Sketchup - unable to push/pull component

[RogerS]

I've done something wrong. I've drawn a box frame as a 2D and then wanted to push/pull it out to height. But the push/pull icon has a 'forbidden' sign on it. I managed to do it, after a fashion but not without leaving holes in lots of places, by exploding several times and then push/pulling each item separately....not ideal. The diagram is here if anyone can tell me what I've done wrong.

http://www.tristan.demon.co.uk/images/box frame.skp

One other question. DaveR does a lot of joint work from inside the drawing. How do you 'get inside' as it were?

Thanks

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Roger, I looked at your model. You made a component of the box frame including all the parts that would go into making that up. First, in order to use Push/Pull, you need to open the component for editing. A double click with the Select tool or a right click on it and then choose Edit component will do the trick.

The holes you're getting come from using Push/Pull on a divided surface which is what you've made for the flat box frame. If you don't need the separate parts for the box frame, delete all the edges that are dividing the surface. If you do need all the parts separate as they would be in the real world, draw each one and make that a component before moving on to the next part.

To orbit inside, first you need to be working in Perspective mode. This won't work easily in Parallel Projection. Then zoom in on the part of the model you want to work on and use the orbit tool to swing the camera inside. You might find it easier when learning this method to work in X-ray mode so you can see where you are going.

Make sure you have already opened the component you want to modify prior to orbiting inside.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Roger, I did a quick replacement of the faces as individual components and pulled them up to height. You see how each part has its own bounding box.

 

[RogerS]

Magic! Thanks, Dave.