Centering one object on top of another
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OK - So I sit here every day, virtually all day looking at video tutorials until the cows come home, and I am improving, but the one thing I don't seem to get and which will cause me to jettison my beloved computer into the nearest body of water is the ability to center one object on top of another. It takes me hours!!!! Just made my first lamp post - so proud, then SketchUp crashed - sure why not. Still good practice. I rotate until my head spins, I have tried used inferencing, but no matter what I do it just does not seem to get dead center. There has to be an easier way involving some sort of snapping, but darned if I know how? Even though I think I have looked at every SU video on Youtube and some... I am still having problems. I know there is a Ruby script out there that I saw for "nudging" but call me old school, I think I should learn how to do it for myself. Any tips please?
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If your objects have a circular cross-section... if you hover over a side briefly then move over the circular face you ought to get a 'center' snap inference tooltip.
Do that for picking on the object you are moving and then the object you are moving it onto ?
Thus their centers are aligned and snap together.If the objects are rectangular there are several ways of finding a center.
Fr example draw a temporary diagonal line and the 'center' is the mid-point of that new line.
Or draw two diagonals at the intersection of both lines is the 'center'.You can also use some temporary guide-lines made with the tapemeasure tool - some of those dragged off from one edge and snapped through the mid-points of another side-edge etc should then intersect at a 'center'.
If you give some examples of more complex forms we can suggest other ways...
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I was making a response and it got an SQL error. Now I know it's because TIG was beating me to it. As TIG says!
You can have a vertical guide as your center post to snap to. Snapping to where it intersects faces is pretty clean.
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Yes there are MANY ways to do this...
I got that SQL error too, must have cleared just before yours!
In fact the Internet seemed to be momentarily broken throughout the EU ? -
Thank you. I just tried it as suggested, and so far with just a square on top of a circle it seemed to work. I will redo my lost lamp post after lunch and see how it works there. I had a rough time centering the light bulb into the socket. I imagine one has to use a certain degree of "common sense" as having seen in all of my video tuts, to pick up the object by the corner, that is what I have been doing. I am very obedient
That, now that I think about it, would apply in aligning objects next to each other, but not on top of each other. I think my biggest problem is in being too quick in wanting to see my component or model done - no patience, and not allowing SketchUp to "think." Going back to review the video "SketchUp Tips & Tricks" which I looked at yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed, in spite of a few nutty professor moments, LOL. Maybe there was some additional information there that I missed, but thank you gentlemen. As always bless this forum for speedy and helpful advice. BTW - think my family are about to stage an intervention, as all I do now morning noon and night is practice SKETCHUP! YIPPEE!! -
You obviously don't have to tell me TIG - but my dad was from Alnwick, but Northumbria sure struck a cord!
Cheers! -
Kathryn, it's probably too late now but perhaps you'd find this helpful.
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When placing objects on top of other objects, in addition to the use of guidelines and inferences as suggested above, I use x-ray mode. That helps me make sure that I am snapping to what I want to snap to. When done, I switch out of x-ray mode.
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Thank you Dave. Definitely not too late. That video was marvelous and I have bookmarked it as I find that like practising scales on a piano, that repetition works for me, being a bear of little brain. I am always grateful for many responses as there is always something to be learnt from all contributors. Off to practise what I have just seen.
And not to be left out, thanks to you too as well sfto 1. Yes I have been toggling the x-ray mode on and off, but was still having a problem accessing the light bulb within the lamp until I remembered a trick that I learnt yesterday during my afternoon tut viewing, and that was to just cut the shade to the clipboard, position my light bulb and then paste in place. That part worked like a charm, after spending 45 minutes lining up the light bulb!
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Kathryn, I'm glad that helped. Here's another one you might find useful. This can make it dead simple to accurately place components in your model. and if you want to exchange one component for another, that can be easy too.
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