I’m working on a detailed, down to the studs, house model. I’ve been scaling the length of a standard length 2x4 component for things like jack studs and cripples. If I replace a scaled 2x4 component with something like a 2x6x8’ component, the replacement 2x6 is also getting scaled. Is there a way to “de-scale” a component without knowing the exact scale factor that was applied?
You can return to the original scale by right clicking and choosing reset scale. But intermediate scale operations are not saved, this will return the the scale when the component was first made.
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Well that was easy! Never noticed that contextual menu option on a scaled component. Thanks!
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You might also want to give some consideration to features like Make Unique and Scale Definition.
Yes, I could be using Make Unique for the jack studs and cripples. However, I also ran into an additional oddity when trying to replace a scaled component with another component —say a unique jack stud or cripple component. Specifically, the replacement component, as replaced via the Components window, was getting the same scale factor as the original scaled component.
So, the jack stud or cripple replacements length would end up being scaled rather than their original lengths. This just seemed odd to me. The only way I found to alleviate this scaling issue was to first delete the component, and then drag in a new copy of the desired unique component. I created a simple example file, but I’m not seeing a way to attach the file to this topic.
If you use Scale Definition you overwrite the component’s scale definition making it technically unscaled. So then if you replace it with another unscaled component, the new component won’t get scaled.
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Ah… So, the contextual menu “Scale Definition” command resets the components default size to the scaled size, right? That’s a big help. Thanks Dave.
Yeah. Basically. Part of a component’s definition is the size of it. If you scale it instead of opening the component and scaling the geometry within the component doesn’t match the definition. Using Scale Definition updates the components defintion to reflect the dimensions you’ve set for it with Scale.
For future reference.
Either drag and drop the .skp into the message window or use the Upload icon, 8th from the left at the top of the message box.
Thanks. Got it now. Don’t know how I missed it before.
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You’re not the first and you won’t be the last.
Just a thought for the SketchUp team… I think these “Reset Scale” and “Reset Definition” context sensitive menu (right-click) commands could use a Skill Builder video from Arron. I know they sure fixed my issues once I knew about them. I know he’s covered the Scale command, but I do not recall any mention of these two related Scale commands.
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