Is Sketch up out to make me crazy?

I mean, seriously, I am starting to question my sanity. I imported a dwf file, exploded it, and started working on drawing a section of the new carport that’s going to be attached to an existing barn. I used the tape measure to make some guide lines - I snapped them to the existing plan so the lines would be on the same plane as the dwf.

As I pan around the model or zoom in and out the guides bend or warp at odd angles, go out of plumb, out of parallel etc. I set a guide line at 1 1/2" and it’s now at 1/4" at the bottom end. It’s like trying to use a level on a sailing ship.

What am I doing wrong this time?

Would it have anything to do with my using win 8.1?

G

Without a picture or a model I must guess, but it sounds to me like the guides are not placed where you think in 3D space. Most often this happens as a result of not paying close enough attention to the inference snaps and not locking inferences when necessary. Sometimes it is helpful to first create a guide along an axis so that you can then create another one parallel to that through some key point of your model.

Okay, let’s face it: you may be right–perhaps you are crazy, and everything you just said may have been raving delirium.

Given that distinct possibility, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to risk wasting our time showing us phantom moonbeams from a disturbed mind–you would certainly want us to have something concrete upon which to base our thoughts and actions.

Which, of course, brings us back to @slbaumgartner’s response.

-Gully

I’ve seen this sort of distorted guidelines once before on a model where they had imported a dxf and the origin was miles from the SU origin.

But again, without something to look at its only a wild guess.

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[quote=“gerretw1, post:1, topic:15585”]
Is SketchUp out to make me crazy?
I mean, seriously, I am starting to question my sanity.[/quote]
I think they were hoping you would not notice,… and just quietly go insane.

It is super secret sub-motive of the “Children of the Sacred Model” (ie, the real force behind the modeling craze in the World today. They are behind everything! They are trying to get everyone crazy about modeling, and thaty’s not all, what?
Huh?

Oh no,… the’re here! AhhHhhhhh…

I was wondering - could it be the graphics card? I was using my wife’s laptop - a Lenovo win 8.1 machine. Let me ask this: When you say the origin was miles away, what are you talking about?

I recently downloaded the AutoCAD dwx viewer, and looked at a set of plans I needed to get some info from, and it reminded me of a Jackson Pollock painting - the colorful different pages were splattered all over the landscape. I had to pan from one, zoom in - look to try and figure out what it was, zoom out and pan to the next, etc. till I found the sheet I was after.

Is that what you are talking about when you talk about origin being far away?

G

SU uses a local x,y,z coordinate system, in which 0,0,0 is the intersection of the Red, Green, and Blue axes. If you place your geometry a significant distance from 0,0,0, (say, more than 100 times its largest dimension but maybe less) strange manifestations can occur.

-Gully

look at the barn - top left - zoom in to the roof ridge, and try panning - the guide lines warp as you pan.barn carport1.skp (300.2 KB)

is it because it’s too far away?

G

in your model steve is at/near origin…

use Zoom Extents and you can see the overview…

if you delete Steve and re- Zoom Extents, you’ll see it frames you geometry better…

if you select all and move it to origin it will behave even better…

Everything in the model is raw geometry and as such should only be on layer 0 but you have it all over the place.
Please look at how layers work, they don’t separate geometry.
It looks like you must have deleted something (perhaps a layer with something hidden) from around that area as there are endpoints that keep reappearing if you try to redraw the roof edge.

Until you get a handle on layers SU will drive you crazy.

Wha? All I did was import the cad file, explode it, copy a section, move it over and draw on it, and erase stuff I didn’t want. How did it " get all over the place" ? Does that mean it’s not on the same Ievel? there a way to constrain your drawing to 2d until you’re ready to start pulling parts of it into 3d?

If it’s on different layers, that wasn’t something I did consciously.

Are you saying I should have the copy on one layer, and my alterations on another?

My concept, was to be able to alter the copy to suit my needs, then export it to layout.

I must admit, I’m a bit confused about what I did wrong or how to rectify it in the future.

G

When I imported the cad file, it stuck it way over there. I didn’t realize that was an issue.

I deleted Steve, and re zoomed. It didn’t make a whole lot of difference, so I moved the 3 elements closer to the center of the axis - no more drunken guide lines. Thanks. G

It’s not entirely realistic to assume that a model created in one environment will seamlessly adapt to another that is quite different.

Operating entirely on your mistaken assumptions puts you at a disadvantage. Take a look at these Knowledge Base articles:

-Gully

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