Would you please add “Bottom” view to the Camera Toolbar - I use this view all the time and I’m tired of having to go through the menu to get it.
You could set up a keyboard shortcut for it. Or you could use Jim’s Custom Toolbar extension and add one to a custom made bar.
Yes thanks - that would do it - I’m really just hoping the S team simply fixes what appears to be a fundamental oversight.
I guess I’ve never thought of it as an oversight. In about 14 years of using SketchUp I’ve rarely even used the bottom view from the menu. I sure wouldn’t want screen real estate consumed by a button for it. But that’s just me.
I’ve used it, but so seldom that like DaveR I wouldn’t want to waste screen space on it. I’m much more likely to orbit if I want to see the bottom (or any side) of something. So I would want it to be customizable so those who need it can add it and those who don’t can leave it out.
For things like Architecture, Furniture making, Interior design etc the Bottom view is fairly unnecessary, but product design, 3d printing and such things it’s pretty normal to want to view all six sides of something.
A nice option would be to split the buttons so you get Top/Bottom Front/Back Left/Right on 3 buttons.
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I will write this tonight if you (or someone) could create the icons. So as far as how it might work - clicking the same button would toggle between Top and Bottom, Left and Right, and Front and Back views?
Not sure I’d want it as a toggle, more a click one side or the other of the button. Even the small button size is big enough to hit one side or the other.
Well, this isn’t possible using the standard Toolbar buttons.
Ok, toggle is good then.
I know nothing about coding or setting up toolbars etc but just a thought…
Is it not possible to make button on a toolbar something like a pair of flipped components with a hidden edge between. So the button looks like one and only takes up the space of one but is in fact two with no gap between.
I just think Toggle could be problematic as you’ll not know what the last toggle was. Looking down I want to look from the left but it was left last time so now it is right…
I was thinking reset to the first option if a second click is not detected within a second or so.
It is not possible. One button slot, one function.
Consider, too, that the standard orthographic view buttons are not there because they are of any particular value to the 3D environment but rather as a kind of “compatibility” feature for those who are so inured to the standard elements of conventional 2D drafting they can’t stand to let them go, even when they are no longer necessary. But the bottom view is used so seldom by so few as to be a rarity even in a 2D environment, much less in a 3D environment where it’s questionable whether any standard 2D views whatsoever are needed.
There’s nothing more “technical” about a standard 2D view–just more 2D. Far more information, and more descriptive information, can be presented in a dynamic 3D perspective view, and in a way that is much more natural to the human senses. We are accustomed to looking at things this way from a lifetime of daily practical experience.
Orthographic projection is a conventionalized system invented to deal with the limitations of 2D media. If you remove the 2D media, you may as well also remove the 2D viewing conventions, which are not as good as the natural 3D perspective view we have of the world around us anyway. Do you ever really see anyone standing motionless directly in front of (or below) an object to get a better look at it? No, you typically see them moving around and examining it from all angles.
-Gully
I don’t know - are not these views also a part of “examining it from all angles?” All SketchUp views are 2D views of 3D data. I don’t see the distinction between these views and any of the infinite other 2D views SketchUp makes possible. Clearly, some of these views have more value than others - the value of a view depends on the individual’s need of the view.
However my desire here was not really about the views - it was about making my toolbar a little smaller.
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I couldn’t agree more @jim_foltz, the ability to just flip from top to bottom or side to side at the click of a button is much more convenient than orbiting around in many situations and any perceived notion of it being some sort of archaic 2d view leaves me quite lost for words. It’s set scenes that are the same from model to model around the origin. They are standard known alignments to the model axes and are very useful in a 3d environment.
Although standard views may be convenient in a 3D modeling environment, in 2D drafting these views are essential. In 2D, the definition and depiction of characteristics such as true size and true shape are entirely view dependent, and dimensions may be applied only in a true shape view. 2D analytical geometry is concerned with constructing views that are parallel with the plane of the feature in question. In a 2D design environment, the depiction and analysis of geometry is largely (or entirely) view dependent.
In a 3D environment such as SU, the geometry is view independent. If you want to know how big a feature is, you need merely query the feature, not position it parallel to the viewing plane and measure it. The model does not have to be oriented in a specific way relative to the viewing plane to yield up its information. Approximately parallel is pretty much as good as exactly parallel in most situations.
-Gully
And your point is…
when it comes to getting quickly to a more suitable position to continue your modelling.
It seems you are the one stuck in 2dv3d mode.
If we were saying go to the bottom and switch to parallel projection perhaps, but we are talking about a simple way of quickly navigating 3d space to recognisable points.
Standard Views are simply a predefined set of datums that, in association with the model axes, are essential for efficient, modelling in a 3d Perspective View…
I don’t know how or why anyone would chose to model in Parallel View, and I’m equally perplexed by the notion of axes and set views of each axis being a redundant or frivolous inclusion…
the Standard Views are all as important as Zoom Extents for finding your bearings and I have always been curious about a exclusion of a native Bottom view…
john
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Apologies for resurrecting an old topic, but bottom view comes in pretty handy for interior lighting design. Which I don’t do a ton of, but when I do have to arrange things on a ceiling, it’d sure be nice to have that button. (Though without one, a keyboard shortcut would be the next best thing. Thanks for that idea, DaveR). Jim, did you by chance ever get around to a bottom view tool?