Cutting Holes In Planes

Is there a way to cut a window in a wall other than push pull? Sometimes it takes me ten minutes just to make a window. There must be a better way than push pull?

Next stupid question. I just manually made 12 identical windows one by one. That can’t be the smart workflow. What’s a better method?

Can you share an example model where you run into these issues? It should take seconds, not ten minutes to cut a window opening through a wall unless there is one or another defect in the wall (such as opposite sides not parallel).

Just cutting a simple hole in the simplest wall. I can get push pull to work, I just wondered if there was a simpler more reliable method. With push pull you have to be very precise in pushing the rectangle back to exactly the plane of the back wall. That’s what I’m fiddling with.

If there is no other method of cutting a hole in a wall, ok, I’ll deal with what there is.

Yes, make cutting components and you’re halfway there! (unfortunately they only cut one face for each component–so not both sides of a wall with two faces).

So one way is to make a second cutting component for the back face of the wall. When you set a component on the wall, either from the component browser or copy/paste along the wall, it cuts the plane for you. Check out the basics in the training videos.

Push-pull. Start your push then snap to a vertex (like a corner) on the opposite face, where you click to end the push.

The trick to getting push pull to stop at the other side is to move the cursor up to inference the edge of that side.

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You might find this video tutorial helpful …

Holes NOT CUTTING? Troubleshooting Opening Issues in SketchUp!

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Boolean

Ok, so there isn’t a better way to cut windows and I need to make peace with the push pull method. Thank you for confirming that.

Justin’s video does at least show I’m not the only person wrestling with this. So my suggestion is this. Instead of teaching thousands upon thousands of people how to use this clunky method one by one by one for years, why not just fix it and be done with it Trimble?

If this was some issue peculiar to one of my models, ok, my problem. But isn’t cutting windows in to walls one of the most common operations of any architectural modeling system? Would it really be so hard to have some method of telling SketchUp, “I don’t want to push pull this, I want to remove it.”

Ok, end of rant. I can cut windows by the clunky method, so I’ll make peace with that and move on. Thanks for letting me know there isn’t some other method I should be learning, so I’ll stop looking for that.

On with the show!

Um, almost on with the show…

I don’t get the “click an inference point” on the back wall method. How do you click the back wall while you’re in push pull mode?

I also tried Justin’s idea of starting the push pull, and then entering the thickness of the wall. Makes sense. Should work. But not for me.

The only thing I can get to work is to VERY CAREFULLY (and repeatedly) fiddle with the push pull until it hits the very precise location of the back plane and then gives the “on face” popup, then click delete. Every other method failing here.

You simply hover over any edge or point that lies on the same plane as the back of the wall you’re pushing to. Sometimes this is very easy, sometimes you have to rotate to find it.

You’ve implied there is an issue with this method that needs to be fixed, but that would involve the software needing to know what you want without you telling it.

Another easy method is to push the window opening to the exact depth of the wall by typing. For example, if your wall is 4" thick, start push pull, type 4 and hit enter. You won’t have to use the mouse at all to align it.

But if you do use the mouse, it couldn’t be easier. Begin pushing, and then hover over the other side you’re pushing to. The cursor will read out that you’re on the edge/point at which point you simply click. You can guarantee a flawless cut without ever worrying again!

cutwindow

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It’s weird - I’ve seem more questions about this recently than I’ve seen in the past 2 years combined - hence this video - thanks for the link! :slight_smile:

How do you do that while you are in push pull mode? When I move the mouse in the direction of such an edge, I get more push pull.

You’ve implied there is an issue with this method that needs to be fixed, but that would involve the software needing to know what you want without you telling it.

I’m happy to tell it to cut instead of push pull. There is no command for that. That’s the problem.

Another easy method is to push the window opening to the exact depth of the wall by typing. For example, if your wall is 4" thick, start push pull, type 4 and hit enter. You won’t have to use the mouse at all to align it.

