for non-horizontal surfaces like green walls.

Groups and Components

When picking hosts or masks, you can only pick groups and component instances. This is mandatory so that Skatter can keep track of those picked objects throughout sessions, and remain fully parametric.

Units of measurement

If you don't specify a unit when entering a numeric value, Skatter will use the model's unit (note that this correctly works only when the Unit Format is set to Decimal, because of a bug in SketchUp).

However, you can override it by typing a unit (like 3" or 12mm) that Skatter will immediately convert to the model's unit.

When you change the model's unit, Skatter's data is automatically converted. In this way, there should be no issue when sharing SketchUp files between users with differents units.