We have guide LINES. How about a guide PLANE?

I routinely have to draw many small lines in different locations that all share the same horizontal plane. To get this done, I have to pull up guidelines from a point vertically below where these lines are, one at a time.

If I could pick a point on a face and pull a guide PLANE up in stead of a guideline, it would save me a lot of time. We already have push-pull which is what sets SU above the rest. Using the same idea to make a guide plane can’t be that different.

Why don’t you pull up a face and group it. Then you can draw all over it and either delete it, or hide it or put it on another layer so you can turn it on and off.
The is a Plugin by Tig, Workplane that can be used for this.

That’s my SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation

WorkPlane is close, and it will work. I’ll still have to place at least two guidelines in order to provide the three points workplane requires, but that’s better than one guideline for everything I need to draw on that plane.

Thanks!

Any face, whether horizontal, vertical or at any odd angle to the axes, can be used as a guide plane.
Position the (say ‘Line’-) tool over the face till you get ‘One Face’. Now press and hold down [Shift] and start drawing. It’s up to you to create the face (say a rectangle) near the location where it is needed and preferably paint it an outstanding color and group it.
As Box said, you could put it on a different layer to temporarily make it visible/invisible.

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And don’t forget the powerful inference system, many aligning tasks are possible with it…
(Do you have an example?)

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I don’t have a specific example. I’m the design draftsman at a company that specializes in finishing basements. I’m responsible for drawing everything from full floor plans to crown molding details.

My primary use for a guide plane would be at the stage where I switch from 2D floor plans to starting to build a 3D model to show the client proposals. I run into a slow-down where I have to add the wall back in above doors and windows, as those areas of wall are left out in 2D drawings. If I had an easy way to just pull up a guide plane at 6’-8", it would save me a good chunk of time on every job.

I realize sketchup offers a few different ways to achieve my final result, but given my personal workflow, a guide plane that functions similar (or identical to) the push-pull tool would be immensely useful. I envision it as an extension of the tape measure. If I activate the tape measure and put my cursor on a face, I should be able to pull up a guide plane parallel to that face.

I could also use it frequently during cabinet design work.

I have found that using layers only complicates things and makes setting up views more difficult. I am often making changes to drawings live, with the client in the room, and with my computer desktop being projected onto a wall. Efficiency is paramount.

I have checked out the WorkPlane extension, and it works, but seems more cumbersome than it needs to be.

I love how intuitive SketchUp is and I realize every day how lucky I am to get paid to use it.