Reason for invisible geometry come about on a layer of water and not being able to cut out a ship shape

Hello

I had a similar problem last year. I was then told to look for any spec of line or pixel within a face that may stop me from cutting out a space.

I had to redo my water and did the “intersection with model”
and also tried “intersection with context or selection”

Still I was left with major issues
I introduced a yacht into my model that is fully decorated inside

What I still can’t understand why would an empty cut out space
(like the two circles for the building) fill up again fully with the water material
just because I try to add another model and want to intersect with the general water surface?
They are all different groups and the water was it’s own group and component

I can’t seem to get the water to cut out from the shape
I have tried so many hours in any way looking for any speck of a pixel
I could not delete the part in the center of the shape

THEN I drew a line across and suddenly I was able to delete 1/2
then drew I second one and managed to erase the other side

still the center will NOT go
If I chose it and delete it all fills up again
if I delete on line of the triangle face the other half fills up again

It took me days again to empty the circles chasing for a tiny speck and
locating the exact geometrical position then delete the original
that was created with the “intersect with model” but did not allow me
to delete the center as the water is not supposed to go through the
building that goes down under the water level.

It all sounds mad but it is a game building I am working on for years.


871c_onlyWaterWITHcutOUTshapes_15_03_25.skp (346.3 KB)

I tried to copy a strip of water with the empty space
mirror it an reinsert to no avail it will fill up again

I also found a huge amount of invisible geometry across the entire water surface!
Why would that suddenly be they never were there before
I have worked on this file as you see many many times
These lines seem to end at the little lamps I put along the side of the yacht submerged body.
I have never dragged them across the entire water surface
all I did was lower them 5cm just under the water.
I never ever dragged or pulled anything across the entire project
Meanwhile someone will able to help and explain what I am doing wrong again
with this unusual shape (the two circles I managed)
I will go an delete these lines one by one.

All this happened as I wanted to do some emitter light corrections
I have progressed a lot and still hit some SKU roadblocks

I have managed to migrate my model
to Twinmotion and then onward to Unreal Engine 5.4
which as impossible from SKU 19 directly as an fbx
Now I am learning about “collisions” between objects and people walking
another huge hurdle. Lucky I have not planned to many doors to open in close in my game …if it ever will become one …time flies

Thank yo so much in advance this crazy 55+ hobbyist


Your plane isn’t flat, see how the 4 corners of the plane are not all at 0, so whenever you cut through it will triangulate the surface. You need to start with a flat plane and it has been mentioned many time, you need to Turn Off Length Snapping as this causes this type small unfixable error.

There is also a break in your boat shape.
GIF 16-03-2025 10-53-36 AM

Hello

Thank you so much.
Unfortunately never heard about the unchecking the snapping sherbet
2mm over 50m …
I guess to often handling the face and re inserting it.
For the brake in the line…maybe I need new glasses
I have a 4K monitor but set lower as otherwise it doesn’t work well
in UE …in need of a more powerful graphic card which means a new PC again due to the size of the new 12VGBR …

I was about to implement this work around but now will try to follow your
advise
but wondering how to I flatten the water?
I may not have your extension…

Very grateful for your advise
At least can have a more peacefull week end
this stressed me out a lot
Cheers




It’s pretty pointless to try to flatten it.
Turn off length snapping.
Create a new flat plane and position it where you want it and make new holes.

For example. No extensions, just vanilla sketchup.
GIF 16-03-2025 2-35-51 PM

3 Likes

Hello

thank you very much I will implement like this
as the other way around it still I created more havoc

I’ll pray will intersect all

May I ask
Does it matter
if I click on the larger area to intersect with the smaller
or do I click on each smaller one to intersect with the larger area?

Thank you

it does. the thing you select will be cut by its context.

if you select the sea, the sea will be cut.
if you select each smaller object, they’ll each be cut and the sea will remain intact.

considering your goal, select the sea.

Thank you very much. I start on this now

Hi
Sorry to bother you again
So I now recreated the exact water surface
I found out the my square wasn’t square so I had to correct the edges along the sides.

