This is an image of a diagram I created today. As a beginner it took me a quite a long time to get this to work. In future I want to make multiple versions of this diagram for different solid shapes and placement patterns. I would have liked to use snap to grid, but instead I had to create a lot of superfluous lines for inference, which I then deleted to see how this would look.
I would like to know whether there is an easier way to come up with a diagram like this? Alternatively, would it be possible for me to edit the text once I have positioned it where I want it to be?
Have a look at ThomThom’s 3D Text Editor which is available in the Extension Warehouse.
One thing to keep in mind is that 3D Text is designed to glue to faces. Since you have some letters floating in space, you could create a temporary face on which to apply them and delete the face after they are in place or, you could create an alphabet component library with the gluing disabled. If you need to be able to look at the shape from different directions, you might even convert them to always face camera.
You can place the component axes to some location that makes it easier to insert them, too.
Once you have the component library created, you can just drag the letters in for each shape. No need to be typing them.
Thanks DaveR, I think the temporary faces might work for me, I’ll have to learn about component libraries but it sounds like what I need. This diagram is for a printed document so multiple viewing angles are not necessary, as long as the relative positions are apparent at a glance.
Can I make an invisible layer containing the placeholders and inference points so I could swap positions, or use an existing shape as a starting point for a new one?
You can put Cpoints and CLines on a special layer, and switch it off when not in use. The inference engine likes them, their intersections, etc. And they will not intersect actual geometry.
Search of Extension Warehouse for Grid Tools:
http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/search/site/3D%20Grid%20Tool