Slice model and extend / lengthen / add volume at slice plane

SketchUp
1

Seeking advice on the best-easiest method to increase the size of a complex model at a slice plane somewhere in the ‘middle’ of the model, as opposed to Push/Pull/Move at one ‘end’ of the model.

In my case the model consists of a house design consisting of a complex hierarchy and organization of groups and components – e.g., foundation, exterior walls, interior walls, windows doors, … and much more. I need to increase the size of the building, increase the square footage. I could do this manually by Pulling and Moving out the various and numerous entities at one end of the building, and manually shifting over and fixing all the numerous interior objects.

A simplified example: A house box consisting of exterior walls, interior walls, windows, and a roof; each in their own group. Now I want to make this bigger. I can do this by Pulling out a exterior wall; Pushing out the interior side of the exterior wall; move all the windows out that are on that exterior wall; do the same with the roof; and then Pull to extend the interior walls that touch that end of the building. But it could save a lot of time if I could create a slice at a strategic location through the model, if there was a (semi-)automatic way the model could be extended at that slice – e.g., the walls automatically pushed out, and windows moved out.

Or am I stuck doing it manually? Thanks.

2

I think you may be stuck doing it manually. As far as I know there is not a good clean way to do what you want in one nice semi-automatic way.

There are a few strategies to doing it, in terms of where you cut, what parts you manually change raw geometry vs. using the scale tool, etc. But in the end sketchup is just not parametric.

And of course if objects are not oriented orthographically, or if individual part axes are skewed, the task gets even more annoying.

3

Stretch by Area from Tak2hata available from sketchucation will allow you to grab parts of multiple groups and stretch them.

4

Thanks for the input. I went ahead and spent a couple hours and did it manually. Thinking more about it, I convinced myself that it’d be quite a feature for SU to be able to do what I brought up. It would have to know (how) to stitch up all the groups and components sliced through at the plane …etc.

5

Generally if the model is built correctly, modifying it as you did shouldn’t be an onerous task.

6

Something like this?

stretch
stretch800×600 2.21 MB

2 Likes
7

Curic Stretch can do that easily :smiley:

8

Cotty and vaquochai, can you guys elaborate?

9

I’ve used a tool from the plugin FredoScale.

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