Good day everyone! I am here with another newbie question.
I created a sort of complex design using a system of lines, is there any way I can thicken the lines? Or do I have to recreate the design with a system of squares? It would be weird if you couldn’t just thicken lines…
Thank you for your guidance 
You can create thicker profile edges but you can’t otherwise adjust the weight of edges. SketchUp is a surface modeler so what you are really making when using the Line or various other drawing tools, is making edges to define the limits of the surfaces.
much appreciated! Great to know! Will just
make really small boxes to manipulate
This question comes up frequently and is really a clash of cultures. In traditional 2D drafting, line weight and/or style is used to distinguish between lines with specific meanings. Through convention, users have learned that this is just cosmetic - it does not really mean the physical items represented by the lines are different widths.
But in SketchUp the edges are just boundaries of 3D geometric shapes; like a mathematical line they have no thickness. Similarly, a SketchUp face is infinitely thin. So, a thickened edge or face in SketchUp would raise ambiguity about whether the entity actually has thickness in 3D or this is just a notational convention.
I’m not saying the request for such cosmetic styling is ultimately wrong, just discussing why SketchUp works the way it does.
I really respect your opinion as you’re an experienced user with deep roots in sketchup, however talking about a clash of cultures is a bit too harsh.
It’s not just in 2D drafting that we have lines displayed in various styles. Any visual output that has been made by humans since ages displays lines in different ways, conventioned or not. And edges are lines when you print or export on 2D formats.
Line style controls exist in many apps for different fields, with more or less freedom and the fact is that Sketchup has seriously adressed this issue is very relevant. Sketchup really took this matter seriously with Styles and Style Builder.
The main issue here is that one of the major sketchup’s market comes for people wich probably are used to draft in 2D. It’s not Sketchup’s exclusive market, but let’s face it, it’s big. These people have specific needs with displaying line styles. I can’t understand why sketchup fulfils fake sketchy edges wich only a fringe of people need, but this basic need it does not.
So the Feature has been requested countless times, people need it and it will pop up countless more.
You also talk about the ambiguity of having a thick edge… Don’t you feel there’s ambiguity in a sketchy edge? What about a Profile edge with up to 18pts? Does it look like a frame? Is that bad that it looks like a frame? It’s only cosmetic and optional after all.
Sketchy edge/line display modes seem much harder to deal with than thick edges or dashed edges or other typical 2D drafter’s edges. So I can’t really cope with a justification that Sketchup isn’t the kind of software that deals with edge cosmetic. It could deal with any kind of Linestyle, being it a surface modeller or not doesn’t look a reason to me.
Is it a tech reason? Because of OpenGL maybe? What is happening at a technical level for this not to happen? Why sketchup team hasn’t dealt with this issue yet?
I’m in no position to understand this questions but I do feel it’s very understandable that users expect other behaviour here.
… and here is where the clash of cultures lies - the insistence that you must view a 3D model in 2D.
Differing line weights and styles are methods of conveying information on 2D paper - from the model to the viewer. It is the way it has been done since man could scratch symbols in the dirt. But it’s certainly not the only way and I’m not convinced that it’s the best way.
Anything that helps communication and leads to clarity when conveying ideas gets my vote 110%, so I am all for having line-weights and dot-dash styles, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing thing not having them - it forces people to be more creative and have to explaining their ideas in different ways. (Or cheat and get Skalp)
You are viewing it in 2D on your monitor…
I could stop moving my mouse, take the monitor to the construction site, use a ruler with me to get there and measure the screen, convert the dimension on screen to real dimensions with some calculations, and say this to the contractor while I dance with a chorus on my back.
It will be fun and creative and completelly different!
Simply thinking on this is great! It’s cool to find new ways of doing stuff if you’re willing to, but if they are not better what’s the point?
If you have fun then great! I’m not having fun trying to solve ways of doing things that should be standard…
What if you could use an old and proven method and save all your creativity and time to think about a new design problem, a good architectural project, a new movie, a new set, a new story… saving the world?
You can’t, because someone is forcing you to be creative in things you don’t wish to!
Instead of complexifying what is simple, I rather solve the simple things with simplicity, freeing my mind to the complex task of finding simple solutions to complex issues.
Skalp presented last week at 3DBasecamp a new feature*… section cut widths.
This new feature is only available in the section. Every section material can have its own section cut width!
*This new features comes with the version of Skalp 2.0. This version will be released mid July and is a free update for all users.
Skalp is great!
When I tested it it didn’t handle these concrete columns inside a wall very well.
Is it now able to do detect those on complex projects and do it’s magic?
Colimns inside wall.skp (27.6 KB)
Nope not in the upcoming version, unless you really subtract these columns from the big object.
But a solution for this problem is almost on top of our to do list.
Thanks Guy, I’ll wait for that a bit more!
