Kinda stumped

lockha · 21 Aug 2015, 16:20

Hi- I am trying to make an SU drawing of an upcoming woodworking exhibition. I have all of the pieces and podiums drawn, and am now at the stage of figuring out where they go. Since I have a PDF of the venue floor plan, I (eventually, after a struggle) imported the floor plan into my drawing. I now need to rotate it and scale it to the right size, and put it on its own layer. The challenge I'm having is I can't select the imported image to do anything with it. I have done this before with other photos, etc, but can't remember how i did it. Any thoughts?

TIG · 21 Aug 2015, 16:31

Make a Group containing the PDF-Image.
Edit the Group.
Use the Tapemeasure tool and click on two points in the image that are a known distance apart - say 5m.
The Measurement box probably says something else... immediately type in 5m + <enter> and accept to rescale the Group.
Exit the Group-Edit.
Now it should be the right size.

To rotate it use the Rotate tool...

To change the Group's Layer use Entity Info [make a new Layer in the Layer-Manager if you need it]

lockha · 21 Aug 2015, 16:42

But I can't make a group or do anything else. If I right click on the image, the only option it gives me is Edit Matched Photo, and then I get a bunch of things that look like Bezier Spline control points but they don't seem to do anything.

slbaumgartner · 21 Aug 2015, 16:56

@lockha said:

If I right click on the image, the only option it gives me is Edit Matched Photo

That may be the issue: while importing, you selected match photo rather than as just as image or as a texture.

TIG · 21 Aug 2015, 17:33

Yes - when you Import an Image, there are "Options" - As-Texture / As-Image / As-Photo-Match-Image
You need to import "As Image"...

PS:
You may not be able to 'Group' a single Selected Image - if so include a temporary short Line in the Selection. Delete that Line in the Group-Edit before Scaling...

lockha · 22 Aug 2015, 15:54

Thanks- I did it As Image and it worked. I'd tried that yesterday and it didn't work, but this time it did. Don't understand why, but I'm far more interested in outcomes than process... Appreciate your help.

lockha · 24 Aug 2015, 17:00

So now a new issue has surfaced- I'm trying to save what has become a large (13 meg) SU file to a thumb drive, and it won't let me. The 1GB thumb drive is empty, so there's no capacity issue. I try to Save As (filename), add .skp, and select the thumb drive, but keep getting an error that it failed to save. I know I must her doing something wrong, but can't figure it out.

TIG · 24 Aug 2015, 17:36

@lockha said:

So now a new issue has surfaced- I'm trying to save what has become a large (13 meg) SU file to a thumb drive, and it won't let me. The 1GB thumb drive is empty, so there's no capacity issue. I try to Save As (filename), add .skp, and select the thumb drive, but keep getting an error that it failed to save. I know I must her doing something wrong, but can't figure it out.
Do you have permission to write to the thumb drive ?
Have you emptied the Trash for the thumb drive so it has space ?
If you save the SKP on your main disk, then can you "drag+drop" it to make a copy onto the thumb drive ??
Have you tried Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused... on the SKP before saving it ???

lockha · 24 Aug 2015, 18:15

Do you have permission to write to the thumb drive ? It's my personal machine, so I presume so.

Have you emptied the Trash for the thumb drive so it has space ? Yes, It's a blank drive

If you save the SKP on your main disk, then can you "drag+drop" it to make a copy onto the thumb drive ?? Tried that, and the file would not "stick" on the thumb drive

Have you tried Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused... on the SKP before saving it ??? Yes, to no effect

driven · 24 Aug 2015, 18:31

can you drag any files onto the Thumb Drive?
have you used it before on your mac?
john

lockha · 24 Aug 2015, 20:25

I saved a word doc to the drive, then just for fun tried a small SU drawing (159k) and it saved fine. So it looks like it's the file- but I have no idea how to troubleshoot/fix it. And I haven't got time to do it over.

Or alternatively, how can I take a giant file and make it into 2 (or 3) smaller files? I tried to delete a bunch of the drawings and save as a new file but it was exactly the same sizes as the old one.

driven · 24 Aug 2015, 22:41

you could try zipping it first...