Day 1 Questions: Is there a User Preferences for View?

Hello! I just downloaded and started using this program today and am working the video tutorials. What I am finding is that there are things that would make it easier for me, but I can’t see how to do them. I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

  1. The RGB axis lines are too faint for me. I’d like to make them thicker. Is there a way to do that?
  2. The toolbars are grey and then the text is black or gray. I can’t really see the gray on gray. (Group stuff together, and then Explode (Ungroup?) it. But if something is already ungrouped, Explode is grayed out, but the contrast is so bad for me that grayed out and black text look the same.) I’d like to change the color scheme so it is easier for me to see what is an active command or not.
  3. I love the Large Tool Set, but I want it across the top rather than up and down the screen. Is there a way to put it horizontally?
  4. I’d like gridlines and snap to gridlines in the XYZ planes. Is that available within the program or is there something that works at the Extension Warehouse?
  5. When I start the program to a new file, there is a little person on the screen. I don’t know what that person is doing for me or why it is there. I can select it and delete it, but how do I stop from seeing it completely or have it pop up when I push a Person button or something?

That’s all for now. Day 2 tomorrow. :slight_smile: I appreciate your help!
Regards,

Leaning

The person is there to give you some idea of the scale of things you’re drawing and to show you which way is up. You can delete it and create your own template. Delete it and go to Window>Model Info>Statistics and purge unused. Then use File>save as template to make a new template without the person.

DaveR,

I appreciate your help.
I use Windows in high contrast black and white. If there is anything more contrastwise in the Windows environment, I don’t know what it is My drivers are up-to-date. I clicked all few of the OpenGL options, but they didn’t do anything to those RGB lines. It’s not anything with my computer and every other program I own works just fine. I just wanted to increase those lines from a few pixels to something more substantial that works for me.

Same things for the “greyed-out options”. Put two things on a blank workspace and them select them both. In this case, Explode should not be available because you haven’t Grouped anything. And when you click on Explode nothing happens. Good. But just looking at the grayed-out word Explode versus the active word Group, the font colors look almost identical to me. I was just asking if there was a way to customize that so there is more contrast between the commands that are active and those that aren’t.

AFA the toolbar, I was just wondering if there was a setting to customize it. I guess not and I need to make my own.

AFA gridlines, I like them. So I can learn to do without them, yes, but if there is a way to have them, I’d like that better.

AFA the person, thanks for that!

Good stuff. I am trying to see what I have to hack and extension and fiddle with, and what is just a built-in checkbox or dropdown choice in Preferences.

Thanks again!

Regards,
Leaning

The only way to control the contrast between active and non-active menu items Is via the dislpay settings for Windows. Sounds like you might already be using the maximum contrast. There are no other settings in SketchUp. The same with the axes. The only thing within SketchUp that can change the appearance of the axes will be the OpenGL settings.

Found what I need with respect to the RGB axis. If you go to Window>Default Tray>Styles, you can customize the look of the work area, remove the green and blue backgrounds, and make them all white or light creme or whatever. Lightening the background for me makes the workspace not so dreary dark looking, plus it gives more contrast so the RGB axes stand out more. (It’s funny that in Styles, you can customize your creation’s model lines (make them narrower, wider, different inks, etc.) and the backgrounds (different colors), but the axes themselves (which are the only things left on the screen), you can’t customize. :smile:

Good stuff!
Regards,
Leaning

Guidelines are created with the tape measure tool:
https://help.sketchup.com/en/article/3000099

If you Click and drag you can relocate them to any outer edge. Place your cursor to the right and under the little close red X box allows you to elongate or reduce to a box. They are a little fussy sometimes. That you can move around as you work, but investigate and set-up hot keys for yourself as most tools have pre-assigned ones.

You can’t do this with the large toolset.

…but you could* create a new toolbar with all these tools on it and that works as above. (Or use each individual toolbar that the ‘large tool set’ combines into one.)

(* don’t know why you would, but it’s possible)

I think that’s why Dave mentioned it…

My apologies. I didn’t know you had selected a style with the ground and sky turned on or that you wanted to change that. Glad you got that sorted.

There is a grid plugin available from the extension warehouse.

The main issue with using grids is that they indicate you are thinking like 2D drawing, not 3D modeling. SketchUp is not the best tool for 2D drawing (and never claimed it was!).

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Can that Grid be made to size of heated bed so as to get an ideal as to relative size like a 200 mm by 200 mm square ? With maybe 5 mm squares ? That would be 40 squares by 40 squares . .

Why don’t you install it and try it out?

Okay as soon as I get a chance to sit still for 10 minutes to day is Laundry day and a gob of other things like cleaning and getting answering e-mails and so on and have not even eaten breakfast yet got the eggs out and the rest of the things tomake breakfast with and got Popcorn maker ready for making popcorn as it is foot ball day also and Cardinals are on
GEEZ running around like a 1 legged person in a 3 legged race !