Hi, I’ve been told there is a shortcut on mac to hide rest of model whilst editing a group. I’ve tried a few suggestions from google but they haven’t worked. My boss says this is possible on PC but his command didn’t work on mac…
Also, I have been using sketchup for 2 years now and my models are ‘scrappy’ to say the least… look pretty but a bit of a mess. Can anyone recommend any structured training course resource available online? FYI - I’ve done the basic learnsketchup.com course and I’ve done a few of Justin Geis’s free Youtube videos which really helped but there is still lots I just don’t understand, mainly ‘why wont these lines form a face!’
Any three or more contiguous lines on a plane will form a face. However, if you draw the lines unconnected and move them together, no face will form until you redraw over one of them.
I find it difficult making sure I am drawing the lines on the same plane, so I often have issues where they don’t form a face. Normally fine if I am drawing on an axis (I watch to check the lines change colour) but if I am drawing curves I sometimes struggle (even when I try and watch for the (on face alert).
Most recently I had issues drawing over a DWG plan imported from Vectorworks (drawing from above in plan in parallel projection). It felt like the lines were referencing the DWG file (which perhaps wasn’t quite on the same planem I dont know…)
Tip 1 when starting a new drawing is to draw a ground plane larger than your model. Make it a Group so you can easily delete it later on without affecting anything else. Then when you draw onto it you should stay in plane.
It’s not clear what you mean here. If you import a DWG, SU will turn it into SU geometry (though it may be grouped). You don’t then need to draw over it. It’s a different matter if you imported a PDF (or other image) of the DWG file of course.
In general, you should probably treat an imported DWG just like you would a Component downloaded from elsewhere. That is, open it in a new drawing and tidy it up to make sure it is lean and mean and ready for use in SU. Only then import it into an existing drawing.
I will definitely try drawing over a large ground plane - that should help
Its a DWG rather than a PDF. I wasn’t really sure how sketchup was ‘seeing it’. The lines weren’t connected so it didn’t form any faces. I was thinking about it as an image that I was just drawing on top of, but it definitely seemed to be referencing lines and intersections. Maybe its because that was on different planes that I was struggling
Is a face formed when you draw over one of the imported lines? If so, it will indicate that it is already SU geometry. The reason you don’t see faces when you import the DWG is simply that DWGs don’t have such a thing as faces. So actually, you might have to do some overdrawing just to create the faces you need.
I have also read in other posts that DWGs often have slightly out of plane edges, and may have small gaps at corners.
One suggestion I have seen is to draw a face on the red/green (x/y) plane, move the dwg input as a group a small distance below it, turn on View/Face Style/X-ray, Camera/Parallel projection, and Top view, then draw on the face, inferencing to endpoints on the DWG. Check that you have On Face inferences. And view from an angle from time to time to check that you haven’t drawn off-plane .
I think that could work! That makes sense - thank you. I just assumed that DWGs were flat but it think possibly not / or glitchy as you say other people have found
The other thing I was wondering is whether you can draw lines in a different colour?? (as its super tricky to see the difference between the DWG lines and the Sketchup lines)
There is at least one extension to flatten everything to a plane - Eneroth’s Flatten to Plane from the Extension Warehouse (Search | SketchUp Extension Warehouse).
Yes, you can.
In Styles, Edit, check the box Color by Tag (or Color By Layer in versions before 2020)
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