Google Sketchup tips & discussion

[WandrinAndy]

If you want to scale accurately - take a dimension on the model you want to scale (say this is 1423.1mm) you know that this actually needs to be 50mm, divide 50 by 1423.1 = 0.03514. Now grab all of the element you want to scale and click the scale tool, then after you click on one of the green grips that appear, enter 0.03514 - hit Enter and hey presto it is bang on 50mm.

Thanks for this and other tips Joe... will certainly use this one as I'm slowly getting into Sketchup, and finding push/pulling precisely nigh on impossible. Thought I had picked up how to do this from one of the "SketchUp for Woodworkers" tutorials, which are excellent thanks Adil, but I sadly seem to be cocking it up.

Think I'm gonna sweat to define a component of extrusion that is exactly 1000mm and scale it from there.... Am I right in thinking that the red grip does the whole face, effectively push/pulling?

Btw, Thanks for splitting out this thread Jonathan.

Cheers,

[JoeHarris]

finding push/pulling precisely nigh on impossible. Thought I had picked up how to do this from one of the "SketchUp for Woodworkers" tutorials, which are excellent thanks Adil, but I sadly seem to be cocking it up.

OK it's really going to annoy you how easy this is! Select a face you want to push/pull, then use the push/pull tool to extrude or cut in the direction you want to go then type the dim you require and hit the enter key. That's it!

[WandrinAndy]

OK it's really going to annoy you how easy this is! Select a face you want to push/pull, then use the push/pull tool to extrude or cut in the direction you want to go then type the dim you require and hit the enter key. That's it!

Yep, that's what I've been doing, but maybe I'm just being lazy or too demanding of a free product. Suppose I should better describe what I'm after, as some different form of the dim that is typed that interprets what is typed as the resulting dim (automatically taking into account the dim that was previously created possibly by another push/pull operation) rather than the dim for this push/pull operation alone. I am trying to avoid having to do calculations myself, lazy sod that I am. Hope this makes sense. I have at times first tried push/pulling down to virtually nothing (just before the whole face disappears into nothingness) which makes the calculation simpler and then push/pulling to the required length.

I like your "Benjamin Chair" very muchly by the way... guessing you CNC'ed the ply cross sections before clamping, gluing, and bolting through?

[STEVEYG]

joe harris
thanks very much for the "View>component edit>hide rest of model to fully isolate the element so you can work on a part that would otherwise be hidden - can be a life saver some times! (hope i'm not teaching you to suck eggs but someone is bound to find that tip useful.)"
It makes life so much easier

[deannos]

How do you transfer bolts holes from 1 piece to another so you know they will line up. For example you wish to bolt a section of ali plate to the rail bearings. I could then print that part out to full size if possible and use it for marking out etc.