Newbie rant?

jeff hammond

A third problem I had was zooming. At times, using the scroll button had no zoom effect at all. I would go from normal zooming in and out only to sit there and scroll with no zoom effect whatsoever. Again, I messed around with changing my POV in the 3D design cube until suddenly the zoom controls started to behave themselves.

it's hard to give any help with the other issues without seeing the model at the point of the problem... for zooming though, if that happens to you again, just place the cursor over the actual geometry you'd like to zoom in/out on instead of letting it sit in blank space.
you can usually zoom in/out with the cursor in blank space when you're far away from the model or the model is very simple but once you start getting 'inside' a model, you need to tell SU where you want to zoom in/out to..

Rich O Brien

Hi Craig,

Attached is a simple model that illustrates how 'Orientating' faces incorrectly sends SU a different message than what you think you are sending it.

Just tab through each scene.....

Mixed Faces.skp

I hope this helps explain how it works and why you have issues when modeling

Mike Lucey

Nicely explained Rick. Reminds me of a 'Jean, Just Ideas' explanation

dale

Hey Craig
What you are going through I see when My colleagues first attempt SketchUp. The basics are a quick learn, but the more complex ones require practice. SketchUp is a hands on tool. If you do what you just did and go through the process on a project, all you have learned will be there for your next one. I have fallen flat on my face trying some of the challenges that go on here, but the failures are often as good a learning experience as the successes. Keep at it. And don't be afraid to ask, this forum is a priceless resource.

Dale(the faceplanter)

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nuclearmoose

Thanks, everyone for your tips and help. I'm thinking that what I will do is go through the model that Rich posted and once I understand that, I'll probably be in a position to return to this thread and explain exactly what I did wrong so that others will be able to learn from it.

I truly appreciate the time and effort you folks take to help others.

tfdesign

Hey Nukie, one more thing, I can't recommend Aidan Chopra's tutorials on YouTube more highly, too! Aidan turned me into an 'expert' in only a couple of weeks!

Tom

nuclearmoose

@tfdesign said:

Hey Nukie, one more thing, I can't recommend Aidan Chopra's tutorials on YouTube more highly, too! Aidan turned me into an 'expert' in only a couple of weeks!

Tom

Thanks for that, Tom. I've bookmarked them and watched a fair number of them. I also came across the Basecamp videos and I think Gaieus was a presenter at one of them I watched. Those videos are indeed an excellent resource.

juan974

hi nuclearmoose,
about zooming, try to turn of perspective, "camera=>parellel projection"
if you start from a plane whit many connected surfaces hit "ctl" to keep the original surface

mogogirl

I would also recommend getting Chopra's book "Google Sketchup 7 for Dummies". It has become a great reference manual for me and I use whenever I can't seem to get something to work right. It usually has the answers and easy to read and understand.

tfdesign

@nuclearmoose said:

SU seemed to randomly push a face across something but not leave the original face.

Have you tried pressing ctrl (or alt for Mac), before using the push/pull tool? This fixes this problem (if it's the problem I think you mean?)

Tom