Help please
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I am completely new to SU coming from ACAD. I am sketching out some foundation walls and when I draw the faces of a crawl space wall then draw the faces of the full basement wall the entities become "associated" with each other i.e. if I move the crawl space wall the full basement wall gets moved with it. Same thing happened when I added a garage slab, it became "associated" with the surrounding foundation walls. How do I avoid this and what am I doing wrong? thanks for any feedback.
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Geometry in the same 'context' sticks together - this can be useful when moving one face as it stretches the other faces and edges that are joined onto it.
However, as you have found moving something that moves something else can also be an annoyance.
If you want to separate geometry then group it [or if its an element that might be repeated several times make it a component]. Single click on a face to select it, or double click to select it and its edges, or treble click to select it and everything joined onto it. You can add to a selection by holding down Ctrl whilst doing this [Shift toggles selected-state and Shift+Ctrl removes the picked item[s] from the selection - so if you wanted to select most things but exclude a few, then first 'select all' then remove what you don't want selected this way]. When you have stuff selected Grouping it will move the geometry into a group's entities [another 'context'] - note that any edges in the selection that are needed by faces that you aren't adding to the group are copied into the group, all other geometry is 'moved'. Now you can move the group without it affecting the adjoining geometry. You can edit the group by double-clicking it and then you are working inside it's context as you change or add geometry - you even can group stuff within groups if needed. If you spot something you've left outside of a group you can go into the context of the item[s] and select it the Edit>Cut, immediately edit the group and Edit>Paste_in_Place - it's added into the group [tip don't cut and edge that a face relies on - as it will erase the face - in that case use Edit>Copy...]
Whilst editing you can snap and infer to things outside of the group's context - however, it can sometimes be useful to hide the rest of the model so you can see what you are doing better - use View > Component Edit > Hide Rest of Model [this works for Components AND Groups (a Group is special sort of component definition that should only have one instance - components can have multiple instances and editing one edits all other instances)].
NOTE: you should always place/make raw geometry on Layer0. Groups and Component Instances can be assigned other layers... BUT remember that the function of SUp's layers in NOT like CAD's - layers simply control visibility and do not separate raw-geometry - changing an edge on a visible layer will affect its associated face on an invisible layer - therefore never mix layers for raw geometry [separate layers for 'raw' Text and Dims etc are OK though] - It can be useful to layer the component-parts of a building [that are Groups or Components] as you can then 'switch-off' the layers for say the Roof and you can see inside th e rooms below...
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What a comprehensive post!
I'm pretty sure that answers the question as well as the next 15!
Good Work.
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@bocomofo said:
What a comprehensive post!
Well, that's TIG!
@tig said:
...as you can then 'switch-off' the layers for say the Roof and you can see inside th e rooms below...
You can even go further and associate layer visibility with scenes. Here is a very basic example:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=ff5e479bc33c72c1b9c95966dbc09e1 -
Dam'! Csaba I missed the step the Scenes...
I thought I might as well answer in one go everything he might think about over the next few days...
PS: Some times my brain works faster than my typing... other times the other way round...
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