The "Duh!" thread (aka the Doh! thread)

pilou

Duhduh line
As a line can't be directly a component

Gaieus

The funny thing is that it CAN be made a component. In fact, there are four ways to make a component (after you select the geometry):

with the make component button in the Principal toolbar;
from the Make component command from the Edit menu;
through a shortcut (the default is G);
finally from the context (right click) menu.
Now with a single line entity, only this latter (#4) doesn't work - all the three above (#1-3) do.

I would call it "major inconsistency"

david_h

That begs the larger question. Why would you want to make a single line a component?

Gaieus

How about creating only "dummy" or "proxy" components?

The problem dosn't necessarily lie only here. The same goes with groups (only that there are only two ways of making them) and nowadays with SU autobreaking overlapping lines, you may wish to separate even single lines, too.

Also, any selection that only contains a single entity (not only a line) cannot be made a component (or group) this way. If you select a sphere (with a bounding box), there's a single "surface" selected only and you right click to turn it into a group/component in vain.

BUT if you select the sphere by triple clicking on it,it will autoselect and highlight the softened edges bounding the facets as well and there you go; you are now able to make a group/component. Note that the resulting group/component will be the same in either way you select them.

david_h

proxies occured to me right after I posted this so . . .I stand corrected sir.

another D"UH moment for me.

NewOne

@unknownuser said:

That begs the larger question. Why would you want to make a single line a component?

I will answer you to this the best I can:
Let's say I want to render some big repetitive scene (50000 dummy dolls, let-s say). Sketchup doesn't support so many polygons. So I will make some 2d representation of them and the high-quality component will be replaced when exporting for render (i use maxwellrender and it supports proxy_objects) ... but SketchUp is still unresponsive So what I choose? LINES !! YES if 50000 2d people are too many, 50000 lines are ok. And all that lines must be instances of the same component.
So... that's why you would make a line component.

pilou

@unknownuser said:

Now with a single line entity, only this latter (#4) doesn't work - all the three above (#1-3) do.

I only use the right click
That is the real big Duhduh of my day

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

Now with a single line entity, only this latter (#4) doesn't work - all the three above (#1-3) do.

I only use the right click
That is the real big Duhduh of my day

Ditto Duh! Never occurred to me the behaviour would be inconsistent depending on where in the UI you looked.

Gaieus

Well, gentlemen, this is the grand "Duh" topic!
We are all "duh'hing"

thomthom

I believe this is one of the most useful threads on this forum.

Anssi

My biggest "Duh" was looking at a roof tutorial made by Alan Fraser back in v. 3. days, featuring very clever uses of inferencing. Even Jim Holman from the then @Last admitted he didn't know inferencing could be used like that.

Anssi

Ecuadorian

Any link to that tutorial? I still have lots of trouble with roofs... I often "cheat" using TIG's roof script, but sometimes you have to do it yourself.

dale

This isn't the tutorial mentioned above, but it's worth the watch. From Adain Chopra, SketchUp team, and author of SketchUp for Dummies.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6WxE6oO3JU

Ecuadorian

Just had another big "Duh!" moment... I'm working on a house development and I couldn't understand why I had to correct both the left and the right sides of the main walkway several times... Until I realized they were mirrored instances...

museummaker

I just leaned this yesterday and I am kicking myself.

When selecting object I normally went with a box from upper right to lower left drawing a box around things.

Worked fine for months or years.

Try a sweep left to right going over the objects. It has a totally different feel and works like a charm, feels to me at least like it saves a lot of movement. I use a tablet, not sure if has quite the feel with a mouse but it works, try it if you haven't.

This thread is great, and so are all you good people on the forum. I learn something everyday I look here.

Thank you for all,

BTM

Some of my first "d'uh" moments when learning about the middle button thing: when using the middle button, hold SHIFT to pan, or hold OPTION to allow the camera to tilt.

also a "d'uh" moment from long ago: holding OPTION when moving an object, push/pulling an object, or rotating an object, to duplicate it.

note: these are for mac. Buttons might be different on windows.

BTM

@unknownuser said:

I just leaned this yesterday and I am kicking myself.

When selecting object I normally went with a box from upper right to lower left drawing a box around things.

Worked fine for months or years.

Try a sweep left to right going over the objects. It has a totally different feel and works like a charm, feels to me at least like it saves a lot of movement. I use a tablet, not sure if has quite the feel with a mouse but it works, try it if you haven't.

This thread is great, and so are all you good people on the forum. I learn something everyday I look here.

Thank you for all,

Right to left selects anything in or touching the selection box, left to right only selects things in the selection box. Is that what you meant? Because it works the opposite way you described for me. Right to left is useful for cleaning up lines after an intersection I find.

Teezer

I found out today that the rotate tool does the same thing that the move tool does when you hit the Ctrl key. It puts a plus sign next to the cursor and copies the rotated object, leaving the original in place.

Not that I have an immediate use for this -- I just hit it by accident, and there it was...

BTM

@teezer said:

I found out today that the rotate tool does the same thing that the move tool does when you hit the Ctrl key. It puts a plus sign next to the cursor and copies the rotated object, leaving the original in place.

Not that I have an immediate use for this -- I just hit it by accident, and there it was...

@unknownuser said:

also a "d'uh" moment from long ago: holding OPTION when moving an object, push/pulling an object, or rotating an object, to duplicate it.

note: these are for mac. Buttons might be different on windows.

I've had plenty of uses for it, my current WIP is 4-way symmetrical, and that makes it easier to place everything in the same place in all directions.

david_h

Try it for Polar Arrays . . .it's loads of fun! But. . .Im sure you knew that!