I’ve decide to go down a path of figuring out how the @curic4su suite of extensions works and how best to implement them into our work. Yesterday I did a deep dive on Curic DIO 2 (Draw in Object) which includes Curic OI (Offset / Intersect). I found in watching videos (at 50% speed) from TutorialsUp and doing my own experimentation that I was basically writing a tutorial for myself in Notion and it wouldn’t be that much work to share it here. I’m not sure how much interest there would be but I figured it might be worth the feedback that I’d get.
I’m not sure how linking commercially available stuff works so for now I’ll just link to youtube videos.
TutorialsUp’s long and very dense tutorial on DIO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SpC0cgxB5U
TutorialsUp’s somewhat shorter tutorial on OI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqgod1pukJ8&ab_channel=TutorialsUp
(note that I got really deep into this and then ran out of time so some items are WIP.
DRAW IN OBJECT
-
Note: The first four buttons only show up during a DIO command. They don’t appear normally. I leave a blank space in the toolbar where they appear so it doesn’t jog all my toolbars over whenever it happens. I also put Curic Stretch settings buttons in the same location. They appear and disappear the same way and would never both be on screen at the same time.
-
“Draw in object” toggle - This tool affects all DIO tools. With it off, these more or less become native drawing tools. With it toggled off, all drawing happens at the top level of context that you’re currently drawing in. With it on, the drawing tools happen at the lowest level of context of the object, or at the level of the object selected for drawing on using CTRL + LEFT CLICK to “Get Object”. In all of the tools this can be toggled with CTRL + TAB.
-
“Create New Object” toggle - ****Trowel-specific setting. Explained below under “Trowel”.
-
“Create Thickness” toggle - **** Trowel-specific setting. Explained below under “Trowel”.
-
“Enable Offset” - Trowel-specific setting. Explained below under “Trowel”.
-
“Line” - allows you to draw lines in objects outside of their context.
-
By default, DIO will choose which object you draw in based on where you start the line.
-
In red and blue are SnapDims which reference the nearest edges of the shape that you’re drawing on. You can keyboard input precise offsets to start your shape, use object snaps in native SketchUp or just freehand click where you want to start drawing.
-
In testing I was trying to figure out if the DIO tools can outright replace native sketchup drawing. I discovered that when initially starting to draw a line with DIO Line, I couldn’t shift and lock inferences the way I could with native Line. The shift inferences work once you’ve begun drawing the line but not before your first point. So for that reason I still think it’s worth keeping native Line and Rectangle Tool around.
-
Inferences with Native Tools vs DIO tools:
The use of SnapDims to start drawing can be done whether or not Draw in Object mode is toggled on. This makes the DIO line tool probably superior to native. Native still has better inferencing though as shown above.
You can also use comma to only input the second SnapDim. Similar to native SketchUp:
- At the top left is the Object Info overlay which tells you what object you’re drawing in, the layer and material of that object, and outliner hierarchy information about that object including number of levels, and the layers and materials attached to those levels.
It seems to keep going no matter how deeply nested:
- When you initially start the Line tool, you can either begin drawing or CTRL + LEFT CLICK to Get Object. Using CTRL allows you to override the automatic behavior of DIO and choose your own object to draw in. This can be useful for complex models with lots of groups.
Another note on Get Object. This feature, as I see it, is 1) a way to override the built-in face picker of DIO, and 2) a way to transcribe geometry from one group to another. It’s important to understand that CTRL + LEFT CLICK can be perform during DIO operations to begin drawing in one object and instead draw in a different object, or outside that object at the root level.
- The Line tool stays active for more line segments until you end on an edge or press ENTER.
- Once complete, if “Continue with Trowel” option is toggled on, the Trowel tool is activated. Otherwise, you can continue to draw lines. This applies to all of the DIO drawing tools.
- Rectangle - allows drawing 2 point rectangles from outside of context.
