# Quick one - Sketchup



## Hudson Carpentry (2 Apr 2011)

In sketchup, when drawing (with the curve tool) onto a face, is there a button you can press to keep it on the face and not snap to an axis. I have looked for snap options to turn off in the menus but found nothing.

Cheers


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## RogerS (3 Apr 2011)

Not too sure what you mean by 'snap to an axis'. I just tried drawing a cube and I could draw a circle or arc anywhere on any of the faces and it stayed put with no snap.


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## Hudson Carpentry (3 Apr 2011)

I assume its snapping to an axis as it says green axis, blue axis etc. Ill do some screen shots later to try explain.


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## RogerS (3 Apr 2011)

Are your faces not on the axes as well? Screen shots would be helpful but I guess that Dave R will be along shortly and put his finger straight on it!


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## brandy20 (3 Apr 2011)

When you draw an arc on a face, that arc tends to stay on that face. It is also true that SketchUp may let you go off that face, if you like. When you stay on the face you can see blue diamonds representing the three points delimiting the arc.

Drawing and arc or a curve on a face it's the easiest way to be sure that that curve stays on the desired plane.

Luca


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## Hudson Carpentry (3 Apr 2011)

I don't think the face of this object is parallel to an axis.

I did manage to do it in the end by looking for that blue diamond you say, but by doing so I couldn't get the shape how I wonted it. Every time I got the curve to what looked like how I wanted it, it either said Green, blue axis or snapped to half circule. Zooming in before drawing the final part of the curve helped but not to where I was happy.

This first picture:





The curve line to the left was drawn first, then the top, then right then bottom! The bottom one you can see I taken the screen shot as I was drawing it, I clicked when it said Half circle. The right curve (drawn before the bottom one) said Vortex when I clicked.

This is the results turned so you can see what it drawn.





Is there an easier way to draw an oval?


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## SketchUp Guru (3 Apr 2011)

You need to pay attention to the color of the line trailing the tool. If you know the face you are drawing on is not parallel to any axis, the line should not be colored to match an axis but should, instead be black. You'll probably find that if you change your viewpoint a bit, it becomes easier. Another option is to place a guideline using either the Tape Measure tool or the yellow protractor along which you can drag the arc to maintain alignment.


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## Hudson Carpentry (3 Apr 2011)

Ok tar. It seems an oversight to not have an oval tool.


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## SketchUp Guru (3 Apr 2011)

You can make ellipses easily enough by scaling a circle in one direction. You can also use a plugin to make one.


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