Hello all,
New user who would appreciate some advice before they throw their laptop out the window!
I am drawing house plans for a renovation project.
I had drawn the floor plan (external and internal wall outline) in Top view. I then started extruding the walls up and floor faces down (the floor has serval levels) in Iso view.
At this point it became apparent that some floor faces weren’t behaving correctly, and I had likely hidden lines or unclosed geometry, some line appear thicker (perhaps drawn them twice)
I also figured out that I should have formatted my model better (grouped external walls, grouped internal walls etc). So I decided rather than chasing ghosts I’d redraw the intial floor plan…
My initial outline floor plan is good in terms of the dimension are correct, so it would be great if I could set that initial floor plan at say z-axis level 0, and then trace over/above it to draw a new clean floor plan at say z-axis level 4.
I need to introduce some manner of section plane above the initial floor plan which will allow me to draw the new floor plan to (X&Y axis) inline with the lower plan but above it in the Z-axis.
I don’t even know if that is possible, I’ve spent a couple of hours searching online but can’t figure out if it is possible. I’m at the point where I think I’ll just have to completed start over.
Does this make sense to anyone and if so can you suggest how it can be done?
Without a support face, sketchup draws according to the position of the axes. By moving the axes up to the desired height (right-click on the axis and choose move) you will be able to draw at the right height.
Another solution is to draw a large rectangle at the desired height which will serve as a drawing base (grouped with a translucent texture or in xray mode).
A section plan can also do the trick.
Hi Jerome, thanks for you response.
Mixed result, following your suggestions I can now move the axis are draw objects at an level above, and I can also draw the large rectangle>x-ray mode and draw on that.
I probably should have mentioned that when tracing from the initial floor plan to create the new floor plan, I am clicking on the position of the end-point, intersection points, etc of the initial floor plan as dimension and x/y axis position they are correct.
However when I do that the new lines are created at the same z axis level as the initial floor plan, immediately on top of them, therefore preventing me to create the separate new clean floor plan if that makes sense?
Perhaps simpler, it is also possible to group all the elements of the reference level, to draw on the same level but in another group and then to move it to the desired altitude.
The notion of group allows to separate the different geometries and with the tag system to display them or not.
It seems to me you would greatly benefit from SketchUp’s Campus: learn.sketchup.com
Also take a look at Sketchup’s youtube channel. Pay special attention to the “square one” series which is for beginners. Line Tool - Square One - YouTube
Thanks mihai.
I should really have said I’m at an intermediate level. I don’t need to learn the basics and this issue I’m having isn’t covered in an basic lessons.
Thanks for the video, although I am having trouble following it.
What actually occurring in it? Can you tell me the source of the video so I can get some context?
^ Hi Jerome, above I was response to your post about grouping the refernce level and then tagging it so it can be turned off. I think that will work for me!
When building a house, one starts with a foundation and uses that for a base. The walls go up next etc. That should also be the path followed when designing.