I’m new to Sketchup but I’ve used Illustrator, Photoshop, etc for years. Yes I know, totally different software, just mentioned that to give ya’ll an idea of my competence… kinda. To get up to speed with Sketchup I purchase training from Lynda.
Ok, so I started a simple 3D sketch and I’m creating objects and they’re not aligned. I go to Help KnowledgeBase and search for "Arrange" The results have examples with “Select Arrange and choose Align” Just like AI ! Great.
One problem My Make software doesn’t have “Arrange”
I went to the Sketchup Make/Pro feature matrix and didn’t see anything that would indicate the Arrange Functions wouldn’t be included in Make.
I also searched the forum and saw a similar problem just I couldn’t quite get the solution. Seemed like a plugin was used. I shouldn’t have to do that.
Hi. What exactly is it that you want to achieve? I have trouble following you. Do you want to distribute those 3 objects with equal distances along a path?
The article you linked to was for the program Layout, not SketchUp. There are no align features in SketchUp, without an extension that is. But there is inference. In your example scene you could select the box you want to move, use the Move tool, and drag one of the endpoints in the side you want to align. As soon as you start moving you could press the shift key to lock the movement into the green axis, then merely point to an endpoint in the other box. That will snap it to be aligned.
The KnowledgeBase article you posted a link to is about the companion 2d program called Layout, which is not included in the make version. The articles there do not apply to Sketchup, Make or Pro. You can easily align anything in Skup using jsut the move tool. Just grab one of your objects by the point you want to reference in you alignment, and move it to align with another object. Inference locking and understanding inferences in general greatly helps this. As you model more you will find it easiest to use inferencing to build objects right where you want them to begin with.
There are some alignment plugins but for most conditions understand and efficiently using the move tool is best.
There’s no need for Arrange in SketchUp. It’s a 3D work space. If you want one entity in front of another, place it in front. It’s like moving Aunt Mildred in front of Uncle George so you can see her in the photo.
Thanks to everyone for the amazingly fast replies. What an wonderful community. Intuitively I knew I did something stupid but I just couldn’t see it.
I’m pretty cool with “Move” and “Rotate” it’s just easily aligning objects “exactly” on center and such. The other problem is putting all the objects on the same plane. When I drew the cubes in the screen shot i did not put them in the same vertical plane. In other words, they tilt front to back at different angles. Rotate is too sensitive. I’d like to just enter a value. I spent a very long time on this.
LBH,
Are you using the keyboard arrows to lock your move directions and rotate planes.
Are you using inference to grab objects on their centers, (hover over center and a blue dot will appear and word “midpoint”.
I’ve had Sketchup installed on my Mac for years. It’s one of a few applications I couldn’t pick up intuitively. The tutorials are helping a lot but I’m still very clumsy. I have a large Intos Tablet that I use with illustrator and PS. Handy.
I design and build furniture. I’m at the point where it’s mandatory to know it.
Riley
Please excuse my tardy reply. It was
very rude of me after you took the time to write a detailed reply.
Fact is I’ve delayed learning SkUp until I finish a couple wood projects. I’ll watch a few Lynda videos, practice, and likely ask you a few questions.
My last session trying to master rotate was a fail. I’m good with Move. I spent at least an hour alining 4x polygons in the same plane. Sometimes I got it but I was very inconsistent and I couldn’t figure out why.
I though I had everything aligned then I used the Top camera only to discover that I built one polygon with a skewed top and only visible with the top view. I walked away.
Hey no worries were all busy, you can PM me anytime or just ask questions here on the forum, there are lots of smart helpful folks here. Don’t get too discouraged, Sketchup can be a frustrating initial experience, but once a few core concepts are thoroughly understood the learning curve flattens out a bit. Ask my wife about how much I bragged about finally making my first triangle! I was so proud.
Welcome.
