# Having trouble cutting through a wall for a window opening **URL:** \ **Category:** SketchUp\ **Tags:** sketchup, advice, bug\ **Created:** [January 28, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952 "2021-01-28T03:23:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![slbaumgartner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/slbaumgartner/32/7302_2.png) [@slbaumgartner](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/slbaumgartner)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/21 "2021-01-28T17:29:40Z")
> [@kadenm](#): > > Whoops lol. That’s my bad. Even though I missed it in my animation, if I were to draw a rectangle there, I would have the same problem from before. That suggests that you didn’t do some part of the wall straightening perfectly. It all worked fine when I did the same. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/22 "2021-01-28T17:45:02Z")
![problem1](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/6/f/6fea0fad1692ef9bdf1c2265c0adf8fd39d22798.gif) I’m now having a problem when I try to straighten the wall. Sorry about this btw. As you can tell, I’m still learning the program. ---
**Author:** ![slbaumgartner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/slbaumgartner/32/7302_2.png) [@slbaumgartner](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/slbaumgartner)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/23 "2021-01-28T17:47:35Z")
Lock the direction of movement using the appropriate arrow key before you attempt to inference to the bottom corner. right = red, left = green, up = blue ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/24 "2021-01-28T18:06:46Z")
![problem2](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/c/9/c972d9b9971a14614313d4976f68bf7ea3c65903.gif) Here’s my process. Can’t find where I’m going wrong. ![problem3](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/2/e/2e286e45b5ec144b24b4543eec458edfaebb55ac.gif) Here you can see it isn’t consistent on each rectangle either. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/25 "2021-01-28T18:08:04Z")
![problem2](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/c/9/c972d9b9971a14614313d4976f68bf7ea3c65903.gif) Here is the process, sorry. Edit: It seems my gif might be too long to upload. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/26 "2021-01-28T18:10:13Z")
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OcejBtYDEa5\_wth25ZKRFaoiq9bOQlBl/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OcejBtYDEa5_wth25ZKRFaoiq9bOQlBl/view?usp=sharing) Here’s a link for you. ---
**Author:** ![Anssi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/anssi/32/105_2.png) [@Anssi](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Anssi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/27 "2021-01-28T18:10:36Z")
To me it looks that some of your guides are on the face and some are not, and that the other side of the wall is not quite parallel with the front side. Instead of struggling, I would probably have redone the thing. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/28 "2021-01-28T18:11:18Z")
I think you might be right. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Anssi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/anssi/32/105_2.png) [@Anssi](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Anssi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/29 "2021-01-28T18:27:11Z")
One thing: Turn off Length Snapping (Window menu \> Model Info \> Units). ---
**Author:** ![Shep](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/shep/32/41669_2.png) [@Shep](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Shep)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/30 "2021-01-28T18:28:14Z")
> [@slbaumgartner](#): > > Finally, in your model you have a lot of copies of things spread out over a large distance from the origin. That can potentially aggravate loss of precision. It’s better to make components or groups and use tags/layers to control which are visible than to scatter contents all over the place. As @slbaumgartner points out the distance from origin makes the difference here. Here’s your model as uploaded. ![back to origin](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/b/c/bc9077558ad9a3999a02312fd931364fda13e9b9.gif) ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/31 "2021-01-28T18:28:44Z")
![woohoo](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/5/0/50613f9de56d0ad30403056ae1857b04f8b30824.png) Redoing the wall is the way to go. Thanks everyone! If this doesn’t work on another wall I’ll post back here. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:29pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/32 "2021-01-28T18:29:39Z")
Never thought of this. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![novurba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df788c/32.png) [@novurba](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/novurba)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:04pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/33 "2021-01-29T20:04:41Z")
Not sure how you drew your model in the 1st place but normally the best way is to draw a 2D floor plan then use push/pull tool to extrude it all at once to the desired wall height. This ensures that (a) your floor plan was sound from a drawing standpoint (otherwise push/pull wouldn’t work) and (b) your corners are straight and your walls are plumb. It is often (OK, almost always) easier / faster to erase and redo janky geometry than trying to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![janvin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/janvin/32/93987_2.png) [@janvin](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/janvin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/34 "2021-01-31T19:23:09Z")
Off-topic - which screen capture app are you using? Good quality - good file size. Thx! ---
**Author:** ![robertbaker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/robertbaker/32/103870_2.png) [@robertbaker](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/robertbaker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2021, 5:51am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/35 "2021-02-03T05:51:22Z")
Of course it is important to learn why your model was not ‘behaving’ when you tried to cut the window openings: Now you know that the inner wall surface was not in plane with your outer wall surface… but, be sure not to lose the other lesson here… what if that was your original intent, say, to design a wall that was 12" thick at the bottom, and only 4" thick at the top, and you wanted to cut a window through that. The method required would have worked for your problem as well so if you were not concerned about the parallel orientation (such as when doing a ‘quick and dirty’ drawing, rather than spending the time diagnosing and fixing the problem, you could have done this: Draw your rectangle on one of the surfaces, and push well past the other so that you had a ‘box’ sticking out the other side of the wall, then orbit until you can see the other surface, select it, and then choose **Edit/intersect faces/with model** and then just erase the extended box and the created surface inside the window, and voila! You have just cut a window opening through a tapered wall. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AndrewRubySketch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/andrewrubysketch/32/182273_2.png) [@AndrewRubySketch](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/AndrewRubySketch)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/36 "2021-02-04T07:22:08Z")
It is good to learn the right way first as above, then you can save yourself a lot of time by using a plugin. SEE [Adding a Window using PlusSpec](https://youtu.be/t7feIQsLU9Y) ![add window to Sketchup using PlusSpec Plugin](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/6/2/62ff235319eae0d998235abd57a45a5f5160a0e8.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/37 "2021-02-04T22:59:42Z")
This is how I first drew my model. You’re definitely right in that redoing the wall is the best way to go. 👍 ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/38 "2021-02-04T23:00:42Z")
> **[ScreenToGif - Record your screen, edit and save as a gif or video](https://www.screentogif.com)** > > Free screen recorder tool. Record, edit and save as a gif or video. Works great! ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/39 "2021-02-04T23:03:04Z")
Funny you say this actually. The day after I first posted this, I asked my teacher what was up and he walked me through this exact solution lol. ---
**Author:** ![kadenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@kadenm](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/kadenm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952/40 "2021-02-04T23:03:51Z")
I appreciate it! If I hadn’t mentioned it already, this was for a high school course and I was only doing it the way my teacher had taught us. If I ever decide to model another home, I’ll definitely use this guide. [Previous page](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/having-trouble-cutting-through-a-wall-for-a-window-opening/150952.md?page=3)