Change a square into a rhombus precisely

I’m designing parts for a small model that will be fabricated in a machine shop. I would like to make a series of ten 2d objects in a row. The first is a square. The last is a rhombus with sides same length as the original square. The 8 objects in between are progression of the square becoming more and more like the rhombus. In a sense as the eye goes along the objects they are becoming “squished” into the rhombus. The degree of change from object to object should be precise.

I have tried taking the square and pulling its corners to make it a rhombus but it ends in a freehand and not amenable to precise progression. I also don’t see a place where I can see the angles between the sides

I have considered building objects from four lines instead of rectangle tool. I might set the 2nd to 4th lines at a precise angle to the first, but not sure how to angle a line precisely.

Any help appreciated

As the author I must have made a mistake. I didn’t realize I withdrew the question. Can we keep it active?

No, no, sorry–that was me. I thought it was a SU question; I withdrew my response when I realized it was about LayOut, which I don’t use.

-Gully

Hi-

You’re right that the best approach here is to draw the sides individually.

The key is in creating the angled sides. Rather than trying to draw a side at a particular angle, draw it vertically or horizontally and then rotate it to the desired angle. To do this, use the line tool to draw a single line segment that’s the length of one side of the cube. Then exit the line tool and click on the line you just drew. Use the rotation control in the middle of the line to rotate it. To increase accuracy, after rotating once you can type the exact rotation angle that you would like, and the line will be rotated that amount. Note that the rotation control itself can be moved to a different spot on the line in order to rotate the line around that point.

You may find these articles useful:

LayOut Line Tool: Creating precise lines
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/95584

LayOut Select Tool: Moving, scaling, and rotating precisely
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/115557

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks,
Marc