I am designing a shelving unit with shelves inserted in dados in a vertical support. The space between shelves is not always the same, but it is the same for each column of shelves (i.e., shelve should be level with each other). I set guidelines for each dado after I created the first vertical support. However, when I tried using those guidelines to determine where the dados should be for subsequent verticals, I could not snap to the guidelines. There was no intersection inference point. How can I make sure each vertical uses the exact same shelf spacing as the first vertical, without going through the same painstaking measuring process for each.
Could you share the SketchUp model so we can see exactly what you have going on?
It looks like it did. I’m looking at your file now. Hang tight.
I see what you’ve done. You’ve placed guide points, not guidelines. The dashed line behind a guide point is not snappable as a guideline is. The tail on the guide point is only there to show you where the guide point’s reference is.
You can place guidelines by referencing off an edge or other guideline.
To be honest, I wouldn’t bother with them, though. I’d place the shelves and trace their ends while editing the components to create the dadoes.
I can’t figure out how to set guideLINES where I set my guidePOINTS. That is what I was trying to do, but all I kept getting was those guidelpoints & tails.
Use the guideline you placed at the bottom of the upper unit and place guidelines to run through the guide points. Here I’ve placed a few.
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How do I accurately start that guideline? If I start from a known point I can snap to, I get another guidepoint. There is no snap to anything I can find to accurately start the tape measure and get a guideline.
You need to start from an edge instead of a point. You’ve got the bottom of the side assemble as a reference. Or use the existing dado.
Sometimes you might need to create an extra guideline to create the reference you can measure from.
As I said, if I were drawing it, I would put the shelves in and let them act as the guides for creating the dadoes.
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Well, that brings up my other problem. I created a shelf by starting a rectangle at the front corner of my existing dado (lower left shelf, where you started). Then I stretched it across to the center vertical 2’ 1-5/8". Then I pushed that rectangle back 6-3/8". It looked like a great shelf. However, I couldn’t seem to make it a component! When I selected it, all I selected was the face I clicked on. I have been having many problems with my components missing faces, so I can’t adjust them with the push/pull tool. What’s the proper way to make a pushed rectangle into a component? Especially when it is created in-place as this shelf was, so it is hard to get at some of the faces to select them.
Did you only click once on the face? inorder to select all six sides and their edges, use triple click with the Select tool.
This does sound like you aren’t selecting enough stuff. The triple click should get you on the right track.
Aieee! I’ve watched every beginner’s tutorial & a number of YouTube projects using SketchUp, but no where have I heard about triple clicking! That works like a charm! Where is it documented?
Apparently you haven’t watched my tutorials. 
Box beat me to the link.
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Thank you so much! Just what I needed.
Apparently I haven’t … but I will! I guess I just watched the official SketchUp tutorials on YouTube. Thanks for all the help. You guys really got me going now!
Here’s an ancient one I did. At 4:30 I show the triple click. Earlier I show a left to right selection which would also work in your case. The video shows drawing the parts in place so you don’t need to know a whole lot of dimensions.
That was just the video I needed … THANKS! However, I did have to rewind and twice watch you setting the guideline for the first drawer frame cross member to see that you were measuring from the bottom edge, rather than the corner, which is what I was doing by instinct. Otherwise, a great video!
It’s just the way I work but I rarely use guide points. Mostly I used guidelines. I find them much easier to use.
Thank you.
I was going to mention this but Dave had already pointed it out, I guess you missed it.