I think so too after reading that sentence again…
So, If you don’t care about 3D…you can do your blueprints in 2D in Layout?
Mike
Yes, but (I think) it’s cumbersome - layout really augments SketchUp by helping you create documentation for your 3d model.
You can certainly draw to scale in Layout, but why wouldn’t you just buy a ‘simple’ cad / home designer package then? It’s like getting a box van and only use it to pick up a couple of days worth of groceries that you can fit in a bike basket…
I think that folks liking to work in parallel projection are really after making sure lines are on axis. What I like to do is set my style to show colors of lines by axis. They show up in the color of the axis and is really helpful when you notice push-pull isn’t quite working as expected. I’m attaching a screenshot.
Go to Window>Default Tray>Show Tray and make sure Styles is clicked. Then go to the Styles palette on the side and make sure it is expanded (the little square button on the upper right). Then select Edit and the first graphic showing lines. Down at the bottom select Color>By axis. After modeling, you can change your lines back the same color using the same steps and then clicking Color>All same.
Color by axis is super handy and a useful tool, however it’s important to note that the option does have a tolerance limit for being on axis. At very very slight deviations from square the edges may register and show as on axis when in fact they are not. This problem usually manifests when importing .dwg files that are not square or when tracing an imported graphic if file, so while great for a quick check, color by axis is not necessarily a guarantee that there are no small errors in the file. The axis colors of the inference engine when creating edges with the pencil tool are reliable.
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Not under all conditions!
If due to some unforseen situation a new edge passes existing geometry that is too close but not going to be on that edge, then the new edge breakes into pieces that all look on axis but are not.
In next example connect A and C and then examine position B.
test-color by axes.skp (193.7 KB)
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Yes. This was also discussed in another post recently.
If SketchUp detects that a new edge will pass within its tolerance of an existing vertex, it concludes that the new edge was meant to intersect at that vertex. So, instead of drawing a single new edge, it draws two, one going from each point you clicked (A and C in the example) to the vertex (B in the example), even if that causes the two edges to be slightly misaligned to form a kink. Depending on the precise location of the edge ending at B, it might actually draw the edge from C to the opposite end of the edge containing B. The effect is tiny, but depending what you do later with those edges, it can cause worse misalignments.
A specially nasty instance of this behavior occurs if you are trying to draw a tangent to a vertex of a circle and the circle has enough segments that the adjacent vertex is too close to the tentative tangent edge. The new edge will be drawn to that adjacent vertex even though the inference engine shows a snap to the one you intended! Depending on the radius of the circle, the adjacent vertex can be a substantial distance away from the one you intended.
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