Aaron released a YT video today on the power of double clicking. In the video he shows using the Offset tool, and then double clicks the offset edge to offset it again by the same distance. He also shows using double click Push/Pull to repeat that.
I’ve tried this for years and have a simple problem: As an example. I create a rectangle and offset the edge, while still in the Offset tool I hover over the offset edge and 2x click. Nothing happens - I have to hit Space to switch to Select, select the offset edge, enter the Offset tool, and now the 2x click works.
The way he shows it, he stays in the Offset and P/P tools and just 2x clicks, he doesn’t have to re-select and re-enter the tool.
Looks like you are preselecting the face before using Offset. Don’t preselect it. Just hover over the face.
The double click will apply to subsequent offsets or extrusions even if you do preselect the face but if you want to do as I showed don’t preselect.
FWIW, if you have edges welded into a curve, you can also hover over the curve to do the offset and the double click also works for that. Again, note I am not pre-selecting the curve.
This is your problem. That’s the pre-selecting I said not to do.
In your gif you are double clicking on the face of the rectangle which preselects the face and its edges.
Try this instead.
Draw the rectnagle.
Move the cursor off the rectangle.
Tap F to activate Offset.
Hover over the rectangle.
Click and relase to start the offset.
Move the cursor in the desired direction.
Then click to set the offset distance.
Hover over the face.
Double click.
Repeat until you have enough.
If you want to enter an offset distance, move the cursor in the desired direction. Let go of the mouse, type the distance and hit Enter. Then proceed to do the additional offsets as needed.
Here’s another example. No preselection, just hovering the cursor over the face to offset.
Thank you Dave, I followed those steps and it worked. I’m going to repeat that several times to better understand exactly what I was doing wrong the first time. Really appreciate you taking the time and effort to explain that, Happy Thanksgiving, Lloyd
FWIW, if you do preselect for whatever reason you can tap Esc to deselect. No need to drop the Offset or Push/Pull tool by getting the Select tool.
There are a number of subtle things like preselecting or not preselecting or click and hold or click and release. Most operations require click and release.
when in doubt, in sketchup, before pressing space (select tool) and restarting your action, press esc, it will deselect the line or face you have already selected, allowing you to offset or pushpull on something else.
Indeed, ESC is a powerful and I think underused SketchUp key for mid operations alterations. Perhaps a future video could cover the many means of ESCape.
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