I am working on a wood project and find myself constantly needing to measure the width and height of long wooden posts. And the tape measure tool constantly keeps snapping to the center or to the ends of the post, which result in the coordinate numbers instead of the length of the segment which I’m after.
I wish there was a keyboard override or some other feature that prevents the tape measure from snapping to the mid and end points, but rather just move along the edge so that it always shows the length of that specific segment.
I know that if I zoom in significantly, I can navigate between the end points and the mid point, but then the measuring session becomes a grinding zoom way in, zoom way out, go to the next edge to be measured, zoom way in, zoom way out.
You could export to a list, assuming you are using components. This is how I do take offs. Maybe with OpenCutList or Timber Framing Tools plugin. Far more accurate than transposing the lengths and sizes by hand.
You could lock the tape measure to an axis and go from edge to edge a not worry about where it snaps. You do have to get be first click correct though.
For quick ‘how long is that piece?’ queries I find it faster to double click a component and select an edge.
If you are making those measurements for take-offs, use one of the cutlist extensions.
If I just want to see the dimensions of an object for reference I use an ancient old plugin called Get Dimensions. With a keyboard shortcut assigned it’s quick and easy to get the dimnsions of the bounding box.
My use case is more while making changes to the design, not getting a cut list. For example, I designed the wooden frame using 5x10’s. But then I go to the timber shop and they are stocking 4x9’s. Or I initially used 6x6’s somewhere, and I find out those are not standard offerings, so I need to go and rework them. So it’s a lot of different dimensions. I need to see what it is, and if it’s not what I expect it to be, I massage them to the correct dimension.
I’m hearing a lot of people using the Fredo extensions. I looked it up but it isn’t immediately clear what they do that isn’t there, or what the do different. The only description is “do moves, but with extra features”. Do this, or do that, but extra features. I want to stay as much as possible to the default features of sketchup, but if it makes sketchup significantly better then it would make sense to invest time learning it.
If you’re using components and giving them useful names, a cut list would be an easy way to examine all or part of the elements in the model to see what needs to be “massaged”. I run cutlists as a way to check for screwy dimensions. For example I don’t intentionally model most woodworking projects with 64ths of an inch for fractional dimensions. A cutlist is a quick way to check that all of the dimensions make sense. And since the components all have useful names, it’s a simple matter to identify which components need adjustment if they do.
Fredo has made a lot of very useful extensions. They are all available from Sketchucation. You should go to the Sketchucation forum to look up extensions you might be interested in. Most of them have videos, descriptions, and instructions for use. From that you should be able to figure out if the extensions are ones that you would make use of.
Some simple tricks with the tape measure tool: The arrow keys constrain the tape measure just like the drawing tools, so sometime constraining it can force more what you want. For exampole, with the down arrow, you can force a measurement parallel to or perpendicular to the edge of a sloping rafter. You also don’t have to measure point to point; you can measure edge to edge. That’s what I’m more likely to do if I want to know the width of a board, say. It’s default is to make a guide line, but you can turn that off mid-operation with the option or command key (or delete it or do undo after you’ve seen the number). Sometimes it does require zooming or navigating to get the snap you need, and a 3D Space Mouse may help make some of that less painful.
Fyi, the inferences work in a small radius around your cursor. I’d say a 5-10 pixel radius, not sure of the exact value.
A common issue I see in training is people not zooming in enough. They want to see the whole piece.
Zooming in and out is part of the game. If you stay too far, then the inference area will contain your whole piece, and you won’t be able to grab the exact point you need.
There is a reason why the scrollwheel is the first thing to die when you work 3d or cad
You can bypass the tape measure, using Entity Info. You’ll have to open the group or component, then select the edge that you want to know the length and see it in Entity Info. A couple of clicks but you don’t have to zoom in and out.
