I wonder whether it’s possible (either native SketchUp or via an extension) to move a frontal section plane back- and forward while the camera is in parallel projection mode. I haven’t found a way to select the normal arrow handles in the four corners of the plane (these handles seem to appear only in perspective mode).
Thanks.
Something like this?
You don’t have to grab an arrow handle to move a section plane at any time. Here, since I wanted to move the plane in the green direction I hit the left cursor key after I got the Move tool. You do need to move the cursor vertically on the screen. You can see what happens when I let the cursor move off vertical.
Once you start moving the section you can type the move distance if you need to set it in a specific place.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your quick reaction. Indeed, something like you describe is exactly what I was looking for. I checked your solution on my SketchUp application, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work on my end. When I start dragging the mouse vertically after having applied the actions in your procedure, nothing happens…
I’m a ‘hobbyist’ in the SketchUp ecosystem, and I therefore use the 2017 Make version, which meets my needs quite well (combined with a number of extensions).
Thus, I believe that your ‘trick’ must have been introduced in a more recent version.
Furthermore, thanks also for your suggestion to use the input box to define the move distance. Combined with an old plugin to visualize the coordinates of an arbitrary point in the 3D space (including all geometry and objects while hovering over it), it will allow me to position the sections much more precisely than I imagined to be possible.
There is no relevant difference between 2017 and 2023 with regards what you want to do.
Be aware that there are no handles, you simply select the section plain and use the move tool to move it.
Also be aware that when in Parallel Projection mode the zoom function is effectively disabled so you can end up a long way from the object but it still looks the same. If this is the case it may appear as if the section isn’t moving.
Change your view and see where the section is in relation to the object.
I’ve done a vid here that shows a few things. This is all in Parallel Projection and you can see that the section will only move in one plane, in this case up and down, no matter how you move the mouse. As I orbit around to being on top it still works well but when I change to Standard View Top, the point in the vid where it jumps down to the left, you can see that is starts to misbehave and then goes nuts. This is related to my mention of the Zoom function issues of Parallel Projection.