Stop surfaces connecting

SketchUp
1

Sorry that might be obvious but after following the Getting Started, I am still not clear on a very easy point. It is a very nice feature that I can draw on a surface and then extrude and do similar things. But how do I avoid it if I dont want it, but want it to be a completely seperate object on the same height when drawing?
Example: I have an area of grass and I want to build a footpath on it. As I want to move and modify the footpath later, I dont want those items to connect. Because then when moving somehow my whole scenery moves around and looks very ugly afterwards.

Hope that is understandable and someone can explain me that.
Thanks a lot!

2

In your example, make your grass area into a group, and put your footpath into another.

3

Make Groups and Components. Geometry inside a group or component will not ‘stick’ to other objects outside that group. When you want them to stick, put them in the same group. When you don’t want them to stick, keep them in separate components or groups. Even having one group is enough to keep them separate in a simple model if some geometry is in a group and the rest is at the top level of the model (loose geometry).

4

True, but it’s generally better not to have ANY ‘loose geometry’ in the model, except when you are just drawing a new component (or group, though I find little reason ever to use those).

When you are drawing something new, you usually do NOT want it to stick to anything already in the model, hence my recommendation not to leave any loose geometry there.

1 Like
5

Its ok to have the geometry you’re working on loose, as long as everything else in the model has already been put into components or groups. You can’t make an empty group, you have to draw something loose to get started.

1 Like
6

I agree, and that’s also what I was trying to say.

7

Yeah. My models contain only two kinds of geometric entities: components and loose edges and faces getting ready to be the next component.

2 Likes
8

Thanks a lot, I will try this. So did I understand correctly - once I finished something e.g. my grass I put it i a component, and then when I start drawing something new it will be not in this component until I assign it to this or define a new component?

9

SketchUp always has exactly one open “drawing context”, which can be the model, a component, or a group. If you do nothing else, each entity you create will be added to the model’s context. If you open a component or group for edit you enter its context and everything you create will go there until you close the component or group edit. Things in different contexts will not stick to each other.

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