# Sketchup aaaaaagh



## LarryS. (26 May 2009)

Help !

Haven't used sketchup for 6 months and seem to have forgotten the simplest things. Just been searching internet for a solution for my daft problem and can't find it for love or money.

so here goes.....

I've made a component (a leg), then made a duplicate to it and made it face the original. On the component I've got a square on the face which I want to drag out and meet the other component (to make a rail between the legs). 

So the daft question is......how do I merge the two bits when they meet in the middle ?


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## oddsocks (26 May 2009)

Paul - I'm only a beginner but have never done it that way (i was doing a similar thing for a bed design over the weekend)...

I created one leg component then copied it to the other side. I then added a rectangle on the face of one of the legs and pulled this to snap to the face on the opposite leg. this rail was made into a separate component but was never part of the leg component.


I had never thought of doing as you suggested but in theory it would be easier if the could align!

Dave


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## RobertMP (26 May 2009)

Every separate thing should be a component. So the rail should be a component and not merged with any other component.

What I would do is draw one leg. Make the new leg a component as soon as you have enough of it drawn. Copy the leg component to one side ready to become another leg of the table. Use the scale tool to scale this new copy so that it becomes a mirror image of the original. There are tutorials around on doing it but you just drag one of the middle 'handles' through the component and type in -1 in the measurements box.

Now select the two legs and copy them for the other 2 legs. Again mirror them but this time in the other horizontal axis. With the legs all facing the right way as mirrored components you can say add a mortice by editing (double click) the component and it will appear in the right place on all 4 legs.

To make the rail just draw over one of the leg components to get the tenon (make sure it is not in edit mode or you will be adding to the leg component not drawing on the surface outside the component) then hide the leg components so it is easy to see the rail. Select the rail parts and make them another component. the ruler tool will help with the rail if you use it to make guide lines.

Needs one of Daves videos to explain this properly


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## SketchUp Guru (27 May 2009)

Paul, as has been said already, make the piece between the legs a separate component. The easy way to think about it is to make a component of every board you would need to make in the shop. Unless you plan to carve half of the apron out of the hunk of wood from which the leg will come, the apron shouldn't be part of the leg component.

For what it's worth, you couldn't really merge the apron halves anyway without exploding the two components you've made since the whole idea of making the component is to keep the geometry inside it separated from the rest. You could hide the edges (Shift+Eraser) at the seam line. While that is really appropriate in your specific case, there are times when hiding the seam line between halves is a good idea. The pull in the image below is done in halves to reduce file size. (I could have made it in quarters to reduce it more but I was lazy.)






Robert, I suppose I've done a video of that. I'll have to take a look.


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## SketchUp Guru (27 May 2009)

I went ahead and made a quick video for you Paul. It was done very quickly and it's kind of sloppy but I hope you get the idea.

http://blip.tv/file/2163514/


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## LarryS. (28 May 2009)

Daves / Robert,

thanks for the info and DaveR especially thanks for the video !

Rail fixed, I am now a happy man


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## RobertMP (28 May 2009)

DaveR....

I just watched the video too. I always draw a something and make it a component and then move on to the next one. I noticed you selected all the stuff you needed for the new component (say a table cross bar) pretty easily. Changing to the selection tool (arrow) and dragging a box round the geometry is not too hard but what is the 'easy way'?


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## SketchUp Guru (28 May 2009)

Paul, I'm glad that helped.

Robert, do you mean selecting the geometry prior to making it a component? That's done by triple clicking with the Select tool on the geometry. Triple clicking selects all connected geometry. It won't select geometry inside other components, though.

A left to right selection box around the entire apron (cross bar) would also select all of the geometry. I usually use the triple click, though, because it's less movement of the mouse.

Note that a right to left selection woud, in the example of the apron, also need to include the entire apron geometry but, if the selection box even just clips one or the other of the legs, they'll be included in the selection.


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## RobertMP (28 May 2009)

triple click is what I didn't know 

Thanks.

edit. The different behaviours for the dragging a box direction is the same in Autocad so that one came naturally


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## SketchUp Guru (28 May 2009)

You're welcome.


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## Mattty (1 Jun 2009)

The offer's of help and extraordinary assistance that people offer on here is amazing. 
I really wish i was more I.T savvy. Dave i watched that video in awe, the speed with which you fly round sketchup is amazing.


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## SketchUp Guru (1 Jun 2009)

Matty, thank you.

I expect that if you wanted some assistance getting going with SketchUp, we could work out a time to do a lesson.


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## Mattty (1 Jun 2009)

Thats very kind Dave. I will try and familiarise myself with it a bit more then get back to you.


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