The "Duh!" thread (aka the Doh! thread)

TIG · 26 Sept 2010, 18:02

It glues to a face IF it's on a face when it's created.
If it's made NOT on a face it's just the same as placing a cutting-component in empty space and then you wouldn't expect that to cut a face when you moved it onto it.
A cutting-component sets its 'face' to what it's placed onto - if that's 'nil' then it's 'nil' !!!

plot-paris · 26 Sept 2010, 20:04

a fairly new one:
before thomthom's Solid Inspector came along, I never knew, whether an object was solid or not.

I just discovered, that in the Entity Info window SketchUp puts a "solid" in front of the group's name to indicate, when an object is indeed solid... thats cool, isn't it?

jeff hammond · 26 Sept 2010, 20:17

@plot-paris said:

a fairly new one:

fairly new indeed
this wasn't possible prior to SU8..

pilou · 28 Sept 2010, 07:31

About the perpendicular tool of Chris Fullmer (thx Jeff)

Ahhhhhhhh! Never thought (or remembered)to click on the segment

That was not explicit due this alert message!

brookefox · 20 Oct 2010, 21:08

Label endpoints; by default you will be given the coordinates of same.

TK0001 · 21 Oct 2010, 13:50

The day I discovered SHIFT + pressing the scroll wheel = pan was a good day.

d12dozr · 21 Oct 2010, 14:50

It might be a better day when you discover LMB + scroll wheel = Pan as well

TK0001 · 21 Oct 2010, 15:05

@d12dozr said:

It might be a better day when you discover LMB + scroll wheel = Pan as well

I just tried it. Didn't work.

ETA: Whoops, yes it does.

This is the greatest day of my life.

DavidBoulder · 27 Oct 2010, 17:58

Just stumbled across this. Take a 10' cube, use the scale tool to vertically stretch the cube, and just type a distance. This become the new height for your selected object. You don't need to give it a positive or negative number to say home much smaller or bigger you want it. Just type the size you want it to be. If it happens to be smaller than the existing size, then it will get smaller. This seems more useful on a single axis stretch, but it also works when scaling x,y & z at the same time.

Don't know how many times I had to divide 10'6 3/4" by 9'3" to figure out the proper scale for something. Actually a long time ago I realized I can snap the stretch to a guide or other geometry so I typically drew a dummy line to snap to, but now I don't even need to do that.

(update), so I guess it was right there in the online help, but I haven't read that in 5 years
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94906

Other nice tidbits. you can type a negative distance to mirror the object, and if you do a non,uniform 2d or 3d scale, you can type multiple distances, to for example make whatever shape you have drawn, fit in a 20',30',50' bounding box.

pilou · 27 Oct 2010, 18:06

@ DavidB
that works also for Move and Rotate

SketchUpNoobie · 6 Nov 2010, 23:01

I used to think you had to click and drag whenever you push/pull, move, rectangle, circle, etc. I just found out a couple of months ago that you could just click, get it where you want it, and click again to finish. I was like, "Oh."

thomthom · 7 Nov 2010, 10:07

@unknownuser said:

I used to think you had to click and drag whenever you push/pull, move, rectangle, circle, etc. I just found out a couple of months ago that you could just click, get it where you want it, and click again to finish. I was like, "Oh."

And double-clicking will repeat last operation.

SketchUpNoobie · 7 Nov 2010, 12:28

I know that. Dunno' when I figured it out though. Probably while watching a tutorial or something. That's why I like watching tutorials even if they are on things I already know.

Roger · 7 Nov 2010, 18:14

It seems that my Duh! moment was taking this long to find this discussion. I have always felt I was the lone idiot, but now I feel much better and much more informed.

Thanks DUHsters.

Chris Fullmer · 7 Nov 2010, 18:49

That is the point of the thread - we all feel like the lone idiot...until you post your stupidity publicly and find that many many other people had done, or are doing, the exact same thing. It's very cathartic

david_h · 7 Nov 2010, 23:06

Idiots are never alone.

They travel in herds. . . .most frequently seen on the great American Freeway system.

TIG · 8 Nov 2010, 01:23

You should suffer fools gladly... one day you will be one of them!

I once invented my great new tool for the context-menu that would select all faces with the same material as the one highlighted... then RickW pointed out that it is already a standard built-in tool under Select...

pilou · 8 Nov 2010, 09:03

Mine of the day (thx Regis)
I have found that was a good idea
Draw first the line then use

but...
you can also with only just enter in the VCB
(whatever unities in activity)
3.14cm
31.4mm
0.0314m
... (i am not very familiar with inch

pilou · 8 Nov 2010, 17:18

Add to the previous thread
I reread the doc (that was written in small that you can enter measure in VCB with the Scale tool!

And also a cool one (in the same doc)!
You can Press in the SAME TIME SHIFT AND CTRL with the Scale tool !
For have a super scaling result!

Tobobo · 12 Nov 2010, 13:07

One this week was more of a remembering than a Duh moment.

Using the Entity Ifon box you can increase the length of a line and No. of sides of a circle.