# Another sketchup question



## mpooley (8 Mar 2009)

Hi

I keep trying to improve my sketchup skills and i think i am getting better.

I Have been watching some videos on youtube which have helped 

I am having trouble moving components and placing them exactly where i want them. 
sometimes they refuse to go where i want them and i keep having to zoom in closer and closer and the blimmin thing still wont snap to the point i want and seems to hover in space miles from where i want it to go.

Now I know that this can happen when the component is glued to a face but i dont mean that .

what i would like is to be able to click on an intersection and then click on the corner of a component and direct it to snap to that point ?

or at least be able to nudge a component in the red green or blue axes using the keyboard.

is either possible?

please


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## SketchUp Guru (8 Mar 2009)

You can't quite do the first thing you ask but you can do the reverse. When you grab the component to move it, grab it at a corner of other point that will correspond to the point on the other component. If you were moving an skirt relative to a table leg and you want the skirt centered across the width of the leg, grab the skirt at the midpoint of the end line and then 'feel" for the midpoint of the correspondning edge on the leg.

You can set up artifical intersection as grab points by setting guide lines or guidepoints. In some cases this might help. You can also insert guidelines to use as a path to follow with the Move tool. Sometimes it is just easier to make the move in a couple of steps working parallel to the global axes.

Once you get the move going in the proper direction you can hold Shift to lock that direction. If you preselect the component before getting the Move tool, you don't have to grab it at all to move it. This allows you to move the component by using relational context.

If you have Length Snapping enable, you may find it gets in the way of moving components the way you want.

There is a plugin caled Mover that will allow you to move a component with the arrow keys however since there's no collision detection in SketchUp, this probably won't do what you want.


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## mpooley (8 Mar 2009)

Dave R":3vrmjtt0 said:


> You can't quite do the first thing you ask but you can do the reverse. When you grab the component to move it, grab it at a corner of other point that will correspond to the point on the other component. If you were moving an skirt relative to a table leg and you want the skirt centered across the width of the leg, grab the skirt at the midpoint of the end line and then 'feel" for the midpoint of the correspondning edge on the leg.



Thanks dave but that what i do at the moment and sometimes it works fine but other times it wont. I have just been adding some window components to a wall - so i set out guides and tried to drop them in - but for some reason they wont even go near to the wall and stay well away - i line up the corners but it just wont snap to them - finally get it done but it just seems a bit hit and miss to me and i thought that maybe there was a better way.

this happens to me all the time BTW not just in this instance 

Mike


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## SketchUp Guru (8 Mar 2009)

Is it possible for you to send me the model so I can see what you've got going on? I'll send a PM with my e-mail address.

In my experience the Move tool is consistent in its operation so I wonder if there's something else going on.


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## Steve Maskery (8 Mar 2009)

This sometimes happens to me too. I find a good trick is to switch on X-ray display, it seems to help the model to "see" what is behind the part I am moving.

Cheers
Steve


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## mpooley (9 Mar 2009)

Dave R":2mbixiti said:


> Is it possible for you to send me the model so I can see what you've got going on? I'll send a PM with my e-mail address.
> 
> In my experience the Move tool is consistent in its operation so I wonder if there's something else going on.



thanks Dave I have sent it to you.

I think you will find plenty wrong with my plan but i'm not sure it's me this time lol

Mike


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## mpooley (9 Mar 2009)

Steve Maskery":3nnn5r7j said:


> This sometimes happens to me too. I find a good trick is to switch on X-ray display, it seems to help the model to "see" what is behind the part I am moving.
> 
> Cheers
> Steve


Thanks Steve will try that today 

Mike


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## SketchUp Guru (9 Mar 2009)

Mike, I got the file. I'm working on an e-mail back to you.

Dave


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## DangerousDave (9 Mar 2009)

This happens to me a lot as well. Sometimes it works ok, e.g. I hover over a corner until it says "endpoint in component" then drag the cursor to the point I want it to line up with, wait for another "endpoint in component" (or whatever), let go of the left mouse button and thats it lined up. However sometimes when I drag the component/group it seems to only want to move on one axis, no matter what direction I move the mouse. I've found the only way round this is to release the left mouse button, rotate the view slightly then grap the endpoint again :? Very frustrating.


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## SketchUp Guru (9 Mar 2009)

This move thing is something it just takes practice to do right. Sometimes you need to orbit a bit to change the view point. If you preselect the component before getting the Move tool, you may find it's easier to grab it where you want. 

Often it is easier to make the move in several steps. Make the moves parallel to the global axes and once you get the move direction as desired, hold the Shift key to lock it. then you can move the cursor to the point you eventually want to move the 'grabbed' point to. 

One other option is to draw a line between the points and then follow it with the Move tool. delete the line after you've finished.

You might also consider doing things to reduce how much moving of components you need to do. For example, build the parts in place. I see a lot of models that have been done where the components are drawn in one place and then rotated and moved into position. This doesn't make much sense to me as it nearly always leads to errors in dimensions or placement.

If you are copying components and moving them into place, make sure you use the copy function of the Move tool instead of Copy and Paste. You'll have easier control of where the copy ends up if you do it with the Move tool.

Another thing you can do to make the Move operation easier is to disable Length Snapping. this will prevent the Move tool from trying to snap to the nearest millimetre or whatever it's set to.


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## DangerousDave (9 Mar 2009)

Good stuff, Dave. Some really good tips there. Didn't know about holding shift down when moving to lock the direction. I find myself doing an awful lot of copying/pasting/moving/rotating of groups and components. I've recently changed how I work with SU. I used to start with a solid box and push/pull shapes out of it to get what I wanted (e.g. carcasses). Now I draw it as I would build it; doing each panel one at a time, making each a group then moving them into position together. Once I have the carcass 'assembled' in this way I make a copy of it, make the original a component, move it into position on the layout then paste the copy of the original assembled groups into a blank space on the page. I then later 'dis-assemble' the pasted copies (e.g. of carcasses) into their constituent parts which I use to work out the cutting list. It sounds a round about way of working, but I find it works great for me


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## SketchUp Guru (9 Mar 2009)

I think you're working too hard. You've probably heard the phrase, "Work smarter, not harder." It applies in SketchUp.

Use Ctrl+Move to copy. Don't use Copy and Paste.
Make components, not groups.

I've got to run an anesthesia machine to another site. Back later with more.


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## DangerousDave (9 Mar 2009)

Dave R":2t9vol8v said:


> Use Ctrl+Move to copy. Don't use Copy and Paste.
> Make components, not groups.



didn't know about that either, excellent tip
:sign3: 

the only reason I use groups instead of components is so I don't have to name each one


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## Shultzy (9 Mar 2009)

DDave you don't need to name them, just hit enter, they are named Component#1, 2, 3 etc automatically.


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