I now did the first attempt to cut choosing the water first
but even I see the cut lines
AGAIN to dismay I can’t erase the corridor area between the center
aquarium and the outside lake
and therefor revered the cutting
My water is a GROUP
do you think it is the size of my lake with multiple cuttings?
Do I have to UNgroup the water?
I am at loss again to achieve this re integration

I attach a screenshot so left of the columns is the lake water
and right is the aquarium
I want to delete de water between the two as it is a very deep
and tall corridor
I considered also like cheating and painting that ceiling as it
can only be seen from the bottom up
BUT the paint will run through the cut lines

thanks for your opinion
kind gratefully
regards


PS: Do you think I should try to do the other option
intersect with the environment
ALTHOUGH now looking for the exact name I can’t see that option
is it because the water is a group?
I exploded the water but still do not see the other option to my surprise
so I regrouped it again
Always so afraid something major wont happen again
At this stage I re save the project each time in between each attempted action

Did you open the group for editing before doing the intersect? as I did in my gif.
You must select the face itself to intersect, otherwise the edges created will be outside the context of the group and won’t cut the face within the group.

I think I did as I saw all the dots of chosen face on the water
my groups is not open do I explode it?
or keep it a groupd


I am looking at it now from bottom up
and did from top also

Is there a difference between OPEN and EDIT group
do you mean explode the water group?

Now I can see intersect with MODEL or CONTEXT
whats the difference?
Thank you

this is my go to for tutorial
it doesn’t show much of deleting but at the end

Did you mean: what’s the difference between intersection of model or context when I need to delete faces in SketchUp?

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AI Overview

Learn more

When using “Intersect Faces” in SketchUp to delete faces, “With Model” checks intersections against the entire model, while “With Context” checks only against the currently open group or component, offering more targeted control for editing.

Here’s a breakdown of the differences:

  • “With Model”:

    • Intersects selected faces with all other faces in the entire model, including those within groups or components.
    • This option is available whenever you select anything containing faces.
    • Can be slow in large models.
  • “With Context”:

    • Intersects selected faces only with faces within the currently active edit context (a group or component that is open for editing), including those nested within that context.
    • This option is only available when you have opened a group or component for edit.
    • Provides more targeted control for editing within a specific group or component.
  • “With Selection”:

    • Intersects selected faces with the same faces that were selected initially.
    • This option is only available when you have pre-selected more than one face.

In essence:

  • Use “With Model” to create intersections across the entire model, potentially affecting multiple parts.
  • Use “With Context” to focus intersections within a specific group or component, allowing for more localized editing.
  • Use “With Selection” to intersect a set of faces with themselves

MAYBE I should go with SELECTION and only chose my specific areas

I feel bad imposing on you
THANK YOU so much

I just went into my boat
with the water group open (edit)
wanted to chose “intersect with context”
Told me there is no intersection (although my boat is ONE big group)
so did the intersect with model
Yes I see the lines but again I can’t delete the water inside the boat

You need to find someone who can either sit with you and work with the model, or download it and work with it.
I can only guess what is going on.

In recalled you fixing that line in the back of boat tracing on the previous water.
I can NOT zoom in as close as you.
For me I see a solid boat and beam no opening in the boat
so there couldn’t be a brake in the line created with the intersection

right?

Sorry my file is way to big to upload all.
All in all its over 2GB
as I just wanted to re export all to UE

yea well I don’t have that someone at all
working alone on all this
to bring ti to fruition it’s two years of work non stop
To maybe bring it to a kickstarter maybe
to be able to hire some help

THANK YOU again
I am Vic

thank you

I just copy pasted the water outside the model
and saw that only half of the water is there like a triangle
I did import a square created outside in another SketchUP
000_water9915by9789.skp (183.6 KB)

I just don’t understand why does SKU not create a totally horizontal
face?

I specially created it starting from the little man standing there
to make sure it not takes anything from my model that may not be 100% horizontal

I don’t know where to look to get hat graphic detailed reading like yours

Click in sequence on the scenes tabs of this SU file for ideas.

Boat in water.skp (321.9 KB)

Don’t touch any geometry when you start drawing the large rectangle. Be sure to press the up arrow key to lock the rectangle parallel to the ground plane in with your first point. This is basic SKP stuff, which will make your life easier.