Help Panning & Zooming while drawing a line / shape

What have you been using ? A touchpad or a touch screen ?

An Apple “Magic” trackpad. BT.

Just get a mouse before you go any further with SketchUp.

Haven’t had a mouse for years… what do you recommend? BT & Apple.

Get the least expensive Logitech wireless mouse that has a button in the scroll wheel. Put a battery in it, plug in the receiver and get busy drawing. As I said before, there’s no need for an expensive mouse with SketchUp. You can go crazy with buttons and all sorts of other things but my advice is to start simple, get proficient with SketchUp and the basic mouse and figure out where you want to go from there.

For my use, I’ve never found any need for those fancy mice. That’s with over 13 years of SketchUp use.

I just bought a Logitech (M100) wired USB mouse at WalMart for ten dollars.

(I personally hate dealing with the batteries for the wireless mice.)

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Just to confirm…

I need to buy a mouse so that I can pan/rotate while drawing a line without closing it? I have managed to do everything else so far, but working on large models it is hard to work both ends of the model without orbiting or panning and the focal point when zooming is largely unpredictable.

Buying a mouse will probably entail buying a new desk… since my space is very small. And I suspect a trackball will not do what is required. A wired mouse will be tricky too unless

I have BT Wacom that I use on my lap when drawing in other apps, is there a way to make that work?

The reason the mouse is recommended is so you don’t need to drop the drawing or modification tool in order to zoom, orbit, or pan. You are finding it difficult to navigate the camera around the model space. A mouse will make than very easy to do. Without a mouse you are working harder than you need to.

I don’t know which Wacom product you are referring to but if you have to go to a toolbar or use a keyboard shortcut to activate Zoom, Orbit, or Pan. you’ll have the same problem you have now.

I manage quite well with a mouse on a mouse pad that is about 9" square.

Another thing you should learn is that the orbit and pan tools are “interrupters”. That is, if you activate them when another tool is active, do your orbit or pan, and then press escape the previous tool resumes where it was.

That said, I agree wholeheartedly that a mouse with a scroll-wheel and scroll button is vastly superior (and I’m on a Mac Book Pro Retina, so I have a touchpad too).

I found that out… and it works pretty well. But I will try a wheeled mouse and see what gives.

@DaveR Thanks. If I had 9" square my coffee cup would be on my desk and not… on the floor… I found a wheeled trackball I’ll try that…

Well no not if you have a way to click+drag, or if the “magic” pad has keyboard alternates for the select (left mouse button.) if the notebook has a built-in trackpad, it usually has mouse buttons or “tap areas” that act as mouse buttons.

You can use the keyboard shortcuts to interrupt the edge drawing, then hit ESC key to resume and select the end point of the edge.

O for Orbit
H for Pan (Hand)
Z for Zoom

You’ll see the mouse cursor change to the appropriate navigation tool.

A note about how you’ll be using Zoom. Instead of scrolling up for zooming in, scrolling down for out, … you’ll drag the cursor (in the same manner) whilst holding down the select key.

Actaully all 3 navigation tools need to use click drag


Or perhaps there is a keyboard utility that allows you to set F2, F3 and F4 as the mouse buttons ?

You’d want to activate the mouse commands with your left hand.

I work my mouse on the bit of space to the right of the touch pad on my laptop (actually on my laptop) … must be about 3-4" tall by 6" wide.

Hi folks.

I use Pan, Zoom and Orbit all the time in the middle of any drawing, moving, rotating, copying, whatever operation. I find this as one of the most powerful feature of SketchUp.

By the way, I never have to press the Esc key to get out of the Pan, Zoom, Orbit maneuver.

For example, to add an edge, I click to start the edge, pan, zoom and orbit as needed and then click again to place the end of the edge.

Remember that you can also change rendering mode and select a different scene in the middle of ay drawing, moving, rotating, copying operation.

Based on that, for a huge object that needs to be seen from opposite ends that require a lot of pan, orbit and zoom, I would create two scenes, one for each end.

Then the procedure would be:

1 - Click on first scene;

2 - Start the edge;

3 - Click on second scene;

4 - Finish the edge.

5 - Repeat as needed for additional edges.

Needless to say, you can create as many scenes as you need to quickly jump from one part of the model to te other.

It might be better if you disable scene transitions to save more time.

If you need to see through for special work, create a scene with the X-Ray mode.

Etc. Etc.

Just ideas.

Jean

Yea, it is nice that SketchUp workflow is multi-paradigm, Jean.

But, this thread is really about the OP not having any buttons to even initiate Pan, Orbit or Zoom.
He doesn’t (or did not have a mouse,) only a “Magic” Touchpad.

So the issue “on the table,” is can you Pan, Orbit and Zoom without mouse buttons, and only a touchpad ?

Can it be done if the user “Click Style” is changed in Preferences > Drawing

… to “Click-move-click”:


And how do you click on a touchpad ? by tapping hard ?

Is there some utility on the Mac that allows you to create keyboard shortcuts to mouse buttons for the left hand ?

It annoys me when people bash the hell out of their machines: There are few touch pads that are pressure sensitive (on most stylus & tablet combinations it’s the pen that records the pressure) Just a gentle tap does, and tap-drag is equivalent to holding the mouse button down.
Most track pads have multiple digit configurations that can be set up: double finger dragging to act like a scroll wheel etc.

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A scroll wheel mouse is essential for “proficient” use of sketchup, sure you can do it all by changing tools all the time but it really slows down the creative process. If you want to up your efficiency even more and be able to work with two hands simultaneously, then I highly recommend a 3D space mouse (3D connexion). This occupies 2" x 2" of desk space and allows fluid navigation in any dimension in sketchup (up, down, forward, backwards, side to side and tilting, and rotation)… this can easily be used in the left hand (if you are right handed) with the simultaneous use of a regular mouse in the right hand. It’s hard to describe just how instinctive and fluid the 3D mouse is to navgate a model (either in camera mode or object mode) until you try it, but you will not be dissapointed. The zoom/ track in feature is also not impeded by sketchup’s slowdown when you approach near geometry.

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You click by pressing down. Just as you would on the track-pad of a mac laptop.

There are tools to modify the preferences and add short-cuts, but I shouldn’t need to, in my humble opinion. And it seems like I might not. It seems like there are multiple solutions.

I like the idea presented by whiterabbitdesigncompany. I am a photographer by trade so spend a lot of time on a Wacom and on the trackpad and am comfortable with that, so having a piece of hardware I can put away when I am not using Sketchup is a great solution.

THANK-YOU… Awesome… I picked up the wireless 3D Connexion Space Mouse… May upgrade to one with more buttons… not sure yet… But this thing will pay for itself many many many times over.

Glad it worked out for you. I’m a big fan of it ( I have no connection to 3D connexion, just so you know) and it’s surprisingly a little know tool. I have two of them, the big one with all the buttons and the notebook one, but I have to say that all I ever use of either is the main knob (rarely use any buttons, so I don’t think you need to upgrade). It also wil work for zooming in photoshop too. It is one of those tools you have to use to fully appreciate its fluid motion through 3D space, and as you say will pay for itself in efficiency. I would also like to add that I have tried a number of mice too, and have found the logitech anywhere MX mouse to be the best (for me) it’s small and the scroll wheel is made of stainless steel and can be flicked for large moves and the wheel spins and spins as it has mass for momentum making moves really fast. You can click the scroll wheel and it will work on clicks. However, where I can, as I do a lot of this work, I use the Evoluent vertical mouse as it reduces stress on the wrist, the hand stays in a very natural pose, takes a bit of getting used to.