- Same notes from DIO Line apply to Rectangle. You can keyboard enter initial offsets from edge using SnapDims. You can CTRL + LEFT CLICK to “Get Object.” Native Rectangle has shift inferencing that DIO doesn’t.
- Before starting to draw, 3D/2D can be toggled with TAB. 3D mode starts a Trowel operation once the rectangle is drawn. More on Trowel below. 2D mode only draws the rectangle.
- Rotated Rectangle - allows drawing 3 point rectangles from outside of context.
- Same notes from DIO Rectangle apply to Rotated Rectangle.
- Polyline - allows drawing polyline from outside of context.
- The difference between this and “Line” is that it doesn’t stop drawing once you connect to another edge. It wants to draw a contiguous boundary. In fact, if you only draw 2 points and press ENTER, it does nothing. If you draw 3 points and press ENTER, it closes the line.
- Once it closes the line it acts like the rectangle tool. If 2D mode, it’s done. If 3D mode, it goes into Trowel.
- While drawing the line, you can press ESC to undo a point.
- Circle - allows drawing circle outside of context.
More notes on 2D mode vs 3D mode. First, 2D mode is the only way that 2D shapes can be drawn. If you have 3D mode toggled, DIO does not allow the trowel to make a thickness of 0 to create a 2D shape. I’m not sure why that is. You can somewhat workaround this by activating offset during a trowel and VCP input offset to zero but, basically, you need to switch to 2D mode to draw 2D shapes. Second, all of the DIO drawing tools except Line and Arc have a 3D mode. Polyline tool is really more of a Polygon tool as it always has to draw a closed shape and, thus, has 3D mode.
Tooltip says press CTRL + (+) or (-) to increase or decrease number of segments but mine didn’t always work like this. Seems to be a bug. It does let me type in the number of segments and press ENTER to change them.
-
Other than that, the same notes for DIO Rectangle apply to this.
-
Arc - allows drawing 2 point arc outside of context.
- For pre-adjusting # of segments, it’s the same deal as Circle tool.
- Works like Native 2 point Arc once started.
-
Trowel - push/pull and solid tools operations rolled into one, from any context to any context.
It should be said that the Trowel tool is very deep and is more complex than the rest of DIO tools combined. It is insanely powerful and multifaceted in the hands of an advanced user.
- Create New Object, Create Thickness, and Enable Offset toggles only affect this tool.
- Optionally, with Continue with Trowel toggled on, the Trowel tool is enabled after all DIO Line, Polyline, Rectangle, Circle, and Arc tools are completed. For those tools that have 3D mode, it immediately begins the trowel. Otherwise, the Trowel is tool is clicked but the push/pull operation not started until you click again on a specific object. If “Continue with Trowel” is toggled off, then those tools continue to be active for repeat operations.
- Initially when activating the Trowel tool you have a few options:
- CTRL + LEFT CLICK to Get Object as explained earlier for the other tools.
- LEFT CLICK on a face to begin the push/pull operation on that face.
- LEFT CLICK on an edge to begin the Chalkline operation on that edge. Chalkline is explained more later on in this.
- SHIFT + LEFT CLICK on face to Select Border or Select Hole. This lets you create a box that is the outside boundary of the face, ignoring any holes that are in it in the case of Select Border, and creates a box from the boundary of the hole in the case of “Select Hole”. Notably, this lets you use the tool faster for ordinary push/pull operations.
A note about Select Hole. It inverts the push/pull mechanics such that pushing creates a union and pulling a subtraction. I go into a lot more depth about this in the TutorialsUp video narrative below.
- SHIFT + LEFT CLICK on an edge to Filter Face or Filter Loop.
This confused me a little bit at first but basically this is a feature meant to allow you to select back faces. It does a nifty thing in that it takes the edge that you’re mousing over, determines which adjoining face is most visible to the camera, and then filters the less-visible face for selection. These little subtle UI flourishes are IMO what makes Curic such a G.
