Sketchup 8 - Is it Possible to Enter the Start Coordinates of Lines/Rectangles?

When I select the Line tool, the measurements box says “Length”, but it’s greyed out and won’t accept absolute coordinates in square brackets. Am I doing something wrong, or can I only specify length in the box in this version?

You can’t specifiy starting coordinates. Only ending coordinates. Before you can enter a value you need to indicate a starting point at least. Although you can enter either absolute or relative coordinates in SketchUp, it’s not generally the easiest way to work.

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Ok, so this is only possible in later manifestations such as Sketchup Pro or Make? This guide shows how to specify absolute start points using coordinates in square brackets:

https://help.sketchup.com/en/layout/drawing-basic-lines

The help page you linked is for LayOut, not SketchUp. That makes a difference!

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No. It’s never been possible to start drawing an edge with coordinates in any version of SketchUp. As Steve points out, you’re looking at instructions for LayOut.

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Ok, it wasn’t immediately clear, Layout isn’t mentioned on that help page and I found it from a Google search. I see now that they mention “Drawing a model in 3D”.

From your link:

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Duh, yes so it is! In my head I had interpreted “Layout” as another word for “Contents” in that side bar. :roll_eyes:

Anyway, if I draw a rectangle and want to draw another rectangle inside it, how for instance can I specify the corner of the second triangle as being a relative distance from the corner of the first rectangles?

You could place a couple of guidelines in the desired distance from the edges. If it’s an equal amount on all three sides, I’d use Offset. But that’s just me looking for an easy route.

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Actually this was the page I was looking at, and there’s no mention of Layout:

https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/introducing-drawing-basics-and-concepts#draw-line

Sorry I meant two rectangles above.

Yeah. That’s a different one than you linked to before. And as that page indicates you can specify the location of the second end of an edge with either absolute coordinates (in refererence to (,0,0,0) or relative in reference to the starting point. It doesn’t indicate that you can place a starting point for an edge by entering coordinates.

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Same thing. Guidelines, Offset.

You could draw an edge or put in a guidepoint starting at a corner and enter the relative coordinates for where you want the corner of the new rectangle.
rect

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Ok, thanks, I’ll try that.

With s4u Line Tool extension (SU2016>)

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The axis tool let’s you place the axis visually (eg. on a vertex or screen position) but rightclicking on an axe and choosing ‘Move’ gives some more control. (Moving in x,y and or z direction or rotate)
This can be used to specify a new starting point for edges and rectangles etc.

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