Poke hole through thick wall

SomeDay · 31 Mar 2012, 19:14

Hello,

I'm a brand new member and this is my first post. I did a brief search for an answer to my question, but I may not have phrased it correctly.

I'm modeling my house. I'm giving my walls 6 inch thickness. Sometimes, when I use push-pull to cut a hole in a wall, it actually pushes a box through to the other side of the wall. It does not actually cut a hole.

What am I doing wrong? How do I make a clear cut through a thick surface?

Thanks in advance.

nickchun · 31 Mar 2012, 23:06

When you push pull, hover the cursor over the edge of the opposite side of the wall. The inference engine in Sketchup will 'snap' to that edge aligning the pushed section perfectly, and the face you have pushed will disappear, making a hole. This is best done without a ceiling visible so you can see the top edges of the walls.

nickchun · 31 Mar 2012, 23:15

Also Push/Pull will remember the depth of your last Push/Pull, and double clicking while using the tool will automatically repeat the same depth. So if you are placing holes it can be easier to draw the outlines of all of them first and then Push/Pull the first one to the correct depth and just double click your way around the rest.

Wo3Dan · 31 Mar 2012, 23:15

@someday said:

.....Sometimes, when I use push-pull to cut a hole in a wall, it actually pushes a box through to the other side of the wall. It does not actually cut a hole.
..... How do I make a clear cut through a thick surface?...

You can push/pull right through a thick wall (two faces). To then get a clear cut you need to select the relevant geometry, right click on the selection and select "Intersect Faces > With Selection". Next you need to clean up the unwanted geometry.
%(#008000)[To "clear cut" in one go both wall faces need to be exact parallel.
On top of that the starting (pushed) face needs to be ON the first wall face. The pushing needs to stop ON the second face. To end right there you may wish to change face style to X-Ray to be able to inference with an endpoint or an edge of the second face. If you can see the second face through the hole you are pushing, you can also inference "On Face" (i.e. the second face).]

mitcorb · 1 Apr 2012, 03:41

Adding to the responses: If you are fairly certain that the faces of your wall are parallel, and for some reason the surface didn't disappear, you could simply select the face and Delete it. In a busy model, parts of which may have been constructed differently than others, sometimes this condition happens. I have seen this more than a few times, and simply deleting the face solves the problem. If the faces of the wall are not truly parallel and you try to delete, it is likely that the whole wall face will disappear, maybe leaving the outlines of what you meant to delete.

SomeDay · 1 Apr 2012, 18:30

Thanks Wo3Dan, nickchrn, and mitcorb for your tips and suggestions. You have been very helpful.
mitcorb probably answered another question I had, which I thought was too vague to post, about wall surfaces mysteriously disappearing on me.

Much appreciated.

mitcorb · 1 Apr 2012, 20:49

You know you can get the face back by tracing over one or more edges, just be sure that the endpoint inferences show when you hover with the pencil tool.