Some questions, paralell, select, group

Hi!

A few questions:

  • How do I make a parallel line with set distance?
  • Can I select all displayed dimensions, and hide them, or move to layer?
  • Push Pull: How do I use this, then group the 3d shape in an easy way?

Thanks!

  • There are different ways of making parallel lines. You could use the move tool with copy. Press option on mac, control on windows to toggle making copies on. Then move the line in the direction you want, type the exact distance you want and you’ve made a parallel line. You could also use the tape measure tool in a similar way to make guidelines then draw your lines snapping to the guides. You can use the inferencing system to help move the line in the direction you want. e.g. pressing arrow keys to lock in blue, red, green directions with up, left & right arrow keys.

  • To select all Dimensions, open the Model Info window which you’ll find in the Window menu. Click on Dimensions at the left, then click the “Select All Dimensions” button. Then you could assign them to a layer if you want and hide that layer.

  • I don’t understand your last question. Is making groups not always easy?

Thanks a lot McGordon

  1. It was for lines not on axis. I’ll use the Protractor. Any thing better?

  2. Thanks a lot!

  3. Let’s say I have a box, then use PushPull to make all faces 25mm thick. Then each 3d face is a 25mm thick new box. I need to have those grouped for hiding and keeping edges intact when editing other stuff.
    If I 2x-click I only get 1 face with lines, 3x-click selects everything.
    So, how do I do this?

Thanks!

X2 click to highlight the face and lines and make it a group/component before you push pull to 25mm. Then open the group for editing and push/pull. In general best practice is making groups/components early and often.

Selections cannot be made into components if the selection isnt separated from other geometry. You can group un-separated geometry but probably not as you intended.

1 You’ll need some line or face to define the direction to go in. You could set the axes in line with your off-axis lines to make inferences easier. Either change the main axes or just the axes for a component then reset them afterwards.

There’s also a parallel line inference. The line turns pink when your new line is parallel to the existing one.

If we see a specific example of what you’re trying to draw, it might be easier to explain. The protractor could be the best way.

Thank you! This is the solution :slight_smile:

I knew there was a way, I had just forgot how to do it.

1 Like

Actually, you can create a component from a selection of geometry even when it is connected to unselected geometry. You need to make sure that Replace selection with component is ticked if you want the component to show up in the model after creation.

I use this frequently to create individual sticks of molding as components after using Follow Me.

How would you do it without destroying the original geometry or having to manually redraw it?

If you don’t want to destroy the original geometry, untick the box for Replace… Then you can pull an instance of the component that was created from the In Model collection. This obviously won’t work with groups, though.

ok…it can kinda be done…sorta.

Thanks a lot!

Question 4: How to I prevent section planes from hiding stuff when editing within a group.
Section plane get greyed out in a way that sometimes hides almost everything.

Hello, There’s a button to hide section planes in the basic section toolbar.

Thanks!
I forgot to say it was hidden already, and is just light outline when no group is selected for editing.
But when I double-click that group for editing, the hidden section plane gets much darker and sometime hides a lot.

I don’t get it… If the section planes are hidden, they’re hidden… :slight_smile:

Anyway, have you tried adding a custom shortcut to “hide rest of model” ? It seems you’re experiencing lots of problems while editing your groups/components. I couldn’t work on sketchup without a shortcut on it. (there is no default shortcut for it). Try it out, If you need the context while editing a group, just toggle it on. Then toggle it off to concentrate on the group itself

Thanks!
Well, yes, that’s a good idea :slight_smile:

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