I guess I’ve never once needed to draw a grid to model in SketchUp. Of course I’m kind of new at it having only started in 2003 so maybe one day I’ll find a reason for a grid.
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Why would you like to have a lot of geometry or guides standing in the way, interfering a smooth workflow?
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I am really distracted today, so I’m going to comment on this. You can make a grid with guide lines or you can use a grid plugin. Most people have no use for it but, like many applications, SketchUp has ways to let you do it the way you want. Sometimes these ways have to be created by you or another person (through plugins).
I was watching a pretty good demo video the other day. But I couldn’t figure out after a while… why was he drawing guides for everything and then deleting the guides, instead of just drawing the edges? I use guides all the time, but for everything? Also for grids. I turn them off in any applications where they are on.
At first it may be hard to know where you are drawing. Just creating a face (perhaps grouped by itself) can give you something to relate your work to until you get the model going.
If there’s a need for a visual grid that doesn’t interfere with tools when modeling, then apply 3D-polylines. They can even be colored when edges still use “Material > All the same”.
Long thread. But back in 2015 @catamountain (post #11) discussed the “Grid Tool”, developed by the SketchUp Team.
Pros and Cons, all good points. But my feeling, SU is about freedom of choice. More options, more freedom.
I use this grid tool when I am in the concept mode.
You can find the extension in the Extension Warehouse (find Grid Tool). Have a look:
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Place an item on the plane. now place a second item far away from it but 1 increment of measurement back from the first, now on the other side of it place a third item that is NOT identical to the second one or the first one, and line it up perfectly with the second item.
according to sketchup you should either draw additional extra lines to check that they line up and provide a point to snap to, OR hover over the far one, and move your mouse back towards the 3rd one without going too close to the first on and picking up its snap points, OR copy one of the others and make them turn into the same as the one you want for an end result…
OR i can just look at the grid, see which line its snapped to and place the object and move on, ALL with a few keystrokes, without drawing additional lines unnecessarily, without needing to adjust snap measurements that i probably have in place for other parts of the design, without having to go get a measure tool and measure off some point that is across the screen, without having to duplicate an object that is not what i want, without having to guess if the snap point that the hover picked up is correct.
I get that you CAN work without a grid, but its not like all of the sudden in drafting and design the grid was invented… its been a STAPLE of manual design and CAD design for decades. So im not asking for a shiny new technology to be added, i am asking for a bare minimum basic feature that exists in ms paint
Also, thank you CT for adding that. since its literally designed by the SketchUp team and in its descriptions starts off with “Sometimes a grid is the best way to understand an area” which i thought for the 23+ years that i have been drafting with CAD programs, was just obvious. But apparently not LOL. Anyways… not trying to be argumentative, but really… its a grid… its the first thing you learn to add to white paper when you learn to draft… its as basic a tool as it gets in design, even in character creation, a grid is used… the ■■■■ computer itself it plotting points on a grid when it renders… its pretty useful.
I do a lot of alignment with the move tool —I move in the direction parallel to the offset then press shift
and move to get an inference from the previous object. If needed I can then move to the increment (which is usually not on any grid but no matter).
I think people find these days the bigger the building the less a grid is going to help, unless it is some specialized equation or two. My biggest and current job to date is based on radii.
In CAD however I do have grid SNAP and that helps keep accuracy within a determined increment. For new construction this is 1/4" (not useful for a visible grid) and it helps keep my drawing in order. I hate giving anyone less than 1/4" dimension to frame too. Occasionally on large buildings I’ll have a grid of 6" to begin layout but it quickly devolves. So I can’t get too attached to the idea. I’d like the idea of drawing edges to a 1/4" grid control, like I can in CAD, but it doesn’t relate to a visual grid for me.
Either way CAD or SketchUP I mostly input dimensions – I don’t line things up visually except with inference cues or alignment tools in each.
So try the plugins. They might be cool.