I don’t think its a ‘clash of cultures’ we use auto cad and import into SU (and export from SU into autocad). We always wish for the best of both to be incorporated into one platform.
The presentations are always 2d regardless of how you present it, unless it comes out of a 3d printer. Personally I like to do mid design presentations in B&W in styles that are less than photo realistic so our clients don’t get distracted by the colors and textures.
Having the ability to thicken/darken or work in varying line weights would be a huge benefit to this end. We have to change styles to get the line work closer to that presentation style, but it is still doing the line adjustments ‘randomly’… We don’t work with Skalp or LayOut as we are primarily doing exterior elevations, id don’t find sketchup accurate enough to do detailed sections or dimensioned drawings.
That is strange! Not accurate enough? Do you work with a lot of curves?
Yeah, if I run through a mildly complicated build it to dimensions, by the time I would go back and try to check a measurement more often than not it will have some variation from what i thought it would have. I don’t know if this is just a case my expectations are more sensitive than the program can replicate or the way my modeling/workflow is but from working in acad I’m used to being able to set the precision of snap and measurement that just doesn’t seem to be supported here. also the acad imports usually don’t come in in a condition that the lines are even remotely joined, I think the line fills tend to throw off the dimensioning as well. this is especially true in curves, possibly because of the segment number settings.
That’s interesting, @Rich_E, I frequently make complicated models in SketchUp working to high precision and I haven’t had the problem you describe. Dimensions remain accurate throughout.
I’ve never seen any sketchup accuracy flaws except with curves.
However, I’ve seen a lot of flawed CAD drawings with slight off plans, mis perpendicularity on walls, open corners on spaces or edges not joining together.
I wished my contractors worked as accurate as SketchUp 
Ha Ha, good one!
SketchUp works to whatever precision settings you select.
Look to the top menus and click … Window > Model Info > Units
Best Practice
• Enter precise dimensions via the keyboard.
• Be mindful on Inference Engine feedback.
• Practice the use of Inference Locking until it becomes innate behavior.
• Disable Length Snapping except for certain repetitive tasks.
List of Inference Types — SketchUp help
[quote=“JQL, post:7, topic:26984”]
gadget2020:
… and here is where the clash of cultures lies - the insistence that you must view a 3D model in 2D.
You are viewing it in 2D on your monitor…[/quote]
I am not viewing a static image - I’m working with a model and the interface is a 2D window. (how many times have you tried to move a picture of a model, only to realise that it’s a picture… please tell me I’m not the only one who does that?)
How long will this be true? Look at the next gen of consoles with the Hololens and Oculus Rift. My kids are going to grow up in a world where 2D flat images are as novel as a drafting board, set-square and french curves are today.
[quote]
gadget2020:
it forces people to be more creative and have to explaining their ideas in different ways.
I could stop moving my mouse, take the monitor to the construction site, use a ruler with me to get there and measure the screen, convert the dimension on screen to real dimensions with some calculations, and say this to the contractor while I dance with a chorus on my back.[/quote]
My.Sketchup.com - Taking a tablet on-site and pointing to things with the contractor. Measuring things and changing a model actually on-site, beside the contractor with the client. You can add in a chorus if you want to, but all the rest is happening now.
Museums and art galleries have augmented reality exhibits where your smart-phone or tablet superimpose models into real-time video/images from the in-built camera. This is here, now.
I have kitchen design software where I can give a client a tablet, take them to their existing kitchen and have them move the tablet around the room to act like a “magic window” to see what the proposal will look like. This is happening now.
There are apps and software that will almost automatically survey a house for you through the in-built camera and GPS simply by going from room to room and waving your tablet about a bit.
Asda/Walmart have trialed a ‘walk-in’ 3D print of yourself as a figurine.
I’ve said it above - look up the latest from microsoft’s Hololens - augmented reality is here, it’s only going to get better and more integrated with the day-to-day business of sharing ideas with other people.
[quote]It will be fun and creative and completelly different![/quote]nope - it is fun and creative… but it’s not completely different.
[quote]If you have fun then great! I’m not having fun trying to solve ways of doing things that should be standard…
What if you could use an old and proven method and save all your creativity and time to think about a new design problem, a good architectural project, a new movie, a new set, a new story… saving the world?[/quote]
What if you could pick up a new method and save all that time you waste drafting and annotating the same things from different angles with lots of written on sizes and product notes and details of what order things should be completed in and then having to re-write them?
What if you could eliminate the “I didn’t know that” from clients when it’s plainly written somewhere in the sheath of documents and drawings supplied to them? Or the “I can’t read plans” excuses from other clients?
What if there was a way to reduce any errors in communication between clients, contractors and yourself?
…
And “You can’t, because someone is forcing you to be creative in things you don’t wish to!”
