O learned SketchUp heads! Having trouble following fundamentals course lesson 8 on Components. When the teacher copies a pillar and moves it under the canopy it snaps to the correct place. When I do it it doesn’t. I even tried creating guidelines and it doesn’t snap to the guidelines. Then when I raise the pillars with push/pull they do not meet the canopy in the right place. Also he found the Components browser under Windows. I find two categories there, “Component Options” and “Component Attributes” but no browser. (SketchUp Pro 2020) Thanks for any guidance, Ken
When you start to move something, the point you clicked will be the basis of the move. So it is best to click on, for instance, a corner and then click on the point in the destination where the corner is supposed to go.
The Components browser is located in the Tray, it is not a separate window.
I see now that you have to click on the specific reference point on the component to move the copy to another reference point. However even doing that no reference point appears under the canopy where I want to put the copy. The only guidance given is “On Red Axis.”
Found the Components browser, thanks.
It might be that you need to add a point to move the point on the component to. That might be done with a guideline crossing an edge on the canopy or some temporary geometry. Or maybe you figure out just how far to move the component and type that distance in the Measurements window.
Sometimes when you are moving an object into place, it might be that you need to lock the direction (with a cursor key) and then move the cursor to a relative location.
Also sometimes it makes sense to use other parts of the model for reference. If you preselect the component you don’t have to grab it with the Move tool.
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@DaveR made a very important point at the end of his last post that often is not obvious to newbies: when moving a target object, the place you click to start the move doesn’t have to be on the target object to be moved! As you move the cursor, the object will move in the same manner as the cursor relative to where it started. If you click on some other edge and move the cursor along that edge, the object will move parallel to that edge by the same amount. If you click on some other object’s endpoint and move the cursor to another endpoint, the target object will move the same relative amount. This technique is especially valuable when there isn’t an existing snap point at the actual destination.
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That worked, thanks!
Now I’m having another problem. The exercise required duplicating the pillar component to create 8 pillars, then joining them to the canopy. So far so good. Then to demonstrate Make Unique the instructor selected 4 pillars by dragging from right to left and down to make a dotted box touching those 4 pillars. When he lets go of the cursor the 4 pillars are highlighted. But when I did this all 8 pillars were highlighted. I cannot seem to get just the 4 pillars highlighted. How do I do this? Many thanks, Ken
This could just be a question of the direction your camera is looking. When you drag a selection box right to left, anything that has any portion inside the box gets selected. If you draw left to right, anything that is entirely inside the box is selected.
Sounds to me as if you opened the component for editing and copied the geometry within it instead of copying the component. Or you are opening the component for editing and selecting the geometry inside before trying the Make Unique step.
Ken, I sent you a PM. Maybe if we look at your model together we can get you sorted out.
Thank you for the kind offer Dave. I probably didn’t do the duplication correctly. I will try redoing it carefully and let you know if that works.
Ken
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