I often have trouble moving things aroung because cursor wont recognize the midpoint of a group…Are there a way to find it? without having to draw a line inside the group?
yes !
by default, if you take the move tool, it’ll show you the corners as anchorpoints.
look at the bottom of your screen though, you’ll see that by pressing… alt (on a PC, command on a mac) it will allow you to switch between: corners of a group, midpoints of a group, side centres of a group, or the center of a group.
here are the 4 states.
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well, I mean, the tips are at the bottom of the screen whenever you pick a tool already… here in french, but still 
if I mouse over a group/ component with the move tool, it adapts and tells me to press command (alt on a PC)
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Merci beaucoup! The next version could come with tips in little text boxes as we pass the mouse on things. Sketchup would earn much more money with more people using a dinamic and easy software than outsorce income with plugins.
Taking the opportunity of talking about it. Making it a BIM would be perfect. In my area, Sketchup is loosing thousands of clients every year to BIM softwares like Revit and Archicad.
it wont.
the system has been working well for two decades, they won’t try to change it. pick a tool, pass the mouse on things, tips appear at the bottom, not in a little box.
Actually I prefer it that way, because it’s less intrusive and distracting. it’s here if I need it.
I feel you don’t understand the whole point of sketchup. a common core around which we build out custom toolsets using extensions. some are free, some are not.
Their model is working, looking at the 40+ million registered users out there. in-sourcing something that exists as an extensions could not translate into a price raise, because right now, out there, you can’t find 2 people with the exact same tools and needs.
You mention BIM, I would categorically refuse to pay extra SU Pro just because it has better BIM tools, because I don’t ned and use BIM. or woodworking tools. or meedeks, or artisan, or…
I like my sketchup à la carte, like most users.
Besides, right now they have a crowd of users making content and tools to bring sketchup further that it ever could, many of them for free.
why would they EVER in-source that ? no need to manage, to do quality control, tech support, nothing. leave it to the community to sort itself out.
what SU could do is to release their own extensions. For example, the Revit importer they released this year in the studio version would well become a paid extension for all. that I could see and get behind.
but forcing it on us at a cost would be a mistake.
oh, and by the way, fix your profile . you’re using sketchup pro, not sketchup for schools. the latter is a web version for kids. you’re using - I guess - the student discount for Pro.
I see your point. Maybe a Sketchup pro BIM version for architect, designers and engineers. What the past in history always told us is when you dont open for the future and get updated with the tendencies we become old and left behind. It is worth it? to give up all an entire amazing possibilites it could be just because of an unfounded stubbornness whim/ideology of not advancing on that area?
I’m afraid in the future skp will be only a small resource for woodworkes. I bet if Google still owned sketchup, it would be hundred years ahead and softwares like Revit and Archicad wouldn’t steal most of their clients. I wish I could win in the lottery just to buy Trimble and make SketchUp an amazing and dinamic tool.
nope.
google killed sketchup. that’s why they sold it.
if google still owned sketchup, we would still be on version 8 and it would have joined the massive grave of killed projects.
google treats projects like tissues during a flu episode. as soon as they have met their needs, they discard.
again, it’s possible with extensions.
but most of them will go use an actual BIM tool.
I’m a trained architect. If I had to go back to that field, I would go back to archicad. because it’s a superior architecture software that has been developed as such for decades.
I don’t see a point trying to emulate all the possibilities in SU at the cost of denaturing the things that make it great when there are perfect solutions out there.
I think you just don’t grasp the vast arrays of people using sketchup. I mean, I’ve been hearing this song for 15 years, and I still find new fields using sketchup every month or so.
I mean, right now I’m using sketchup to make paper art. because that’s what a generalist software is truly about. broad spectrum of uses.
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Of course it is, sort of, possible, but why things like Archicad or Revit are used is the massive automation and bookkeeping they carry on behind the scenes.
In the early days of desktop computing, I heard of someone doing floor plans in Excel. That is possible, too, sort of.
Many people think that they can’t do it with other software such as SketchUp, others have a pirate copy of Revit and many others think that only the heir of autocad deserves their respect.
But 80% of the projects that are carried out can be done with Sketchup
I understand Anssi, but the fact we prefer Sketchup is because most of us architects also uses it as interior design and landscape work. The dynamic and intuitive way of working that we get used to, plus the vast library of models available online and etc. It’s been 10 years now that I see many of them reluctant having to change their software to Archicad and Revit, and most of them are changing it, but complaining that Skp could be BIM. Because its hard for us to learn another software and abandon the one we are very used to. I’ am just giving a opinion. It is good to have a feedback from different kind of clients that uses the software.
Let’s also not forget that some of the most technically advanced and historically significant structures ever built were all drawn with pencil and paper.
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Yes. I also remember drawing and filling door and window schedules on paper, and revising them.
Of course, but my point is BIM is an infant in the world of construction and thousands and thousands of structures have been constructed without it. Many of those structures are far superior to the amount of ■■■■ built today.
Automation is great, don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately that has lead to many painful designs due to the very thing that increased the efficiency in document preparation.
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One thing about computers, they allow a human to make bigger mistakes quickly.
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It works both ways. Far more complex structures can be created with computers as long as you know what you are doing.
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