Entity placement

Hi. Is there a method by which I can ensure that an solid object/entity/comonent is exactly horizontal and vertical. I have a model which is made up of 4 seperate groups and when I try to bring them together they do not sit evenly on top of each other being out of line by just a very very small amount. I am sure it is because one or more of them is not completely horizontal. All the dimensions of each group are equal. Rotate doesn’t help.

Is there a plugin that can help or am I missing something fundamental.

Thanks in advance

RichardC

Two suggestions:
One begin drawing each group on the ground plane (the area defined by the red and green axis lines). This will ensure that the bottom face of the group is horizontal. And when you use the Push/Pull Tool to generate the height, it will be absolutely vertical. If the groups are relatively complex shapes, then rely on SketchUp’s inferences and hints; that is, be sure lines that are supposed to be horizontal are drawn parallel to the red or green axis. To do that, meke sure the line behind the line cursor turns red or green. Use the left (green) or right (red) arrow keys to constrain the lines on the proper axis. When you use Push/Pull, tap the up or down arrow key to constrain that movement.
Two, to join parts precisely, zoom in close and use more of SketchUp’s prompts to ensure that the corner of one group meets the corner or midpoint of an adjacent group.
Hope this helps.
dh

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Why not?
Upload your model and we will have a look at it…

Thanks David. I decided to start again on the ground plane as you suggested and gave up tryng to repair what I think was unrepairable!

Cotty,

The bottom face of the component was not lying flat. Rotating merely rotated the warp. I started afresh working from the ground plane. I would still like to know if I could have repaired it though. Fortunately it wasn’t a complicated shape and it didn’t take long to re-do.

We see this a lot: when a model was drawn poorly and points are just slightly off, it is very often simpler and faster to delete and do it again the right way than to repair the errors. Plus, by going at it another way, one gets a chance to learn a better way.

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So you don’t want to know if the repairing would have been possible with the rotate tool?

Yes Cotty that would be very helpful. I fear I may make the same error again and it may not be so easier to repair than start again, so an insight ould be useful.

Thanks.

RichardC

I need to see the error to explain the repairing …

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You can pull, move individual corners down to the correct plane, or there are very good plugins to move entities to a defined z height… but SU is so quick , often the simplest is to rebuild correctly, that way you reinforce good practice

FYI: It takes 6 coordinates to define a item in 3d space, x,y,z and pitch, roll and yaw or equivalent. Problem with rotate is not surprising. Plus the final result you get can depend on the sequence you follow getting to the end point. On top of this what you see when you measure is display precision so it is very important you use the SU inference engine.
There are plugins for alignment but you still may have to make multiple steps including axis changes.

David gave you very good suggestion.
Posting your model could lets us make more specific comments.