The "Duh!" thread (aka the Doh! thread)
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Since I'm used to archicad i find it tedious to reactivate selection tool, select item, move it and repeat. So when things are still simple, I keep the move tool activated and select objects right clicking on them
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don't forget the shortcut for selecting... it's spacebar, an extremely accessible key
and the "m" for move is just above it! -
Using shortcuts is the single most effective way of speeding up your workflow...
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@thomthom said:
Some Duh! moments I've had:
Realising the Taper tool could be used to scale a model.
Realising that I could change the radius of a circle that's been extruded.
The taper tool? Is this my duh moment? OK, where? A plugin?
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I meant the Tape Measure tool.
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However, FredoScale does have a taper tool: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=17948
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@unknownuser said:
One for me was when Gaieus was from Gaieus' talk at the Basecamp (I saw the video) and using the rotate tool.
When you click the rotate tool and click the rotation point, don't let go of the mouse button... drag it out to either red or green (or any other snap point you set up) then click to start. This relieves any need for a vertical plane to get your rotation set up.
See image for example.
[attachment=0:2b46kvl7]<!-- ia0 -->ClickHold.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2b46kvl7]
I have been using SU since V2 and never knew that until last year.
Ooh, wow, that one hurts. In a good way.
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Hi Guys,
Just had a Duh! moment. I just noticed there is a 'show nested components' tick box in model info -> statistics. So that's why I can't see my polygon count when I create a group
(thanks thomthom)ultimatez
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@xrok1 said:
i think the biggest duh moment of all that everbody (hopfully) goes through is realizing that it matters which way the faces are oriented.
90% of the 3dwarehouse posters still havn't had that duh moment.
...ok, I'd better ask, because my mind is blank after reading this.
What do you mean, "it matters which way the faces are oriented"?
This is either something I know, in different terms, or something I don't know at all.
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Hi,
What Rocky is saying is the when you create geometry that your faces are all White not Blue.
If you draw a simple square on the ground plane you notice it's blue. It's basically the inside face of a yet to be push/pulled object. Once you pull it up the remaining faces are created with White faces out and blue in.
The problem with not orientating your faces correctly becomes apparent if you create a face within a face, and reverse one face so it's blue. Now if you pull one face then orbit you'll see the havoc it can cause!
Rule #1: always orientate your faces!
Rule #2: read rule #1
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In 3d modeler's, traditionally faces have a front and a back side to them. Some modeler's have ignored the backsides of faces, so if the face was pointing away from the camera, the renderer would just ignore that face (it would not appear in your render, making for lots of holes in the model if you were not careful about getting faces oriented correctly).
I SketchUp, the default material light color face is the front face, and the blue-ish purpley color is the back side of the face. So in some people's eyes, it is important to always model so that the white side of the face is pointing outward (like if you make a box, all walls should be white, and all blue walls should be facing the inside of the box).
Most renderers can deal with materials applied to the backside of faces now, so it is not as important as it was previously. But some people (most?, many?, I don't know) still argue that it is important to model that way. It could be cosidered a Best Modeling Practice to some degree.
Chris
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And hoppfully as soon as you Pull (in Sketchup) a simple rectangular blue surface (bad oriented)
that's magic this blue surface becomes a "white volume"! (so well oriented)
And no problem* to the end of your session
*If you have not some circonvoluted volumes!
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You can also think this way; in the physical world everything has some thickness (even a sheet of paper). Now there are two kinds of 3D modellers; "solid" modellers and "surface" modellers (like SketchUp) where everything is made up of faces (and their bounding edges).
Now a front face should always look "outward" of a (fake) "solid" while the back face should be oriented inwards thus indicating that in that direction there is just the "thickness" of the object.
As said above, some 3rd party rendering software do not like back faces but neither do some other applications - for instance if you want to 3D print something, these back faces will drive some printers crazy.
In SU itself it is really not too important nowadays. I still remember however that even Google Earth did not like back faces and rendered only black colours where they were exposed (this has been solved by more modern exporters ever since).
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It gets even more important when you start sending models through a render engines - many features there demand that your normals are oriented correctly.
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@broomstick said:
@thomthom said:
A more recent Duh I had:
Being able to select only a few edges from a face and offset them instead of the whole face.
I had this one today!!
Wow. I didn't know that! I thought you had to offset the whole thing then erase unwanted lines and draw wanted lines. Duh!
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@xrok1 said:
the duh moment that turned out to just be a der! moment.
but seriously you can copy your construction lines with (ctrl) copy, and then say *10 or whatever so you get 10 equally spaced. if that helps?
Duh! Wow again! I have such a hard time dividing stuff like 7 3/16" into 3 equal sections. This helps a lot! Thanks!
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@unknownuser said:
@xrok1 said:
the duh moment that turned out to just be a der! moment.
but seriously you can copy your construction lines with (ctrl) copy, and then say *10 or whatever so you get 10 equally spaced. if that helps?
Duh! Wow again! I have such a hard time dividing stuff like 7 3/16" into 3 equal sections. This helps a lot! Thanks!
Move+ctrl to copy + typed 'dimension' + <enter> moves the copy by that 'dimension'.
Immediately typing 10x [or 10* or x10 or *10 !] will copy 10 times, at that dimension each time.
Alternatively immediately typing /10 will take the 'dimension' as the total distance and make 10 copies that are fitted into the distance, dividing the 'dimension' into 10 equal parts - as you say great if you want to subdivide 7 3/16" into 3 parts without worrying about the Math. -
@ecuadorian said:
Today I discovered that I can drag-and-drop images straight from Firefox into the SketchUp viewport.
Wow! Just tried it with your avatar and it works!!!
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@unknownuser said:
@ecuadorian said:
Today I discovered that I can drag-and-drop images straight from Firefox into the SketchUp viewport.
Wow! Just tried it with your avatar and it works!!!
I had and odd duh moment for that - because I just did it one time, and I surprised myself afterwards when I realised it worked. I assumed it didn't - so I have no idea why I even tried.
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But the inverse don't work
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