How do I create a cross brace for a garden gate?

SketchUp
1

I’m sure this is pretty easy for most of you but I’m stumped!

How do I create a cross brace for a garden gate? Basically diagonal braces from left to right. I’ve been playing about with the protractor tool but still can’t get it. I can’t seem to find any guides on YouTube so don’t know if it’s called something else in the US.

2

Gate for StepbyStep Nursery.skp (34.6 KB)

3

Share what you’ve got for the gate (the .skp file) so we can see what you are trying to do. There are several ways it might be done depending on exactly what you are doing. Typically I would just model it in place on the gate.

4

That was quick!

First things first. Do you want the hole in the middle horizontal? Should those horizontals be individual components? They aren’t currently. Should they span the full width of the gate? Should the central post be centered between the outer ones?

Screenshot - 2_1_2022 , 8_48_14 AM
Screenshot - 2_1_2022 , 8_48_14 AM929×436 9 KB

Where do you want the diagonal to go?

Maybe something like this?
Screenshot - 2_1_2022 , 9_00_33 AM

5

No hole in the middle horizontal. I actually need two braces on each side. Both sides are different dimensions.

I can sort out the component side of things later.

I’d rather you showed me how to do it rather than just do it.

Give me a fish I eat for a day. teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime :smiley:

Thanks for your help mate.

6

That’s my intent but I need to know how the brace is supposed to be poisitioned.

7

I’ll send you a YouTube video. I hope you can understand my Scottish accent :smiley:

8

Maybe this will work. I made a component for the diagonal in the vertical orientation and placed it as shown at the beginning. It’s inside the post so I hid the post temporarily. The Pie tool makes it easy to find the point on the edge of the brace and then Rotate to position and trim it off.
brace

2 Likes
9
1 Like
10

OK. So see if you can make heads or tails of my GIF. Once you have one brace on each side you can use Move/Copy to copy them up.

Are you building this gate or just providing the drawings for someone else to work from?

11

I sussed it mate. I had a wee play around with it and figured out how to use the protractor tool. I then used the line tool to follow the protractor guide lines. It was pretty easy once I knew how to do it.

Thanks for all your help :pray:

1 Like