Found the problem, AUTO RENDER must be on for SCALE, etc. to work. A dialog box would be more helpful than the little exclamation mark in the yellow triangle.
I’ve just loaded SketchUp to do a simple plan for a building. I need to set a scale. From what I have tried and from what I have read here, SketchUp is totally xxxxing useless - I’m off - back to good old Slides - That has a zero learning curve
Seriously? You don’t even bother to learn anything about the program and you’ve declared it useless?
I expect it’s too late since you’ve already decided you aren’t going to use it but in SketchUp there’s no need to set a scale. You just draw at full size. If you want to make scaled drawings for print out, you do that in LayOut from the SketchUp model.
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I get that all you fanboys love your sketchup. I’ve seen amazing results achieved with it.
I think the core issue here is, many people complaining about it’s functionality with regards to scaling, or lack thereof, don’t want a 3D drafting program.
I’m certainly in that boat.
There is no adequate intro or explanation that you should ‘draw full size’ especially when you set your paper to A4 and then it doesn’t fit at A4 anyway…
Probably a good program. However a steep learning curve and not suited to simple 2D sketching to scale, without messing around with complicated views etc.
Like so many others, I’ll be uninstalling and going back to pencil and paper…
You wouldn’t think a simple 2D design program that lets you draw lines at scale and calculate angles would be that hard. Logo anyone? Yes I’m showing my age.
Only thing I can’t complain about is the price…
You seem to be confused. This thread is about LayOut which is not a 2D design program. Neither is SketchUp. SketchUp is a 3D modeling application. If you only want 2D, use a program intended for that. SketchUp can be used to make 2D drawings but it is designed first and foremost for 3D.
There is more than adequate explanation of that in the myriad tutorials and other help documentation for SketchUp. The model is created in model space. Setting a paper size in SketchUp makes no sense. LayOut is the paper space application. Viewports made from the SketchUp scenes can be set to scale to fit A4 paper or whatever size you’ve chosen. There’s plenty of explanation of that available, too.
A Porsche Boxter is probably a nice car but it’s not suited to hauling sheep to market either.
The learning curve isn’t that steep if you utilize the learning materials that are freely available.
I take your points Dave. The point I’m making is that it seems a LOT of people like me, google for a simple 2D drawing program and Sketchup rates very high on the list so we install it only to find it’s a tool not suited to the task we want.
I know a lot of people who do concepts for PC Case mods in sketchup and the 3D library for that seems to be great.
But simple it’s not. Intuitive it’s not.
I’ve purchased TurboCAD and in the time it took me to join this forum I’ve 1/2 sketched my project.
So it sounds like “a LOT of people” install programs on their computers without first educating themselves as to what the program will do or is even intended to do. And somehow the problem lies with SketchUp.
“Hello, Ferdinand? I read on the internet that your Boxter is a really nice car so I just went out and bought one. I’ve got a complaint, though. It’s not that well-suited to carrying my herd of sheep. And to top it off, it’s hard for me to get in and out of because it’s so low”
I think that’s open to interpretation. Since you are approaching it with a 2D mindset, it might not be intuitive for you. Many users including young children do find it to be simple and intuitive enough.
If TurboCAD meets your needs, great. You’ve made it clear you don’t need more than 2D so there you go.
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SketchUp has one of the most intuitive interfaces I’ve ever used. The only other programs with similarly intuitive interfaces I can think of are MsPaint (which has very few features though and almost useless) and Paint.NET. SketchUp has a more intuitive interfaces than most computer games even IMO. However it can be confusing if you don’t even know what the program is meant for. SketchUp is a 3D modeler, not a 3D drafting tool. If you assume it is a 2D drafting tool I can understand why it doesn’t appear to be very intuitive to you.
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I agree with you here ene, but having said that, I draft a lot in Sketchup. Actually I only draft in Sketchup for a couple of years now. It’s much nicer, faster and visually richer than what I used to have in CAD, as long as you use Layout.
I’m in the “newbie and finding it too hard to use” camp. I’ve drawn a very nice rectangle using only the x and y axes because what I’m drawing is a pattern to cut a 2x12 joist in various ways and dimensions. Everything happens in a 3’ section of the joist. That section, in Sketchup, is about 65mm x 31mm on my screen – it’s simply too small to work with. It seems to me that I should be able to – somehow – tell sketchup to make this thing big enough to work with – say, 400mm long by whatever scales to the proper width.
I can do this with the scale tool, but now sketchup says it’s ~221" long, not the 36" that I need. I can make an Excel table to translate all my measurements to sketchup’s new ones, but that seems silly. Is sketchup really too hard to use intuitively, or am I missing something really basic?
Are you using LayOut?
Have you tried using Zoom Extents (Camera menu) to zoom in on what you’ve drawn?
The Scale tool isn’t the right tool for the job. You just need to zoom in with the camera.
Which version of SketchUp are you using? Your profile hasn’t been completed, yet.
I’ll try the camera; thanks. Using Make 2017.
Ah… This is in the LayOut category.
It looks like Zoom Extents may be what I need. Odd that after Googling for half an hour or so on how to scale a drawing, I don’t recall any mention of the camera tools. Pretty clear that sketchup is Different… capital D intended. Got to wrap my brain around those differences.
For the most part, you draw in SketchUp at real world dimensions and zoom with the camera to adjust how much or how little of the model you see.
I’ve been working with SketchUp off and on for a couple of years doing mostly construction drawings and never found that. Solves a lot of problems for me; thanks.
So LayOut is something different? In general, if I go to Help, or the forums, is the help I get likely to be ineffective in Make? For example, I can’t make Layers work at all.
LayOut is part of the Pro package. It’s sort of the documentation side of things.
It depends upon what help files you’re looking at. If you are looking at ones related to LayOut, they won’t do you a whole lot of good for SketchUp Make.
If you are looking at information about using Layers in LayOut, it shouldn’t be surprising.
Check your private messages.