Could use some help with the Axes Tool

SketchUp
1

I have two parts that couple together in this model.

917×799 473 KB

I made the bottom part (black one).
Dragged a copy of it to the side on the red axes.
The I used the Scale Tool on the copy (white one) and mirrored it from top to bottom.

Then I placed the white one above the black one. I rotated the white one so it would couple together with the black one.

So at this point does my white one on top have a different red & green axes?
Is that what the blue box for the group is showing me, the axes?

I’m trying to rotate the blue box for the top part without rotating the part if that makes sense.
My thinking is to do this I must change the axes. Not sure if that is right or not.

Here is the model.

coupler.skp (1.1 MB)

Thanks,

2

If you want to change the axis orientation on the white one, you can do it but Change Axes is only available for components, not groups. You’d need to convert the group to a component, first. If you’re set on leaving it a group, you can explode the group and remake it. Or you could rotate it back to its original position, then open the group and roate the geometry within.

What will be the benefit of getting the bounding box of the white group aligned with the model axes in this case?

3

What @DaveR said, and the tool you have used in the gif is the Drawing Axes tool, so you have changed the drawing not the group.

1 Like
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I really have no reason to do it other then to learn how it’s done, if that makes any sense.

Think I got it.

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So, is using the Drawing Axes inside a group a temporary setting (eg. open group, use Drawing Axes to set the axes appropriate for needs, draw, then close group, and the group, now, will regain the original workspace axis?)

6

EDIT: FYI, It is the AxesTool, not always the “Model Axes”. (But I guess you can call it the “Drawing Axes” because you always draw within the current context.)

The AxesTool can change the model axes when your edit context is the model level.

When you are inside a group or component, (and using the AxesTool,) you are changing that context’s axes setting. The setting will be retained when you exit that context. Next time you double-click and enter the group for editing, you will see that the last component axes setting has been retained. (FYI, groups are special components whose definitions are hidden from the Component Manager listing.)

NOTE: The right-click “Reset” axes menu item does not actually reset the context’s axes to a prior setting, (when you are inside some editing context.) It just changes the axes display to the model’s axes setting.

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Thanks Dan for this info. I’ve always been a bit unclear when changing the axis. But you’ve made it very clear to me now.