- Once you begin the push/pull operation with Trowel, you have more options:
-
You can input a distance or click to finish the operation. It will push/pull the face, cut a hole in the face, cut the hole and create a box in it’s place, or create a box and cut no hole, depending on how the Trowel settings toggles are set.
-
You can tap SHIFT to move the boundary being troweled prior to starting the push/pull operation automatically after. It is a straight two click operation after pressing SHIFT and you can use Sketchup inferences and keyboard inputs to move it precisely. TutorialsUp narrative goes more into this but if leveraged well, this is a powerful tool to create new objects using existing objects as reference.
-
You can tap TAB to reverse the solid tools operation. By default push is a subtract and pull is a union, but this flips that. It’s cool.
-
You can CTRL + TAB to toggle DIO off. This lets you change your mind and decide to make a new box outside the object at the top level.
-
You can CTRL + LEFT CLICK to Get Object as before. This overrides the current object selection and is also very powerful if leveraged well. The TutorialsUp narrative goes into this more.
-
You can shortcut into native Move, Rotate, and Scale tools DURING the push/pull. Once you’re done with those tools, it will resume the push pull. TutorialsUp video demonstrates a use case for this.
-
Other options with Trowel are available via right click menu:
-
Create New Object toggle - *Determines whether the trowel shape is a new object or a part of the object being drawn in. If it’s toggled, the object will be created on the same level as the object, but separate from it. By default, the new object is a group. Optionally, it can be a component named “Object#x"
-
If the “Mode Style” toggle in the right click DIO settings is set to “Continue the Current”, this toggle will stay on once it’s activated. If it’s set to “Return Edit Mode”, it will turn off with each use of Trowel and have to be reactivated if you want to do it again. THIS TOOK ME FOREVER TO FIGURE OUT. These settings also apply to “Create Thickness”.
-
For both New Object and Create Thickness, these can be toggled by right click menu during the trowel operation.
-
“Create Thickness” toggle - **** This will create a new object in place when doing a negative “cutting” operation with the push pull. It toggles “Create New Object” off when it is turned on, and vice versa. This new object is always a group. Unlike “New Object,” this will still cut the hole in the original object.
-
-
Difference between Normal mode, Create New Object mode and Create Thickness mode:
- “Enable Offset” - When on, this lets you hover over the boundary being troweled (during the push/pull operation), LEFT CLICK on it to use the Offset tool and do an offset instead. Note that whether this is turned on or not, you always can hover over an edge prior to engaging Trowel to do a Chalkline. I see no reason to turn this off.
Difference between Enable Offset On and Off:
-
Slice Face - TutorialsUp video shows this. I explain more in my narrative but long story short it’s a context menu option perform DURING the trowel push/pull that intersects the face with any visible context regardless of context level. You can then trowel again and push the new boundaries that result.
-
Coplanar Intersection - TutorialsUp shows this one as well. It attempts a light duty stretch move by selecting the face and any adjoining coplanar faces regardless off context level. It doesn’t work if the solids penetrate the face, only if they’re coplanar with it.
-
Pick Zone is a way to generate a complex boundary from existing context across all levels of your model. The way it works is that it takes a plane as an input, slices that plane through the entire extents of the model (this can be a very large area depending on use case), then subtracts all intersecting solids from that plane. This results in the creation of one or more boundaries that can be push/pulled with Trowel. The user then selects the desired boundary and it goes to the trowel and works as standard.
The 32000 character limit was reached in this post, I go into more detail about pick zone down in this thread.
Examples of Pick Zone
Vertical plane with no closed loop (entire extents of model closes the loop)
Horizontal plane with no closed loop (entire extents of model closes the loop)
Horizontal plane with closed loop
-
BoundingBox - This tool is fairly complex and allows you to do subtract operations with complex components that aren’t solids. The TutorialsUp goes into many examples of this but long story short, you can subtract from objects of any context using the solid volume of the bounding box. You can set offsets from that bounding box numerically or by dragging handles in the UI. You can also set up custom cutting components that aren’t rectilinear. The TutorialsUp video shows examples using circular windows and arched doors.
