SketchUp’s Rotate, Scale, and Move Tools are awful. Coming from tools such as Silo3D, Unity, and many other 3D software, these tools are so weird and hard to grasp in SketchUp.
Can you make them easier to use!
I don’t think it could be possible to make them easier to use!
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I agree with Box, but that aside, perhaps you could be more specific about what you mean by “easier to use”. A vague statement like that really doesn’t indicate what to address.
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why not select object and type in R90 and the object rotate 90deg without the need for a tool.
R90L could be rotate 90deg to the LEFT. if you need to rotate off centre use the tools. I would say well over 50% rotate usage ie just a general rotation about centre. I don’t like the rotate tool as its to slow I use a plugin that rotate with one click as I design kitchens and rotating 90deg is needed.d a lot.
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if the object is a component or group, then using the move tool, hover over allows rotation and then move…can that be any quicker?
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Hi Pc
It is pretty quick, but objects are not always that big and square. Some times they are narrow and getting your cursor to make the grid appear is frustrating. I work on a 2560 x 1440 monitor and so the handles are not as easy to see. unless I zoom in. so in order to rotate, I have to select the object then the move tool then zoom in click on the handles, drag to 90, { sometimes that does not work because I have setup my degree increments to 1 deg which is the way I want it for other work. I could set it up to 45 but then I lose the 1 deg setup.} So I end up typing in 90 Deg to get it spot on. So that is a lot of operations for a rotate. Surely to select an object and type R90L or R90R is 300% faster??
If you really do lots of 90 rotations then it’s worth installing the Rotate90 plugin from the warehouse. You can set it to shortcut keys for super fast changes.
Here it is using the context menu.
I have that install a long time Box. I just putting in a request to rotate by selecting your object and type 90GL meaning 90deg left around Green axis. I am sure someone can do a plugin for this
Hit [Q] (default shortcut key for rotate), click a point, click to set an axis, type 90, hit return… (hit [space] to return to selection mode)
I can see an advantage in shortening this sequence;
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If you don’t set an axis and type in 90, then the surface you clicked on (or the inferred plane if empty space was clicked on) would become flat protractor plane for the axis of rotation - the object would rotate about it’s central axis on that plane.
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If you shorten it by two clicks and not click anything before typing in 90, then the object would rotate about it’s central axis according to the view plane.
These shouldn’t be too hard because the rotating protractor currently changes colour depending on the view context (currently you cannot type in any value until you have set the axis) And it knows the rotation axis because it shows it with the rotation protractor when moving.
As for telling it to rotate right or left, I would keep the current convention of using a positive number to rotate right and a negative number to rotate left.
Making tools easier
With regard to making things easier to use, those rotation handles really annoy me - I would much rather you held a key or tapped something to show them or go into “rotation” mode… you could then have an option to move the centre point of the protractor before selecting one of the rotation tags. (In fact, if you do this, there wouldn’t be the need for the rotation tool at all.)
I would also like to see the [alt] key work with groups/components to lock an object’s plane when moving it; constrain to an axis, then tap [alt] to lock to that plane. (In the same way that [alt] turns off constraining points/lines/faces {auto-fold} - when used with a group/component it would turn it on)
The only change I would make to the scale tool would be the ability to perform the scale action on a duplicate in the same way that you can with the move tool.
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I agree Gaget2020… If you just select the object you want to Rotate. All you should need to do in type 90B or -90B meaning 90degrees left [-] or right [+] around the Blue axis. Best not use xyz as x is tied up with multiplying . use RGB for the axis names
I also want to duplicate using the scale tool. You want to leave a copy behind when flipping so you get a mirror object in one operation.