My model is of a floor plan for a house. I have created various household items such as beds and sinks. These are rectangles of various colors, and I have made them components. I have created a larger differently colored rectangle representing the perimeter of the entire house. I would like to draw wall footprints within the perimeter and arrange the components into various floor plans.
At this point, I would like to operate only in two dimensions, like paper cutouts moved about. When I have a floor plan I like, I will Push/Pull it into 3 dimensions.
I draw pairs of guidelines representing wall thicknesses. These run north to south as well as east to west. Then I use Rectangle and sometimes Line to draw the footprints representing walls in straight, L-shaped, or T-shaped runs, then I paint the footprint for clarity. All goes well for a while; but as I draw more guidelines, erase and re-draw items, add and remove components, sooner or later I draw a rectangle that will not take paint. I take this to mean that what looks to me like a rectangle does not have all 4 corners in the same plane. If I zoom in extremely and orbit about each corner, sometimes all appears to be in a single plane; sometimes I see a miniscule dogleg in the surface of the plane, or some other irregularity.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that as I draw I am unintentionally drifting out of the plane of the original house perimeter. Is there a way to guarantee that I stay in a single plane? Or is it a different problem? Any suggestions?
P.S. Often I find that among the grid of guidelines I have drawn, when I hover the Tool cursor over what appears to be an intersection, sometimes the identifier “Intersection” pops up and sometimes “On Line” pops up. If I have drawn all guidelines from the original perimeter, I don’t see how this is possible.
SketchUp needs some time (fraction of a second) to let its inferencing engine come up with a hint like “Intersection”, “On Line”, “On Face”, … So don’t be too hasty.
Also be sure that your guides are on the same plane of the face.
Guide<>edge intersection should lead to “Intersection”, otherwise you’ll see “On Line”.
RLGL: I have searched a lot for Sketchup tutorials, but never found this one. Thanks.
G.H.: Thanks for being willing to look at it. My model has a confusing number of floor plans in it. The next snafu I run in to, I will copy just that floor plan into a new model and post it here. How do I do post?
I am trying to work on my floor plan at this point only in 2D, like moving colored pieces of paper about within a frame. I think the problem is that when drawing rectangles and lines, placing components, and laying guide lines, I am unable to get all exactly in the same plane. This sometimes prevents guidelines from intersecting with each other, so an apparent rectangle drawn on the guidelines will not take paint; or a component is actually a small distance above the plane.
As a sample, I drew a rectangle as a frame, grouped it, and then drew guidelines derived from it’s edges. I then placed a few components. Viewed from above, all appeared to be on the original plane, but orbiting clearly shows that some of the guidelines are well out of plane. Some of the components snapped to high guidelines and some to low. How can I be sure I am staying all within the same plane?
Draw a large rectangle (or the outline of your floor).
On this face draw a small rectangle. Select it and make it a component. It will be on plane and glued to this floor face. You can move it around without inadvertently moving it out of plane.
you can edit the rectangle component to whatever you like, say a chair symbol or a table.
There is still a small problem. If I paint a rectangle before making it a component, the color remains clear; but when I make it a component, the underlying color of the large rectangle interferes with new color and I get an oscillating mix. If I give the component a bit of thickness, the mixing stops; but then when I draw guidelines (I really need guidelines), sometimes I derive from the lower edge of the thin component and sometimes I derive from the upper edge of the thin component without realizing it. Then my grid of guidelines are in different planes, and I can’t make rectangles based on them. Is there a way to create the component with zero thickness but prevent the color from mixing?
@Wo3Dan just showed you a way. Make your components cut openings and place them on that big rectangle’s face. Tick the “cut opening” box in the components browser:
You don’t really need them, do you?
Yes, I forgot to mention that you can make the components “Cut Opening”.
If for some reason you do need a guide in plane, Orbit and drag one from the side edge at the bottom. But “Cut Opening” symbols don’t need thickness.
Thanks for all the help I have gotten so far on this issue, but I am still having problems.
My model is of a floor plan for a house. I have created various household items such as beds and sinks. These are rectangles of various colors, and I have made them components. I would like to draw wall footprints in color within the overall perimeter of the floor and arrange the walls and components into various floor plans.
At this point, I would like to operate only in two dimensions, like paper cutouts moved about. When I have a floor plan I like, I will Push/Pull it into 3 dimensions.
I have tried doing this two different ways:
I create a large differently colored rectangle representing the floor surface of the entire house, and everything I draw and paint, and all components, are placed on this surface. The problem with this is the 2D geometry I draw is partly obscured within the floor surface, and the colors I paint become mixed with the color of the underlying floor surface in a way that oscillates irritatingly when zooming. Hiding or temporarily deleting the floor surface fails; some objects continue to oscillate, some become solid colors, and some lose all color. I know that if I give all these objects some thickness, the oscillation will disappear, but for several reasons I need all to be two dimensions at this point.
I started over with no floor surface, drawing on empty space. All colors stay solid, no oscillation; but as I draw more guidelines, erase and re-draw items, add and remove components, sooner or later I draw a rectangle that will not take paint. I take this to mean that what looks to me like a rectangle does not have all 4 corners in the same plane. If I zoom in extremely and orbit about each corner, sometimes all appears to be in a single plane; sometimes I see a minuscule dogleg in the surface of the plane, or sometimes I see that one object is in a plane that is parallel to, but a tiny fraction of an inch higher than, the other. I think this means that when working in two dimensions, all drawing must be on an underlying surface.
In answer to an earlier post, it was suggested that all components, in addition to being set to “horizontal”, also be set to “cut opening”. That seems to work, but if I later move the component, I must repair the hole in the underlying surface. Is there no other way to be sure a component is placed actually touching the surface it appears to be touching?
I created a small model to test these issues and have attached it here. The lower right option, working on an underlying surface that is grouped and tagged, works the best of the four, but still has oscillating color. I am using this method now, but it is laborious.
Is there a way to work solely in two dimensions, being sure all drawn 2D geometry and placed components are in the same plane, while keeping all colors solid and all geometry visible?
My floor planning is only part of a larger SketchUp model that includes other aspects of the project already completed in 3D. After completing the floor plan in 2D, I want to Push/Pull it into 3D as well, so it would be very helpful if I can remain in SketchUp.
Every SketchUp video tutorial I have seen uses building a house as a demonstration, drawing a floor plan and Push\Pulling up into 3D. This is what I wish to do, just in a more detailed and careful way. Preparatory to drawing it into 3D with Push/Pull, is there a way to be sure all drawn 2D geometry, components, and guidelines are in a single plane, while keeping all colors solid and all geometry visible?
