How to change dimensions of existing rectangle?

[DaveR]

@PatDTN

I did that so I could place the drawers in my base

Nesting at the right time can be useful. In the case of the drawer it makes it easier to put it out to show it in the open position, for example because the drawer front won’t come off in your hand. But every component or group container you use is just one more level you have to drill through to get to the geometry when you need to make edits.

I would suggest avoiding nesting early on.I would also suggest leaving the materials until late in the process of modeling the project. They don’t help you create the model and in some cases they can mask problems.

If I were modeling this I would model the drawers in place inside the case to make it easier to get the right dimensions.

[PatDTN]

@DaveR

A little further digging and I see you’ve got some excessive nesting going on. You can see that in Outliner. You have Component#2 inside the Drawer side large component. There’s no need for Component#2. I would get in there and explode that one to avoid the unneeded container

Yeah, as I get a grip on these tools I’m going back and cleaning up. I’m using most of your suggestions. I’ve loaded “Open Cutlist” I think it is to generate my cultist and panel layout for cutting my plywood. For some reason it’s picking up something like 15/32s for one of my 1/2" pieces and I think that’s messing with the layout.

More thanks to you. Hope you’re not neglecting something to keep replying.

[slbaumgartner]

A cut list can be a good diagnostic. If it shows a wrong dimension like that or a ~, it means there is an error in the model.

[DaveR]

@PatDTN

For some reason it’s picking up something like 15/32s for one of my 1/2" pieces and I think that’s messing with the layout.

That’s because it is 15/32 in. not 1/2 in.

As Steve suggests, a cutlist is a good way to see where you have issues with dimensions. Looks like you’ve got a lot of them to me.

If I were handed this to make plans from I would start from scratch and build the whole thing correctly rather than chasing all those errors.

[PatDTN]

That sounds like great advice again. Now that I’m familiar with a lot of tools it won’t take long at all. I’ll keep both windows open and look back and forth and do it right the first time. I’ve got some practice in and ideas for the right way to do things.

[PatDTN]

So using the lessons I’ve learned I did start fresh and mostly just whipped through this design. Why mostly? In drawing the large drawer face my rectangle got snapped to things that weren’t in the same plane and came out just a tiny bit skewed. Very hard to see until I tried to smoothly join them to the drawer box. I tried to twist it straight but didn’t get that to work. In the end I deleted that component and redrew it correctly. Easy Peasy. THEN with all the components drawn I applied materials with thicknesses. Once that was done I used the move feature on all my parts to make a copy then flipped the copies to create the other side. Sweet!

Now my materials list is all 1/2" or 3/4" thicknesses. As I type this I realize ONE part I left out. Not going to be a problem!

Thanks for all the help.

[sibicle]

when I saw how long this thread is after the first few post, I was hoping for a ton of resizing tips!

oh well, thread is still too epic to let die.

I am heavy user of Fusion 360, who also really enjoys SketchUp. not having the solver screaming at me makes SketchUp both fun to design in, but also functional. having perfectly dimensioned separate components for every single 2x4 of a deck just isn’t practical and doesn’t encourage experimenting (sketching).

to get back to the point at hand, I think I have an example of what the OP might be getting at.

for the sake of example, pretend I need to resize the inner rectangle, and can’t just re-draw it (rectangle could actually be a more complex line, multiple faces, etc). the current best way I know of is the way @slbaumgartner shared back in 2016, namely:

1. measure tool
2. click one side of rectangle
3. measure in the direction of the other side
4. type in desired final dimension
5. enter. this creates a guide the specified dimension away from the starting line
6. deselect
7. select edge to move
8. use auto inference to snap to guide
9. (clear guide)

it definitely works, but it’s quite a few keystrokes. what I really would like is to start by moving right edge, then (for example) click and drag from a reference edge, and be able to specify an exact dimension of the offset from the reference edge. but googling leads me to the offset tool (which isn’t quite right), and to here.

would love to hear if anyone has some additional clever ways to achieve this!

anyway, I think that SketchUp actually is precise, you just have to collect a bunch of tips like these in order to get to the dimensions you want. requiring things to have “inherent” dimension for them to stay that way (Fusion, SolidWorks) is great for a lot of projects, but for others, the idea that once you place something it stays there until explicitly moved, is actually really powerful in a different way.

[Box]

You don’t need the guide, just move the edge and type in 55.1mm and hit enter.

[slbaumgartner]

That works well when the needed move is an easily calculated amount, but less so if due to a prior error the starting width is something that doesn’t display exactly or the needed change is awkward to calculate in your head.

[Box]

I was simply responding to the presented example.

And many people seem to think you need to place a guide when often it is just double work.

[sibicle]

the example was contrived. when modeling there wouldn’t be a dimension either, so that would again be more keystrokes. keep 'em coming!

[Box]

What is the point of a contrived example.

@sibicle

keep 'em coming!

[Fizzytrater]

Thank you. I think it’s very difficult to remember how frustrating the simplest tasks can be to the “true newbie” – like myself. So your newbie friendly answer is just what I needed to see (after about 10 minutes of fruitless searching).

[lynx003]

Why is such a simple, basic, fundamental function… so difficult in SketchUp. It’s quite a deterrent for its use. I won’t be using it again once my current project is done.

[Box]

What are you having a problem with?

[jean_lemire_1]

@nfxpnk

I don’t undestand how so simple action of changing components size can be so complex.

I cannot understand your sentence shown above.

See the following SU file to see how simple it is to resize a rectangle in only one operation.

Rectangle redimensioning.skp (76.1 KB)

[Box]

Jean, you are quoting a post from December 2016.

[jean_lemire_1]

Yes Box, but, after seing such a long chain of posts I wanted to go to the root of the problem and read the first post. I saw that the OP was talking about a component but I decided to use a rectangle as an example to show how to proceed in a very simple way.

This is mostly for the benefit of newbies who might have not look at all the tutorials showing this kind of resizing operations and have not read the help not observed the status bar at the bottom of the modelling window which shows a lot of useful tips.

[CirenJules]

For dense folks like me, I spent too long trying to get this to work. Summary for others - the Scale Tool is the way to go because it gives the option to both Scale or Set A Dimension in any dimension or even a 3D 'diagonal. The key piece of info missing in the Original Post is that for a specific Dimension to work, you need to add the >>Unit of Measure<< too. So, 3.2m will Scale to a dimension of 3.2m in the chosen plane/length but just 3.2 will apply a Scale Factor of 3.2. Simples

[jean_lemire_1]

@CirenJules

So, 3.2m will Scale to a dimension of 3.2m in the chosen plane/length but just 3.2 will apply a Scale Factor of 3.2. Simples

Exact. Also, for the benefit or beginners, using the Instructor Windows shows all that information if you scroll down the window.