How do I resize complex shapes, not scaling?

SketchUp
1

Hi

I apologise if this has been asked or if I am asking in the wrong place, I have not been here before. I have had a search about and can’t find an obvious answer but I am sure there must be one.

I am making models of furniture and joinery, e.g. doors and windows. I want to be able to resize them, but not scale them. Scaling would change the dimensions of the timber cross sections, size of joints etc.

What I need is a way to scale or stretch the mid sections between the corners, but without changing the corners and only increasing the linear dimension. For example to make a 400 x 1200 window into a 600 x 1400. The cross section and corners remain the same, but the length of the sides increase.

I am currently doing this by creating the corners and then moving them into place and using push/pull to make them meet up, deleting the join and then recombining into a new group. Is there an easier way?

Thanks

2

hello,
working with dynamic components would fit what you aim to do

some practice will be needed though

3

Perfect. I have watched the video and I think this is exactly what I need. Thanks

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4

The move tool is the tool you use for this kind of resizing.
There are also some extensions that can make this a bit easier, fredo scale box stretching seems to be very popular…

5

Interesting, fredo scale box with the divider might allow me a simpler way (if not as dynamic, pardon the pun) of doing what I need. Thank you.

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6

I do this fairly regularly for furniture models. FredoScale can be used in many cases but not all. I usually prefer to use the Move tool. Using components instead of groups is a big part of making this sort of thing work easily and there should be no reason for exploding the objects. Here are some examples:

The king size bed on the right was made from a copy of the queen sized bed on the left.

The coffee table was made from a copy of the side table.

The tall stool was made from a copy of the short one.

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7

How does the move tool allow you to do this? Can you point me to a tutorial or resource? I have managed to get Fredoscale to work, and I think it will be sufficient for my current project, but I don’t understand how I would use the move tool to resize.

8

It requires using limited selections. Changing the length of something like acoped and tenoned door rail is done by opening the component for editing, selecting the features at the end with a left to right selection box and moving them the required distance.

I’ve done a number of video tutorials showing this sort of thing. I’ll find a link to one.

9

Here’s a link showing how I made the coffee table above.

2 Likes
10

Great, I’ll watch that now. Just had a look at your drawings on flickr, they’re fab. Thanks very much :slight_smile:

11

Thank you.

12

That was the perfect video, thank you. I understand how I can use the move tool and I have a better understanding of where Fredoscale is useful too. Thanks very much, I hope you have a nice day.

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