How do I make a line longer or shorter? In other programs you just click on it and pull it longer or shorter. This doesn’t seem to work in the free version of sketch-up.
Select nothing.
Use the Move tool and pick the end of the line, and relocate it.
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If the line is an angle from one or more of the axes, use the Tape Measure Tool to add a guide along the line then do as instructed by TIG and follow the guide.
Notice that you shall not select the line first. If you do that you will move the whole line.
When nothing is selected, the Move Tool is able to move endpoints as you wish.
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To be consistent, I think SU should allow linear scaling of a line or a set of entities in a line just like you can in LO. Sure in SU you can stretch a single line via it’s end point grip, but if for some reason you had 2 or more lines within the same line space that needed to be scaled, you have to select something out of that line space to enable scaling, which is not the case with LO. This is not a major issue, but it’s nice when SU and LO have the same entity manipulation behavior when possible.
I’ve tried using the move tool before but usually end up moving the line up or down as well, Using the tape measure to create a guide is a good idea but adds a complication to something that should be very simple. Thanks for the suggestions,
Don’t preselect anything. Put the Move cursor over the end of the edge segment.
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As well as using the move tool as described, another way to achieve this is to select the line and in the entity information type in the exact length you want.
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If you carefully read the second line of my post you will see that I wrote that you shall not select the line.
The trick with the guide is useful with a line that is not aligned with the axes.
If the line is aligned to an axis and you want to move one of its endpoint along that axis, simply make sure that nothing is selected, then select the Move Tool and move any of the two endpoints along the required axis direction to stretch or shorten the line.
Notice that you can also move the endpoints along any of the other two axes. There will be colored dashed line inferences to help you with this.
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Another way is to select the line, and then use the scale tool to change its length. And another is to just draw more line or erase some of it.
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If the line is parallel to an axis, the Scale Tool won’t work.
You could benefit yourself by spending some time at The SketchUp Campus. This is a site that will provide the basics for learning the SketchUp modeling process. Also, spend some time at the SketchUp SketchUp YouTube site. It provides much information including how to use each tool.
Few ways to extend a line:
1.) Pick the line, go to the Entity information, type in a new length.
2.) Just draw a line extending the current one.
3.) “Vertex Tools” plugin - select the line end you want to move, VT will treat it as an object and you can relocate it.
4.) “Stretch By Area” plugin (by T2H / TAK2HATA) - lets you move multiple selected vertexes to a new position, very useful for resizing things without breaking geometry. If you select just 1 vertex, that’s what you’re asking for.
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