The midpoint display for lines is quite useful and a great feature of SketchUp. Frequently, I find myself needing to divide lines into 3 segments and sometimes other fractions of their length.
The drawing tool does not show the inference point for anything other than the midpoint - to my knowledge. If it does, I haven’t discovered the feature or learned how to use it. Does anyone have a trick or hack that will allow division of a line into parts not divisible by 2? I keep a calculator link in my tools tray in Windows and use it to find distances for other divisions, but the process entails first converting feet, inches and fractions into feet and fractions then doing the division to get the needed length. This is a bit time consuming and error prone. Calculator entries demand only my own verification. If I get it wrong that translates into errors in drawings.
You can divide an edge into multiple equal segments by right clicking on it and choosing Divide. Type whatever number you want. Note that this will actually split the edge into separate segments. There’s also an old plugin that will divide a line with guidepoints if you don’t want to break the line into shorter segments. If that’s of interest, I’ll hunt up the link.
You can also use the Move tool to create a linear array using the “/” operator. With The Move tool, with the copy switch turned on (Ctrl + Move), move a copy of an object some distance, then, hit the virgule character followed by the number of subdivisions (e.g., 3) and Enter. You thereby Move to the end and then obtain the one-third and two-thirds marks.
After learning of the Divide function, I have experimented and have another question. Is it possible to specify the length of segments instead of their number?
For example, suppose you are drawing a house and specify the length of a wall sole plate that you wan to mark on 16" centers. Will Divide allow me to specify the 16" (1’4)?
That would be a very nifty tool feature. I can see that it would be necessary to define a starting end or possibly a starting point on the line complicating matters.
You can use a linear array of guide lines created with Ctrl + Move. Position the first guideline if other than 16: from the end of the frame, Then copy (Ctrl + Move) that guide 16", then use the * operator to make additional copies at the same spacing. That is, after the first Ctrl + Move, hit *n to repeat the copy for a total of n guides @16".
Why not just use the Linear Array function of the Move tool to space out the studs on 16" centers? Copy the first stud over 16" and then hit *n, Enter, where n is the number of additional studs you want.
OK I just found the how… First you must select a line > right-click and then you can select divide. I was right clicking after selecting the surface.
I’ve been able to divide a 96" board along a line into 15 segments but I cannot see all of the segments so I can draw a sine wave that touches each segment.
The menu items in the Context menu are dependent on the entity you right click on it. That’s why it is called the Context menu. You don’t have to pre-select the edge to get the option to divide it but you can.
