A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

Seydell

Hi,
Three fairly basic questions:

Is there a way to turn off the snapping behavior, or at least to modify it. I could not find an answer in the pdf SU7 manual.
Can the rotate tool protector be snapped to one of the three axis by using a keyboard shortcut? I draw a cube and hold a reference to a face using the Shift key. Is something better available?
Can the vertices of a 2D shape be moved independently? The vertices of a 3D shape?

Thanks in advance,
Seydell

Gaieus

Hi Seydell, let's see.

All you can turn off (ormodify its precision) is length and agle snapping. Window > Model info > Units. You cannot turn off other (axis,edge, different point ect.) snapping at all.
If you place the Rotate tool (or the Protractor) onto a point, left click to establish the point of rotation but do not release the left mouse button, you can drag it around and snap it to anything, not only (but of course including) the main axes.
When you have the snapping point (and thus established the axis of rotation, too), you can release the left mouse button and pick a point to rotate your object.
This sound a bit cumbersome wrtten like this but once you "discover" how to use it, soon you'll forget that once you didn't know it.
Everything can be moved independently howeve if it creates part of some other geometry (like an edge of a rectangle with two other, touching edges), they will also be affected. This is often fererred to as "sticky geometry".
To avoid this, you always have to group the geometry (or make component of it) to be able tomanipulate it independently from other, touching geometry.
Note that even putting geometry onto different layers - unlike in some CAD programs - will not prevent geometry from being sticky - only groups and components.

ankitdarda

hi ther
i m new to sketchucation
so just want to hi to all of u...
i m architecture student working partime for local architect...
i my fan of this site & obvious sketchup..
i hv my own blog try to daily update it from others...

if u want to see my portfolio feel free to click
http://www.ankitfolio.co.cc
& my blog link
http://www.ankitdarda.blogspot.com

remus

Nice portfolio arkit

Im not sure if its working properly in my browser, though (chrome.)

Seydell

Thank you Gaieus, for your detailed reply.

The method of setting arbitrary axis of rotation that you have explained is very useful for rotating components within a complex assembly.
In Inkscape, there is the node tool that can be used to select and shift individual nodes in 2D, I have not been able to figure out how to select a single node, in 2D or 3D , and move it so that the attached 3 or more edges and 3 or more faces are also modified. It is possible to select a point ( mid-point, end-point, etc. ) when using the line tool to draw a line. Not sure about individual node selecting with the other tools.

Might try rotating an edge of a 3D object, if that is feasible.

Thanks again for your help.
.. ss

Gaieus

You cannot (pre)select an endpoint so that you can move it but if you make sure that nothing is (pre)selected and hover an endpoint with the Move tool, it can be selected and moved with it. It only works with endpoints however (midpoints for instance are defined by the whole line and its endpoints and SU is not so interactive that you could move a midpoint and it would modify the whole line accordingly).

Seydell

Thanks again, Gaieus, for the additional information.

I tried your suggestion, and also tried rotating edges, which also works. Some very remarkable 3D geometry can be quickly made by picking, stretching, and pushing vertices of a simple cube or a similar shape. Almost as impressive as using the push-pull tool, except there is little control. Architects may like the winged-pyramids for new building shapes.

Have a good weekend,
.. ss

tom c

Hi
My name is Tom and i've just joined today. Im recently retired ( a life-time in engineering ) and can now spend more time on the things that I want to do - which is designing.
I discovered SU a short time ago and are enjoying the freedom it presents ( after I work out how to use it properly ).
I use windows vista with a nvidia graphics card.
I have recently created a small model of a house but have noticed that the Field of View is not active. When I checked a blank file the Filed of View is active.
Hope Ive explained myself ok ? if anyone could offer any help I would greatly appreciate it.
Ta

jeff hammond

if you have a tool selected, field of view won't be active (if i'm understanding what you mean by active)

the check mark next to FOV appears when you're able to actually change the field of view using the mouse or by entering a number in the ValueControlBox. once you switch to a different tool, you'll no longer be able to change the field of view so it unchecks.. if you want it to be active again, just click on it and you can change the value again..

if that's not making any sense then maybe you're not quite understanding what field of view is.??

Seydell

Hi,

Another fairly basic issue that cropped up had something to do with cropping. There is apparently a Hither / Yon clip on the displayed model, which can have (for me, at least) unexpected behavior. What happens is that a portion of the model nearest the view vector is clipped, and disappears. Kindly advise the heading to look this under in the help pdf file, or of some way to modify the parameters.

Thanks.

Gaieus

Under certain circumstances (detailed here) that are not particularly SU issues but related to OpenGL in general, there is a so called "clipping" effect. See solutions there, too.

Seydell

Thanks Gaieus.

carfrk101

hi...i'm new to the forums, but pretty experienced in SU. i was just curious on where i could download SP3...i looked around at some threads but couldnt find anything...

remus

Hi carfrk101, if you go to extensions and applications discussions theres a sktchyphysics forum there. There is a link to the latest version there.

Seydell

Hi,

As a new SU user, not fully at ease, I find it easier to use a basic image from SketchUp and then dress it in Inkscape. I would appreciate if you would glance at the attached images and give some leads as to the following:

There are simple things I could do to improve the result, perhaps something to do with edges, edge highlighting, or something quite different. Any feedback on the simple things to take care of first.
I have no idea on how to animate. Scenes transitions have a built-in animation. Is it possible to have the cover swing open as the scene is changed.
I am using OpenOffice.org and its pdf feature to write the article. Is it possible to have an image in the article transition between two states on clicking. Slower transition would be superb, rather than a simple change. Any leads on how to do this ?
I am equally at sea with rendering. There are hundreds of messages on the subject in the forum. I would be obliged to be pointed to a few posts where simple rendering is discussed, using some built-in SU7 feature, or some open source rendering engine ( or, perhaps a plug-in with the most basic functionality ). The built-in anodized aluminium finish came out OK, there is no upper limit to rendering; I just need to move up to the next level from the ground floor.
The article deals with aviation safety and some ideas and innovations. I hope the attachments come out OK.

Many thanks in advance.

Static port cover.jpg

cover.skp

Seydell

Hi,

Any feedback on starting a new discussion thread on the newbie or SketchUp discussions forum? Not wanting to start frivolous threads, I have been sending my questions to the Welcome new SU user thread. For my previous post of a couple of days back, would it be better to instead direct it to more focused thread or to start a new one? Perhaps breaking the query into the 2 or 3 shorter topics may be better.

You can tell that I am new to the discussion group scene

Chris Fullmer

I'd say start new threads. This one is designated to say hi to new users. Some people don't read this, but if you pst a new thread, with a good title that explains what your problem is, your much more likely to get more eyeballs on your post. Thats my thoughts,

Chris

Seydell

Thanks Chris. I'll do just that. On a general note, is there any further registration or subscription requirement for the special interest groups within the SUF?

Chris Fullmer

There are some forums that you have to register to see them. Go the your user control panel, and UserGroups tab to see all the other subforums:

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/ucp.php?i=167

Hope that helps,

Chris

Gaieus

A bit more note on that: you can register to the "public" UG's that are subscription based. Obviously you cannot register into the Google SketchUp Team UG (they are the Google employees) or to the moderators group just like that. There are sometimes other groups, too, like the challenge winner UG but obviously you need to deserve to be the member (I am not a member either so it's not just like that, again).