Hi, I’ve just reinstalled SU 17 because there was no function to try and fix it’s problems. I completely uninstalled, cleaned PC registry, and reinstalled SU.
Despite watching a few tutorial vids, the biggest frustration has been that I clicked a certain function and all my work disappeared completely. Not even using edit menu undo functions could retrieve it. I’m trying, as I said in my introduction, to make upright plywood component strips that will join together to make an open frame landscape board for a model railway. Below, is a basic idea of what I’m trying to achieve but the app that I produced it with is too basic for the complexity I need to illustrate. I might as well start with this issue because losing stuff irretrievably is pretty major. - There are PLENTY more problems I need to tackle as well.
And your specific problem is.
Will that do?
What was the function? If Undo won’t bring it back, I can’t think what that could be.
Does Undo followed by Zoom Extents not work either?
Even having Selected All followed by Erase, which would delete everything, would respond to Undo., and not lose your model.
Do you have AutoSave turned on in Window/Preferences (SketchUp/Preferences on Mac). If you had saved first before ‘using a certain function’ that could also get your work back.
I’m still trying, and failing, to think what ‘a certain function’ could be. Please tell us, so we can try to help you.
Brilliant, thanks John. I will make sure the AutoSave is on. I did try zooming in and out after undo, is ther a function to limit how far out you can zoom so that you can’t skip right off the screen into obscurity?
Also what you say about select all followed by erase makes sense, but I didn’t have all selected. As for the last point, I’m sorry, I just can’t remember now what the function was.
How about the fact that the room I’m using is in a heatwave of about 30 deg right now, I’m wondering if my PC might be a tad warm atm.
Zoom Extents does what it says: zooms just far enough out to show all the model, but no more.
It could be heat, but I still don’t see how.
We can resolve many problems but we need specific problems to fix.
Try to explain what you need and what has gone wrong as clearly as you can, with images and the actual model file.
I will when I’ve redrawn some stuff. I’m starting from scratch atm.
Oh, btw. Thanks to the tutorial vid about layers, I’ve created a flat 2d entity (Layer 0) to use as a virtual bench, so my components don’t go floating about at all different layers. If I could mark that up with a grid like a modelling mat has, that’d be cool.
Normally, you don’t need a grid. In Model Info/Units, you can ‘Enable length snapping’ if you want to.
Or if you want (for example) edges/lines to start or end only on grid points, draw your own grid using the Tape Measure tool, pulling out from the x and y axes, and use Move/Copy to repeat the spacing as often as you need.
Select all the grid lines, make them into a component, then lock it, so you can’t move it by accident or have it tangle with your geometry.
And read up about using components (and groups, though I almost never find a use for groups). as well as layers.
Components and groups are the ONLY way in SU to separate geometry. Layers in SU do NOT separate geometry as in some other CAD programs. They are only attributes of components or group which control their visibility (on or off).
There is a grid extension available from the extension warehouse, but using 2d grids in a 3d environment doesn’t really make sense.
Learning how to use the basics of the inference system would be far more useful.
“Learning how to use the basics of the inference system would be far more useful.”
Now, there you go. This is all new jargon to me. Please can you define in more detail what this inference system is?
When you are trying to draw something, SU highlights points in, or directions to, existing geometry, which could be used to start and/or end a line. Different kinds of points show different colours and shapes of ‘inference highlights’.
Read the Help.
Components vs groups is another vid I watched, thanks. I still found that if you have two components that get too close together, they magically merge and won’t separate, ie; trying to select one to ove it away results in both being selected.
Where can I enable length snapping from?
Have you made any effort to learn any of the basics?
Have you looked at the basic tutorials?
Have you looked at any Youtube tutorials?
Have you looked at the many facebook tutorials?
Or are you assuming an omniscient knowledge delivered with the download?
Ah. You mean when ‘from edge’, ‘midpoint’ and ‘endpoint’ show up when deploying the moving tool?
Window/Model Info/Units, I think (not at my computer). There’s a check box.
Yes - that’s the ‘tooltip’. The corresponding points also highlight in different colors and shapes.
I’ll go with my hollow victory being your thread title.
That can happen only if you didn’t check the box ‘Replace selection with component’ when you created them .
You can select one or other when correctly made by clicking once on one or the other. Zoom in if necessary.