How do you draw a shape on a different axis

SketchUp
1

I am really sorry if this is another stupid question, but played and looked around (Although I admit not having watched all the videos yet due to lack of time) and can’t work it out…

I want to lay my first shape on its side… Imagine I want to make a tube lying flat.

When I lay my first circle it always wants to lie flat, on the blue face… I have moved the mouse around the screen, and occasionally seen the shape got Green or Red, but I can’t predict or control this behavior.

To get around this, I drew a square… Pushed it to a cube… The put a circle on the side face and deleted the cube, and this worked… I know I could also make the tube upright and rotate it…

But I just want to learn how to control the initial orientation of a shape… Is there a way to force Sketchup to lay the first shape on the Green or Red axis?

Jon

1 Like
2

for the rotation,rotation rectangle,& protractor, holding the down click allows orientation.

For shapes you can change the view, front and right (on the view toolbar) first then start drawing then switch back to Iso

3

It’s the way you look at your model (and the orientation of the current drawing axes) that controles how some tools orient.
For example: take the circle tool and with no axes orientation changed.
If you look down you’ll be drawing onto the ground plane.
If you look (=point the tool) above the horizon you’ll draw a vertical circle. This can be on the R/B plane or on the G/B plane, depending whether you look east (or west) or north (or south).
So in short, if you want the (some) tool to work in a certain plane, then orbit to have that plane more or less parallel to your screen.
With many tools you can apply existing faces to allign them to a certain face and while holding [Shift] you can then draw elswere. (as with the cube you used).

1 Like
4

Try this:

How do I draw a rectangle or circle (or polygon) oriented vertically?

-Gully

1 Like
5

Thanks all… Bringing the horizon down solved this… And explains the behavior I saw… Its amazing how obvious this was, yet I could not see the “trigger”… thanks again.

1 Like
6

THANK YOU. so easy… its stupid

7

Yep, once you understand the process you’ll find you barely need to change the angle to get the focus to shift.