-
Erase - It erases faces and edges at the lowest component level from any level. The SHIFT modifier changes it to hide edges and faces instead.
Sneaky hidden feature: double click erases or hides the entire object.
Sneaky hidden feature: CTRL + DOUBLE CLICK performs Get Object on all solid objects on the same level. I had some inconsistency in this sometimes, but I find it helps to temporarily group all objects you want to select in order to simplify the calculations it has to do. Even doing the GIF I had to double click and triple click several times to get it to work.
This allows for multiple cut of many distinct objects like so:
Other notes:
New objects created in DIO mode seem to always exist on the same context level as the object being drawn on, and be created with the same material and tag as the object. Note that it doesn’t seem to care about materials or tags applied to the faces of the object. It seems to do unpredictable things to them as well.
As of 2/14/2025, still haven’t covered the following:
Copy Layer - ?
Copy Material - ?
Copy Definition - ?
Isolate Object and Deselect Object - I think I understand these. I use Curic Focus and Birdcage for isolation so maybe someone can give some use cases for this.
I’d also like to spend more time with bounding box.
I experienced bugs with the picker when attempting to use DIO from contexts other than the Root/Model. I also had some crashes happen when using the Trowel at the bottom level of raw geometry. Basically, for best results using DIO work from the root level whenever possible. And save often otherwise.
This ended up being about 100 times more complicated than I expected. Would there be an interest in this type of explanation of other Curic tools? I would be writing this for myself anyway because it helps me get a full understanding of them. I would do OI next, then probably Stretch. And this seems to be one of the most complex of his tools. I also have a fairly deep understanding of Curic Section.
Youtube video narrative (wip):
(gonna refer to TutorialsUp as he because it’s one fewer letter than she)
0:40 - uses “draw in object” mode to draw a line from the top level into a group, then double clicks into that group to use native push/pull to push the surface to 0.
1:00 - toggles on “continue with Trowel” mode, then he does the same as the last time stamp but is able to push the surface from the top level. He also shows that you can push the surface past the back which is much faster and easier than native/push pull to subtract a region of a solid.
1:10 - this one is weird because his “draw in object” toolbar button is still pushed in. I think he’s trying to demonstrate drawing outside of the object but I couldn’t replicate it exactly. When I try what he’s trying, it does this:
The only way I can see to draw in the model (top context) with DIO mode on is to
a) CTRL + Left Click outside of an object after beginning the line but prior to ending it (tricky!)
b) hover just off the midpoint until the snapdims disappear (tricky! but might be unintended)
I have confirmed that method a) works 100% of the time and should be, I think, the SOP for one-off non-DIO mode modeling using DIO drawing tools. Very cool. The second method I couldn’t get to reliably work on other types of snap points.
1:25 - demonstration of using CTRL + Left Click to get object. This is useful to isolate the group/component that you want to model on in complex models.
1:50 - difference between 2D mode and 3D mode (using TAB)
2:30 - 2 point rectangle tool in 3D mode to make holes in object. Then trowel tool to undo the hole.
2:40 - snapdims VCB input for first and second point of rectangle tool
3:05 - 3 point rectangle tool and polyline tool for hole creation
3:25 - circle and arc tool. Note that arc doesn’t have 3D mode, you must trowel.
3:45 - chalkline tool using trowel on an edge to copy an edge on a face. Then continue with trowel.
4:10 - chalkline using double line mode (CTRL to toggle). Right click for pie menu option to set distance between double line.
In general during this part he demonstrates how the trowel tool acts as a union to the overall object when pulled and a subtract operation when pushed. This will come up some later.
4:50 - sneaky click drag operation using Chalkline. He starts the chalkline and then inferences a vertex, clicks and drags to set the angle.
It looks like the chalkline angle feature can be used on point, snappable or not, as long as it is within the boundary of the face. In testing this I also discovered that if you click and drag from the beginning of the chalkline, it finishes the operation at the end of the drag. Meh, saves a click.
