I have now gone back and reistalled it all and – amazing – it all appears! Do I have to do this every time I open it up?
You should not need to. It sounds like some strange glitch happened the first time, but that is not normal or common.
I now have Fredo and DrawAlong up on the screen but the DrawAlong panel keeps disappearing. I was unable to successfully import my .pdf land survey data (I could bring it in but either I could not read the point data or it came in as ‘spagetti’!) so I am having to manually refer to the data from an Adobe .pdf. Firstly, how can I place the DrawAlong tools panel permanently in my tools bar? And secondly, is there perhaps some way (tutorial video?) that I can actually import my .pdf land survey data large enough to be able to have the numbers readable and in comparable size/scale to my .dwg 2D plan?
Thank you for all assistance. This dedicated thread is very helpful so far.
This Fredo is not working AT ALL. I click on the Z Vector; I highlight both Point & Line on Guides; I undo Inference. And every time I move to my separate .pdf (data) the Fredo Tools disappear! But worst, on top of that… the Z Vector does not control; 50% of the topo point lines draw out flat !!!
It’s impossible.
This topic started with importing a CAD file.
Now it has digressed into a discussion of building a terrain model, muddled by delving into advanced plugins.
Let’s get back on task.
Share the CAD file so we can ascertain what you have to work with.
With that, we can determine the best way to proceed.
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I’ve tried to upload but it says it is too big. But here is a screen grab of it:
I have been trying to match this online tutorial: Sketchup Tutorial - Creating Terrains from Spot Elevations - YouTube
It shows the Fredo Tools permanently in the Toolbar. I can’t get mine there. But I have pressed for control to the Z and yet the lines do not follow it.
I will try sending you the file on email:
I’ve sent the file via email connection.
Upload the CAD file to a file storage / synchronization service like Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or the like.
Then post the link to the file back here in this thread.
After sifting through the clutter, I found a Group containing 448 Guide Points.
This simple plugin was used to generate the terrain model below.
TIG: Triangulate Points v1.1
For your interest, this plugin imports/exports x,y,z points data.
Didier Bur: Cloud v8.0bxx
Click through the Scene tabs.
Terrain from Height Points_001.skp (250.2 KB)
Now that you’ve shared the model.
Might you tell us how it came about?
The guides are all flat on the ground plane … Z=0
One thing I wondered just moments into the Youtube video: You don’t really need any extension to constrain drawing to the vertical axis; just tap the up arrow key to constrain to +z, yes?
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Well RTCool, tell me where is the +z “up arrow” because I have wasted a day trying to find the way that Fredo “should” control Z so that it only goes up (or down) but it doesn’t and Fredo is so unstable; even in the vid I picked it up from the guy says that it doesn’t always do as it should… great!
Well the flat image comes from a .pdf which is a land survey of my land in Somerset UK done by professional surveyors a few years back. (I used to use AutoCad years ago but took to SketchUp as a cheaper option as my AutoCad copy ran out years ago). The surveyors only sent me the data of the points on a .pdf. I wanted to use that .pdf as a match layer so as to have the data next to each point but I simply couldn’t get it to import.
I have the data and the wish/will but simply not the know-how. I thought this was supposed to be easy 
Locking inferences with the keyboard — SketchUp Help > Drawing Basics and Concepts
https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/introducing-drawing-basics-and-concepts#lock-inference
The arrow keys on the keyboard constrain drawing and moving with a number of tools both drawing an moving. Up arrow is Z axis, right arrow is x axis, and left arrow is y axis. Try playing around with drawing circles, rectangles, line, move and rotate tool using the arrow key.
Perhaps one of us could try importing the PDF image so you have the numbers in front of you in the model.
Are you at liberty to share the PDF here in a pubic forum?
You can also share it by private message by clicking my avatar.
I admire your determination.
Manually entering some 448 points requires more will than most could muster.
Here’s one way to accomplish the feat.
When you install SketchUp, it comes with a number of pre-installed plugins.
One of them is called Sandbox.
Sandbox is a basic set of tools for modeling terrain as well as other organic shapes.
If you draw a simple vertical line stemming from each guide point, upward to the desired height…
… Then all you need to do is select all those lines and run Sandbox > From Contours
The Sandbox > From Contours tool ‘sees’ the top end of the vertical lines as points.
With that, it creates the terrain mesh.
Try it yourself in this example model:
Terrain From Sticks.skp (150.5 KB)