Add Location window — What happened to the Up, Down, Left, Right arrows?

[designerDad]

Previously in SketchUp, the Add Location window used to include arrows (up, down, left and right) which moved the terrain by fixed amount. This made it easier to stitch together multiple terrain grabs to create a larger model. I discovered that by adjusting the size of the add location window, I was able to control the amount of terrain movement when I clicked the arrows. I thought this was an ingenious solution to minimizing my overlaps.

Please view the Sketchfab model below—it illustrates how useful those arrows were in creating large models using minimal terrain grabs. (I hope the model embeds correctly—it should be possible to orbit, pan and zoom in the model. Otherwise it can be viewed here.)

Those arrows have disappeared from the add location window, and I am devastated.

I know the likely cause of their disappearance is access (lack of) to Google Earth API, but I’m not sure. From what I’ve read in the forum, I only see references to the quality of terrain textures and images—no specific mention of those arrows.

Can someone please confirm the arrows’ disappearance? Does anyone know how to bring them back?

If the add location arrows are gone forever, is it possible to mimic the controls with a custom extension? This is a technical question for developers… @thomthom @ChrisFullmer @eneroth3

Thanks in advance for any and everyone’s help. Apologies for any newbie mistakes, this is my very first post.

[SketchUp3D_de]

SU 2017 M2

arrow keys (on keyboard) do still work, at least after the first screen transformation (zoom, pan).

[Bryceosaurus]

Hi Designer Dad

For SU 2017 we (Trimble) leveraged our own application for browsing the map for Add Location. The arrow buttons and zoom bar in the older UI came from Google’s own map application.

Sketch3D_de is correct, you can now pan the map with the arrow keys. You can also zoom in and out using the -/_ & =/+ keys. These should provide all the same functionality you had in SU 2016.

Bryce

[designerDad]

I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!

[designerDad]

Thanks for the explanation, Bryce. I’m relieved the arrow keys pan a consistent, fixed amount. It now takes about 12 clicks to pan a kilometer. You know what would be sweet though? Pressing Shift Arrow to pan exactly 1 km.

P.S. I realize the number of clicks to pan a kilometer depends on the level of zoom…

[Bryceosaurus]

If you are grabbing large areas it sounds like you might find this extension useful - http://www.suplacemaker.com/

[designerDad]

I appreciate the suggestion, Bryce. I downloaded the trial version and am having a look at it now; this is such a powerful tool. However, it looks like the terrain has to be created manually before the cool features can be exported. Thanks though.