Justin suggested this too. Been trying it over and over. Not working.

But if you do use the mouse, it couldn’t be easier.

If it couldn’t be easier, then why is Justin getting lots of questions on the subject, so many he had to make a video specifically on this subject? Any feature in any software which is confusing lots of people is a feature in need of an edit. It’s not a crime or a scandal, just something that could be better.

You 1) draw your rectangle, 2) highlight rectangle, and then 3) choose “Cut” from a context menu. No need to engage the push pull tool at all, which is really irrelevant to this operation. That’s how it should work.

The cursor will read out that you’re on the edge/point at which point you simply click. You can guarantee a flawless cut without ever worrying again!

How do you hover over the other side without further engaging the push pull?

First thing to check - are you single clicking when engaging push pull, then moving your mouse and clicking again to set the push pull? Or are you clicking and dragging your mouse? Clicking and dragging the mouse can cause a lot of these issues that you’re describing.

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Learning new software can be frustrating at times, I felt the same way with SketchUp, and I will certainly feel that way again with some new software in the future. @JustinTSE gets a lot of attention on lots of subjects because he is a good teacher and there are loads of people just learning SketchUp. But this function of SketchUp does not need to be “fixed”, it is not clunky, to actually very elegant and quick, it should take you less than a second and will once you understand how the to use it. Here are 4 methods for pushing a window through a wall.

  1. the easiest, push until the inference engine snaps to the back plane of the wall, you will see the back face color bleeding through (mine is bright green), then click.

  2. click to start a push then move the curser to any reference point in plane with the rear wall. in this case I use an edge at the top of the wall. Then click again to finish the push.

  3. Once you have push pulled a distance once, the tool remembers that distance, so for the next move you can simply double click a surface to push pull the same distance again.

  4. enter the distance manually, I almost never do this because the the previous methods are much quicker but it can be done.

Hi,

You could maybe be interested by this ?
TAK2HATA’s Hole on solid

Aha! I bet that’s it. I’ll focus on that next and see what happens. Thanks Justin.

I know I’ll never get agreement on this no matter what :slight_smile: and that’s ok. But I’m curious, do you guys understand why a cut feature is not available? I know such a discussion won’t accomplish anything, but the part of my brain that wrote my own software for years is now demanding I try to find an answer. :slight_smile: There should be a cut feature for that part of my brain too!!

On this we agree enthusiastically. I credit Justin with bringing me in to SketchUp. The man has a gift.

But this function of SketchUp does not need to be “fixed”,

Ok, then I ask respectfully, could you explain why the following would not be more intuitive and simpler to operate?

  1. Draw rectangle, 2) highlight rectangle, 3) choose cut from a menu.

What I see, in this thread and pretty much every thread in every software forum is that the first instinct of the regulars is always to try to rationalize the status quo, especially if a known nube is raising a challenge. My respectful reply to this common phenomena goes as follows.

You guys are the experts on SketchUp.

For the time being at least, I’m the expert on being a nube. That is, I’m more in touch with being a nube at the moment than you are. And, I’ve offered evidence that supports my position, lots of questions on this subject to Justin.

This is just my coding philosophy developed over years of coding my own software. Any time there are lots of questions about anything, the solution is not to lecture those who are confused, the solution is to re-design so that fewer people are confused.

I also have at teaching degree and the same principle applied in that field. If the student is confused, that’s MY problem to solve.

Finally, I also wish to ask this important question. Do any of you guys have a joint or something which will stop me from typoholic ranting? :slight_smile:

Most people are just trying to help. What they do for it to work for them. You will also see a lot of threads complaining about SketchUp.

I agree it sometimes doesn’t work for me and I have to delete the face on the second surface.

You can select the rectangle that you draw in the front surface and delete it but that only makes a hole in that surface.

Creating cutting components is my usual way of working on windows in models. I don’t usually use push pull for that.