Scaling, stretching only the red axis in top view

Hi, I have a number of floor joists that need either extending or reducing on my building projects.

When designing decks it’s easier for me to mainly work in TOP VIEW. I go to grab the centre to centre handle of a piece of timber (eg, 3000 long x 120 high, 45 wide), it will resize both the blue and red scales. I only want to lengthen the timber (RED) not make it taller (BLUE).

To work around this I have been in ISO view and grabbing the centre face red handle and that works fine. But this takes time changing from one view to another.

Is there any way to resize on the red axis from a top view?

Hard to say without seeing your SketchUp model file but it seems to me from what you describe the Scale tool is the last thing you should be using. The joists ought to be instances of a component and you should be editing one of those instances to adjust the length.

As many of the decks I design have irregular shaped outer edges, stretching joist length in situ suits me rather than specifying a length. Hence the ability to grab and stretch as needed, around a curve for example, seems simpler that typing in lengths.

Who said anything about typing in lengths? You shouldn’t need to do that.

There are certainly ways to do what you want but if you are insisting on using the Scale tool, you’ll need to be able to see the handle in the middle of the side of the scale box so working in the top view won’t be very useful.

sorry misunderstood you. I’m not insisting on using the scale tool just want a way to resize one axis quickly

test1.skp (212.5 KB)

As you can see in the file, the joists need to be trimmed to the outer irregular border length.

Are you trying to trim the joists to the line pattern in the component below? Like so?

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Or if you want straight cut ends just position them on the irregular edge so the overhang is on the straight end and cut them on the straight edges.
Or even use Fredo’s Visuhole to trim each one individually if you want.
many ways, scaling would never be my first option, especially as you have used groups and not components. Scaling perhaps if you want to retain them all as an instance of one component.

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wow, that was genius. Ive just trimmed each one by hand so to speak and took me a lot a lot longer than you. Yeah those are the skills I’m aiming for.

would you mind telling me what that tool pallet was on the side so I can try to copy what you’ve done

In that gif I’m using the extension Eneroth Solid Tools to trim the joists using a solid shape that I made from the line perimeter you had created.

First I made a rectangle wider than the line work but in the same plane by inferencing the line with rectangle drawn from center, then traced over one edge to set that line work into the rectangle, then erased the center and push pulled to a random thickness, enough to be sure to cover the joists. Then close the component, the cutter is made.

Then I reposition the camera so I can draw a left to right selection box over one side of all the joists to select them. To do this I first moved the cutting box out of the way then, I selected the joists, then I pressed command-Z (undo) whih un-did the last move operation and placed the cutting box back where it was. Becasue tool operations are stored in the undo stack and selecting operations are not the move is undone but the joists stay selected.

Then I press the Subtract button, then clicked on the cutting component.

However, as Box says earlier this method will trim the ends of the joists at the angle of the line work, so all the cut ends will be diagonal. If this is acceptable then go for it. If you need the ends of the joists to be cut square then you will need to modify the method. I think I would also move each joist in the green axis (use the arrow keys to lock axis while moving) until one end is on the irregular border and all the excess is out the back, the straight edge of the deck. Then I would use the above method to trim all the joists on just that one side.

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That’s really great. Appreciate the details. I’m sure I will have questions when I get the change to try it out… will be in touch.
Thank you.

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