Aligning two faces on the same plane

There hopefully is a simple answer to this. I have a face imported from one drawing to another drawing that also has a face. The two are close to being on parallel or the same face, but not quite. I would like to ‘cut’ the smaller face out of the larger face. I am not sure how to line up both faces.

faces.skp (89.0 KB)

One way is to extrude the small face through the larger face and intersect it.
Extrude and intersect

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The larger face is not horizontal, either. Is it supposed to be?


Which one do you want aligned to which?

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I want to align the larger with the smaller preferrably.

Box, That could change the dimensions of the cut out portion, right? Just by small amounts? Thanks for answering, I’m not great with intersecting objects yet.

You’re right about the dimension change. You’d be projecting the small rectangle onto the larger.

As for aligning the larger one, it would be easier if you’d drawn it on axis in the first place. As it is, though. You need to rotate it about the green direction and about the red direction to get it level. I often find when repairing these things for other users, it’s easiest if you first rotate a large amount away from on axis. Then make a second rotation in the same axis to get the face on axis.

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I in general have difficulty aligning face on objects. There’s something I’m missing, or it’s just more time consuming then I believe it should be. I need to watch more Sketchup videos.

Use the cursor keys to set the axis or rotation as needed.

Maybe you’d find it just easier to redraw the larger shape so it’s on plane.

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Thanks DaveR, that is what I have been trying to do. For simplicity’s sake, I took the larger face from a much larger object. So, it’s harder to visualize with the whole object selected. And that is a piece of the face of the object, there’s not really a straight edge on it. So, I guess I should draw a line on it for reference for the rotation.

Might be a new feature suggestion, select a face, choose align with a face, then choose the face to align with. Would make life simpler.

You don’t need to draw a line on it although I guess you could. Hit left arrow key to set the rotation around the green axis and the right arrow key for red.

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Yes, I do that, but how do I determine the direction of the first base line?

Yeah. That might be a feature request. I think there might be an extension for that already but I disremeber.

Click on a corner and then move out and click on the next corner. With the rotation locked, the cursor doesn’t have to be on axis with the first point.

Look at the first and second screen shots. You can see that it is the corner I clicked on. there’s a dashed line running from the first corner but the point I grabbed isn’t on that line.

Thanks DaveR. I just need more practice.

Practice is a good thing.

I’ve been using SketchUp for over 14 years. I use it nearly every day for something. I still practice with it.

With a little practice and experimentation, I got the axes right and then got the two on a like plane! Thanks.

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Hear! Hear! I am working on a project with two buildings that are slightly out of sink with each other (very long story). The point is I have run into this issue many times. It is unnecessarily complicated to try and accomplish this. SketchUp is a good program but for as long as it’s been around, it seems to be coasting and relying on plugins to handle the weaknesses of the program. I believe it’s time to decide who SU wants to cater to; the free version user or the paying professional. If paying more for this program is what is required to move it up, then do it. - Just my opinion after months of tearing my hair out over both SU and LO.

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