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Axes Widget?

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  • N Offline
    nickchun
    last edited by 22 Jan 2012, 12:31

    Hi,
    Does anyone know of a plugin or a way to display the axes as a separate entity in the corner of the screen so that when you are zoomed in to a model you can always tell 'which way up' you are?

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    • G Offline
      Gaieus
      last edited by 22 Jan 2012, 13:21

      I do not know about such a plugin but you can turn on crosshairs (Window > Preferences > Drawing > Miscellaneous) that will be an "extension" from the cursor along the axes.

      crosshairs.png
      I personally find them annoying and distracting (and it can also tax your system/video card) but I can imagine that if someone gets used to them, they can be of some visual help orienting yourself.

      My template has ground and sky and that helps me find my orientation quite well. In completely monochrome backgrounds, I also have issues. Like flying in thick fog.

      Gai...

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      • N Offline
        nickchun
        last edited by 22 Jan 2012, 13:30

        Thanks Gaieus,
        I will give it a try for a while. It doesn't seem to be slowing down my old machine as yet so might be an option. ๐Ÿ‘

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        • T Offline
          thomthom
          last edited by 23 Jan 2012, 08:57

          @gaieus said:

          and it can also tax your system/video card

          Really? But it's just three extra lines to draw... ?

          Thomas Thomassen โ€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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          • G Offline
            Gaieus
            last edited by 24 Jan 2012, 06:30

            @thomthom said:

            Really? But it's just three extra lines to draw... ?

            That's what I experienced with my older machine back 5 years ago. It had a video card that was just on the limit...

            Gai...

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            • C Offline
              chrisjk
              last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 07:43

              You could also set a shortcut key for View/Rendering/Edge/By Axis then you can toggle it on and off as needed.

              Chris

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              • N Offline
                nickchun
                last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 08:24

                @chrisjk said:

                You could also set a shortcut key for View/Rendering/Edge/By Axis then you can toggle it on and off as needed.

                I don't have that option on my version( 8 free). Which version are you using?

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                • T Offline
                  thomthom
                  last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 08:40

                  I don't have it either - Pro version. I think he refers to a plugin.

                  Thomas Thomassen โ€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                  List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                  • T Offline
                    TIG Moderator
                    last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:07

                    Strangely it's not in the Pro version menu.
                    This is a display-mode set under a Style only...
                    ???

                    TIG

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                    • C Offline
                      chrisjk
                      last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:19

                      This is from the Pro version for the Mac

                      http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq360/datukcjk/Screen20Shot202012-02-0920at2010-1.png

                      and this fropm the Free version for the PC

                      http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq360/datukcjk/Screen20Shot202012-02-0920at2010.png

                      Chris

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                      • C Offline
                        chrisjk
                        last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:20

                        This is not a Plugin and it is available in the Free version of 8 for both Windows and Mac; I normally use a Mac but downloaded the Windows version to try it and it is basically identical.

                        Go to Window>Preferences>Shortcuts and then enter View for the filter criterion. Scroll down a bit to find the color by axis command. Set a shortcut and there you go.

                        Chris

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                        • T Offline
                          thomthom
                          last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:20

                          How strange.

                          It's not a menu item. Nor is it a toolbar item. There is no toolbar named "Rendering", nor is there any toolbar that offer that feature.

                          2012-02-09 11h16_48.png

                          But I do see it in Preferences > Shortcuts

                          2012-02-09 11h17_32.png

                          It's odd, because I thought one could only assign shortcuts to menus and toolbar commands. If you want to assign a shortcut to a context menu item one need to ensure that you have a valid selection before it will be visible in the shortcut list.

                          Thomas Thomassen โ€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                          List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                          • T Offline
                            TIG Moderator
                            last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:38

                            I see it too !
                            There's no menu entries to match, but there are shortcut listings for various Rendering options - it IS plain weird...
                            ๐Ÿ˜•

                            TIG

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                            • C Offline
                              chrisjk
                              last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:47

                              I'm stunned I knew something you guys didn't! Do I get a medal? ๐Ÿ˜„

                              I am sure I learnt about it somewhere here though. I owe all I know about SU to this forum..

                              Chris

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                              • T Offline
                                TIG Moderator
                                last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:51

                                Congratulations!
                                Want a job ๐Ÿ˜‰
                                You see there's always something hiding inside Sketchup...

                                TIG

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                                • T Offline
                                  TIG Moderator
                                  last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 10:58

                                  It came up almost 4 years ago http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=56068#p56068
                                  and surprised Jim that time !
                                  Dave_R http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=56131#p56131 had his finger on the pulse - they used to be in another similar [sub]menu items in v6... but looks like they were removed from the menus in v7/8, but Google left them in the shortcuts list !
                                  No one told me ๐Ÿ˜’

                                  TIG

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                                  • T Offline
                                    thomthom
                                    last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 11:00

                                    So now the question arises; why do we need to ensure something relevant is selected in order to assign a command that only exists in the context menu? If the list isn't entirely dynamic based on UI element....

                                    Thomas Thomassen โ€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                                    List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                                    • G Offline
                                      Gaieus
                                      last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 11:03

                                      I do not use this function often enough to assign a shortcut (either because I would not remember due to the infrequency of use or because there are not too many shortcuts one would like to "waste" - or maybe solely because my memory is short?).

                                      Anyway, I do have it in the shortcut list and also in Jim's custom toolbar plugin (maybe that's when Jim got surprised). I put it there however because sometimes it is indeed useful and then I do not have to dig into the styles settings.

                                      ByAxis.png
                                      There are a couple of more buttons there that I like like display endpoints - also useful when you are hunting for them but otherwise do not have them on by default in your template. Also display profiles although I usually have profiles set to 1 px so that would not make much difference but I use it for trouble shooting models from the forums and displaying thicker profiles can be useful when searching for edges that do not merge.

                                      Gai...

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                                      • T Offline
                                        TIG Moderator
                                        last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 11:06

                                        But the list is dynamic BUT Google wedge in these extra 'non-existent' items anyway - the oddity is that they list as if they are menu-items, but they are not - or if they are then those menu items are somehow 'hidden' from the users ? Which begs the question, why?

                                        TIG

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                                        • G Offline
                                          Gaieus
                                          last edited by 9 Feb 2012, 11:08

                                          Not to clutter your menu? ๐Ÿ˜’ ๐Ÿ˜• ๐Ÿ˜ฒ ๐Ÿ˜ฎ (all relevant smileys)

                                          Gai...

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