5:30 - general demo of Chalkline and Trowel. At 5:45 he shows using TAB to change the double line reference point between left line, right line, and centered between lines.
6:05 - Multiply VCB input for chalkline with asterisk. Note that Divide input works as well with /
6:35 - more demo showing that “pushing” trowel is a subtract operation for the whole object.
6:55 - demo of the Enable Offset toggle function. Click face to start trowel, then click on edge of the boundary being troweled to engage the Curic Offset tool. It continues to trowel from there.
7:10 - had to watch this many times to figure out what he did. He uses 3 point rectangle to draw the rectangle above the opening. Since it’s in 3D mode, it automatically starts a trowel on the new shape. He then switches with a shortcut to his native scale tool. He toggles CTRL to change to center reference for the scale operation, then he scales its width. Then he demonstrates the Create Thickness toggle for the first time. This toggle turns on a mode where the subtract operation is performed with trowel push, and a new object is created in it’s place at the same context level.
In summary,
- Enable Offset allows you to click the edge being troweled to perform Curic Offset.
- You can perform native move, rotate and scale tools during a trowel. That is, after the first click to begin the trowel and before the second click to end the trowel.
- You can replace trowel subtracted solids with new objects using Create Thickness.
TutorialsUp played a dirty trick demonstrating 3 brand new concepts in a 15 second span of time. Here’s a cleaner demo of Create Thickness.
7:55 - first he draws a rectangle on the wall group and uses trowel to pull it out, and shows that it’s part of the object. Then goes into a demonstration of the same operation but with “Create New Object” toggled on. It creates a new object separate from the wall object, using the face in that object.
I already went into a good amount of depth on the difference between normal, “Create New Object” and “Create Thickness” modes. There is a big difference in between them for a push operation. Normal + push is a pure subtraction. Create New Object + push makes a new object using the boundary, and leaves the boundary. Create Thickness + push subtracts like Normal, while adding a new object like Create New Object.
For a pull operation the difference between the three modes is much more subtle. Normal + pull is a pure union to the object. Create New Object + pull creates a separate object where the normal union operation would have been, leaving the boundary. Create Thickness + pull does the exact same thing, but deletes the old boundary:
Play around with the 3 modes for push and pull operations and look at their effects on objects in the foreground or background (in the same group/component) to understand the logic. It’s pretty predictable.
8:50 - Chalkline Angle tool, then push to subtract from entire solid.
9:10 - just showing that you need to work with solids for DIO.
10:30 - Slice Face context menu option during Trowel. It seems to just transcribe all edges of faces intersecting the trowel face. Pretty simple I think.
11:00 - Coplanar Intersection this one is super interesting. It only works on objects that border each other, i.e. are coplanar. In his example if the pillars were 1mm buried in the floor plate, the operation wouldn’t work. The other interesting thing is that it works on objects that are different contexts altogether. He could have the pillars be in a group together, with each pillar a group, and the floor plate being at the next level (or multiple levels even) and it would work.
The only other tricky thing I found about Coplanar Intersection is that you have to right click on the face BEFORE the first click of the trowel. I.e. you have the trowel tool selected but you haven’t clicked on anything yet. You start by right clicking, selecting Coplanar Intersection, then it starts the trowel tool after it identifies the intersecting faces.
12:40 - Reverse Solid Tool If you understand mastered push pull mechanics then this is easy. It just changes the push operation to a union and the pull operation to a subtract.
13:05 - clever use of DIO Rectangle and 3D mode + pull to rapidly perform a subtract operation to the outside corner of the wall. Then doing the same thing as a push using Reverse Solid tool on the other corner.
13:30 - SHIFT during trowel pick allows selecting boundaries (purple) or holes (cyan). This, combined with pull allows adding geometry over an opening. Note that TutorialsUp toggles off Draw in Object in order to make a new box. The tricky thing about working with boundaries and holes is that the default nature of the push/pull is flipped for holes; on a hole, a push is a union and a pull is a subtraction. He could have also toggled on Make New Object or Create New Thickness to do a similar operation.
