Moving Objects in LayOut 2020

Having some issues here, guys. I need to update quite a few of my video tutorials in my online SketchUp courses due to 2019 and 2020 updates and I’m familiarising myself with them first. I’m not finding the new selection/moving process to be efficient, nor user friendly. For one, the bounding box is empty (in the process of moving the object) - how is this efficient?! It’s only when you release the mouse that the re-positioned object appears. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a feint preview of some description in the viewport to help guide you when moving an object? This new function doesn’t enhance the workflow, actually, in my opinion it slows it down. I definitely feel there’s room for further refinements with this new function. It’s not streamlined.

I’ve worked out how to use an end point on one object to precisely move/position another object (this however, was not an immediately intuitive process, something which SketchUp normally prides itself on. I had to refer to release notes to find out how to do this).

My actual question is this: if I’m trying to position an object to be precisely aligned with the end points of two other objects: one vertical and one horizontal, how do I do this?

Thanks,
Anita

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You would use the click on a point trick to align to one of the two, then click on a point trick to align to the other one, only this time press the Shift key.

Colin, thanks for your reply. I can’t get this action to work. I’m trying to align an object using two other objects on a vertical and horizontal. After I align the horizontal, I’m using an object (end point) on the vertical to align with. If I use shift, it’s going to move the object in a straight line. I’m trying to position an object using two different end points simultaneously. Previously, LayOut provided you with dashed guide when you were trying to align an object using the end points on two other objects on a horizontal and vertical position.

I can’t seem to get this to work at all because LayOut isn’t providing a guide for the second aligning position.

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It’s the simultaneously part that I think you have to give up on. Align to one point and stop doing anything, then align to the second point.

Colin, your answer still isn’t addressing the problem, when the previous version of LayOut did this absolutely fine. I have created a short screenshare to help clarify what I’m referring to. For the record, I’m 100% not a fan of what SketchUp has done to this function in LayOut - this is a backward step, guys.

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Awesome screen recoding, thanks. When you held the shift key down you also only moused to the right. If you had moused downwards you could have pointed to the intended horizontal location.

There will be cases where the shift lock snaps to the next 45 or 90 degrees, and I can’t think of an easy solution to that. If Shift is still locking you to horizontal, you can move the cursor to anywhere vertical to pick the location to snap to.

Colin, I had no choice but to hold the shift key down and go right (horizontally) because I needed to ensure that the left elevation was still precisely aligned to the bottom of the front elevation. If I lift the shift key then I’m most likely not going to be accurately aligned with the front elevation anymore.

The ability to align with two objects simultaneously contributes greatly to an efficient workflow when presenting plans and positioning text in LayOut - it saves a lot of time and it looks like, for whatever reason, it’s no longer available or has been sacrificed for something else.

As someone who teaches and uses SketchUp every single day, this is so disappointing.

You wouldn’t release the shift key, but you would mouse downwards.

@Adam is in charge, he may have a better solution, or at least be able to read your feedback.

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Colin, I have moved the mouse downwards - still no change. Thank you for taking the time to try and resolve this issue. @adam I’m not expecting answers or miracles today! I think it would be useful if someone could simply confirm that yes, the ability to align an object using the inference points of two other objects simultaneously is no longer available and that at the very least the peeps at SketchUp will look into this.

Thanks,
Anita

I made my own little screen recording, that shows aligning a particular point in a model to two unrelated elements in LayOut.

Colin, what are you aligning to? The right hand side edge of the top object? Because the object you’re moving isn’t aligned to it.

I was aligning the bottom right of the geometry to the top left of the bottom right rectangle, and the bottom right of the upper left rectangle.

Any imperfections are down to me doing the screen recording quickly.

But the object you moved didn’t end up aligned to either of the edges of those two objects!

This shows what I had intended.

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Ahh, ok! I see what you mean. This is still not working for me. I’m still trying to align that section in my screenshare and it’s not working - actually when I try to align it for a prolonged period it starts to move in different directions sporadically. Is this possibly an issue with Windows?

It has worked after I grouped the selection. I have to be honest, this is still not as intuitive as the previous version and I think it requires further refinements. Colin, thank you for your time and patience.

I am a very patient person! But, you have some valid points, and I hope that Adam can improve things in the future.

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Yea, I tried it again there and it was giving me problems again. Hopefully this process will be simplified and more intuitive in future releases. I’ll leave you alone now! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

It’s the weekend? I struggle to know what day it is.

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I only jump in here because I have always found moving things in LO unreliable. I think I understand the principles and they often do work as expected but somehow not always. I find I often have to draw temporary lines to move things accurately and erase them afterwards. In fact, I rather yearn for construction lines, maybe ones that don’t print even if you forget to erase them.

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