Inference for Rectangle tool

PRSS · 2 Oct 2008, 14:04

Hello everybody

It might be a dumb question - But I thought that I might well ask.

When you open a new file, want to draw a rectangle with the rectangle tool in
vertical direction the inferencing does not work. One has to always have a reference
cube object or some object so that referring the vertical plane of that object
you can then draw the rectangle vertically.

Is there a way to straight away draw the rectangle vertically up? Also for a horizontal
plane to get rotated vertically (without having any other reference object) the compass
cannot be turned vertically. This also needs a reference object. Is this normal in SU?

So I always draw a reference cube as soon as open a new file. If there is any other
method please tell me.

Thanks in advance
PRSS

Jean Lemire · 2 Oct 2008, 14:20

Hi Prss, hi folks.

Yes it can be done.

Orbit untill you are mostly facing a vertical plane. Better yet, choose any of the standard views that show a vertical plane (Face or Back or Right or Left).

Try this to get acquainted with SU behavior pertaining to drawing rectangles:

Select the Iso view. This will most than certainly force the Rectangle Tool to draw an horizontal rectangle.

Begin drawing the rectangle. The rectangle will draw on the horizontal plane. Do not finish it yet.

Orbit so you get a view that is presenting more of any vertical plane and, of course, less of the horizontal plane. Yes, you can orbit, pan, zoom, change viewing mode, change scenes, etc, even in the middle of an operation, be it drawing, moving, rotating, scaling, etc. This is one very powerfull aspect of SU and probably one of the less known to beginners. If you watch the video tutorials, you will see it being used quite often.

Back to the rectangle in progress. You will probably notice that, when you reach some viewing angle, the rectangle now wants to be drawn on a vertical plane. even better, if you orbit so the red/blue plane is mostly facing you, the rectangle will align itself to be parallel with this plane. If you orbit so that the green/blue plane is mostly facing you, the rectangle will align itself to be parallel with this plane.

And, if you are not satisfied with the position or orientation of the rectangle, you can always move it to where you want it and rotate it so it faces the way you want.

Just ideas.

PRSS · 3 Oct 2008, 18:17

Thanks Jean Lemire

This is really useful for me.

With best regards
PRSS

BrooksL · 17 Apr 2012, 21:39

Thanks Jean for that tip... I was having quite a frustrating time trying to get a rectangle to draw on the desired plane

-- and then if I couldn't get it to draw on the desired plane, I had yet MORE difficultly rotating it to the desired orientation because the Rotate tool seems to behave in the same way - the protractor tends to stick to the plane most parallel to the screen.

I see this as a novel and sometimes convenient way of determing the active drawing or tool plane, but really I don't understand why the Rectangle and Rotate tools should not respond to the arrow keys being used to force an inference similar to how they do for the Line tool, Move tool, or Tape Measure tool:

Locking an inference http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=70142

...I think the Rectange tool and Rotate tool SHOULD respond similarly to the arrow keys by settign the inferred plane because there are often times when the desired drawing location is not easily viewed from an angle that will cause the inference engine to select the desired plane.

Please let me know if there's a better way or work around.

Dave R · 18 Apr 2012, 13:17

The best option for drawing the rectangle with the desired orientation is to orbit to make inferencing set things up as you want. You could also set up guidelines if needed. This can be useful especially when working off axis.

I think there is a better way. If you want to rotate your rectangle about one edge.

Select the rectangle.
Get the Rotate tool.
Click on the edge about which you want to rotate the rectangle.
Hold the left mouse button and drag along the edge. This will orient the tool correctly.
Release the button.
Click again to start the rotation and drag round to the desired angle or type the desired angle and hit enter.

pilou · 18 Apr 2012, 13:34

A cool trick is also to use the Fredo Scale!
With it you have always the in any position orientation in the 3D Space!
For any operations Scale, Rotate etc...
So Draw any rectangle and speedy adapt it to your whish

Jean Lemire · 18 Apr 2012, 19:12

Hi folks.

The Rotate Tool can be made to rotate along any edge.

See this from SU's help:

http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94897

Just ideas.

brookefox · 19 Apr 2012, 03:46

@brooksl said:

I don't understand why the Rectangle and Rotate tools should not respond to the arrow keys being used to force an inference similar to how they do for the Line tool, Move tool, or Tape Measure tool:

Locking an inference http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=70142

...I think the Rectange tool and Rotate tool SHOULD respond similarly to the arrow keys by settign the inferred plane

Perhaps the reason the rectangle tool doesn't work with the standard inferences is that it requires two directions rather than just one, so any single inference is not enough. They work for a line (an edge), as it may be defined in one direction, not so a face (a rectangle) which has two dimensions and thus two directions.