I discovered during testing that there’s a very minor difference between Create New Object and Draw In Object toggled off to make new geometry using trowel tool:
- You can trowel faces of any context with Draw In Object toggled off and the effect is that it copies that face and makes a new box at whatever level of context you’re working in (i.e. the top).
- You can trowel faces of any context with Draw In Object on and Create New Object on and the effect is almost exactly the same, except that the group/component created is on the same level of context as the group/component being troweled.
14:00 - more demonstration of the use of DIO and Chalkline with Draw In Object turned off. All this new geometry is being created on the top level and is separate.
15:15 - Moving the referenced trowel face using the SHIFT key. I don’t ever do this but I think if I got used to the idea I would use it a lot. Also reinforces the idea that the trowel really is just a fancy face picker that performs various solid operations based on that face. SHIFT allows that face to be copied/moved/transcribed to other objects or to become new objects. Combined with CTRL click to pick new object, fun things like this can be done:
15:30 - these appear to be essentially shortcuts to using native solid tools. I don’t use these much but they seem to be superior to solid tools since they can be performed without working in the same context of the objects, nor requiring the objects to be in the same context as each other. I’ll mess with this more and report back.
17:00 - Fixit 101 is in the trowel context menu for convenience. I haven’t tried this. I can check and see if it’s still supported in 2025 but I generally prefer to just keep things solid from the start.
17:10 - He very briefly demonstrates isolate object and deselect object. I’m doing to put a pin in these two and cover them separately later on.
18:10 - Bounding Box rabbit hole begins here. Bounding box allows you to have a complex group or component and perform subtract operations with it’s bounding box. It requires a pre-select (one or more objects) and it has some built in logic to guess which solid you’re trying to subtract from. You can override that logic by CTRL + Left Click to pick the object. Then double click empty space or press enter to perform the subtract. He starts by doing it with the one door component.
19:10 - He moves the door, and then performs the operation again. It moves the negative space to the new location of the component.
19:20 - He shows doing it with multiple components preselected. Then moves those and shows the same operation of moving the voids to the new location. Then he demonstrates removing a cutout by moving the component out of the cut component and performing the operation one last time.
20:30 - He shows cutting the door out of a wall thicker than the door. This requires adjusting the offset of the bounding box using the right click context menu. You can also adjust the handles of the bounding box to do this in a different way.
21:20 - He shows making a new component. It seems to be important that the axes of the component are aligned with it, but I haven’t tested this.
21:30 - He performs bounding box with a rotated component. It works as expected. Then he scales a component and updates it’s cutout. Again works as expected.
21:50 - Bounding box + To Opening. He first demonstrates the limitation of using bounding box on non-rectilinear objects.
22:30 - He then goes through the steps of using native sketchup tools to make the loose geometry of the circular window into a group, and then make a cutting component using its footprint to make a solid.
23:10 - Selects the component, right clicks, and selects To Opening on the CuricDIO context menu. Then hides that component, selects the window group + the hidden cutting component and makes them into a component. Then sets the axis at the midpoint of the inside face of the window frame, aligning the red/blue axes to the front face of the window (but inside the cutting component).
24:00 - He places the new component onto the wall as with the previous windows and uses Bounding Box as normal to make the circular cutout.
24:30 - Repeats the same process on an arched door component.
24:30 - Repeats the same process with the arched door component on a curved wall. This time the cutting component must be sized deeper to make the full cutout. This is done with a standard push pull from inside the cutting component.
26:10 - This is a brief demonstration of DIO Erase tool. It erases faces and edges at the lowest component level from any level. The SHIFT modifier changes it to hide edges and faces instead.
27:10 - DIO Select tool. He hovers over faces and edges with the tool and LEFT CLICKs to open a context menu that allows selecting which outliner level. In the video he’s using “group/component” mode. There’s also a face/edge mode that he doesn’t demonstrate.