Need help from coplanar explainer

[shore]

Hi,
Started learning Sketchup yesterday. I understand why objects cannot be pushed or pulled unless the lines are coplanar, but it's not obvious to me while I am drawing something, if the lines are coplanar or not. If I orbit around it after the fact I can see that not all points are on the same plane but for some reason, I can't tell while I am drawing. Any tips?

[pilou]

You are very lucky!
You can use the new Work Plane plug by Tig who gives you something for have always lines coplanar

Yes SU have not Gride or customised work plane till 3 days!!!
Astonished, isn't it

it's because you can also without plug draw a big rectangular surface (or circular etc...) with any orientation, group it, and draw on it but the Tig's plug is more confortable

[shore]

Thanks for the plugin tip.
I still feel like I must be missing something though. Since there are so many cues in sketchup -- axis color, "endpoint", "midpoint", "on face", etc. there must be a cue or guide I can use to keep me "on plane".

[Dave R]

SketchUp has some very useful ways of telling you that you are drawing lines that are coplanar. One of them is the colored lines that trail the pencil tool as you draw. If you are drawing parallel to an axis, the trailing line will be the same color. SketchUp's inferencing engine will help you, too. I would suggest that you watch some of the basic tutorial videos on the SketchUp site. They will demonstrate those things quite clearly.

[Gaieus]

Yes, everything is about "inferencing" in SketchUp. Here is a list (simple search results) of some tutorials Dave mentioned on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sketchup+inferencing&aq=f

This is probably the most powerful feature of SU so you should really get a good grip of it.