Command for drawing circle perpendicular to any one line?

frascati

Trying to get functions to inference off of a line/object that is different from the main axis is very frustrating.
Is there a way, other than making components each time, to simply force a circle to inference off of the x/y/z placement of any line while ignoring the original axes? Why doesn't selecting the end point and then manuevering the cursor over the line a few times suggest your intentions as in other functions in sketchup?

The most common instance of this is when line is drawn, for instance, 30 degrees angled from one axis of the main drawing. Even worse if it's angled at a second axis. Trying to make that line into a shaft, by drawing a circle at one end of it and then extruding is a extremely frustrating. The circle never wants to inference off of the line. I'm usually reduced to drawing elaborate planes at 90 degree angles from the end of the line and inferencing the circle off of that.

This also applies to most of other departures from the end of that line. Drawing a 90 degree line from it. Placing the compass at the end of it, etc. All the tools want to inference off of the main drawing's x/y/z.

I would have thought that simply selecting the end of the line, and then moving the cursor point up and down the line a couple of times to reacquaint Sketchup with the new axes would be sufficient. But that seems to do nothing at all.

mitcorb

Hi, frascati:
May I suggest that you consider TIG's WorkPlane script? I am not sure if this is specific to your needs but something in your comments suggested it could apply.
Edit: Look in the PluginsIndex accessed by the red button link at the top of this page. Look under TIG

wyatt

Chris Fullmer's Perpendicular Face Tools are great for this.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17396

frascati

@chris fullmer said:

Perpendicular Face Tools
Description: Three Perpendicular Face tools to help create faces perpendicular to the end of lines.
Usage: Activate it at Plugins>Chris Fullmer Tools>Perpendicular Line Tools. Change the size of squares by entering a new dimension into the measuerments box after the face has been created. Change the radius of circles by entering "12s" for 12 sides into the measurements box. To use the custom face tool, create your face flat on the groundplane. The script attempts to line up the x axis as the bottom edge of the face.

New Video for v1.1 (outdated for 1.2. Doesn't show that you can hit the up arrow key to rotate).
[flash=670,630:1uxnmg1w]http://www.chrisfullmer.com/chrisfullmer/forums/clf_perpendicular_face_tools_v1_1.swf[/flash:1uxnmg1w]

Chris

v0.1 beta
v1.0 Updates:

The original face now explodes upon exiting the custom face tool.

Added support so that faces will stay oriented with a flat edge on the horizontal plane.

Holding ctrl while creating a face will over-ride the flat horizontal feature and revert back to the default SketchUp "Arbitrary Rotation".

Now faces can be added anywhere to a line - on the endpoint (existing feature), in the middle of a line, or on a vertex of 2 lines. The vertex of 3 lines is not supported.

v1.1

Attempted to fix some bugs with the custom face tool. It only was working once in a while. And only if the blue face was up. Now it is slightly better. But there are still times when it will need to be rotated 180degrees after it is placed. sorry

Added a Toolbar!
v1.2

Changed so that circles default to have their vertices on top and bottom, not edges. Odd segmented circles will have the vertex on the bottom and a flat edge on the top (I think).

The up arrow key rotates the faces after they have been placed. Squares will rotate 45 degrees. Circles will rotate the angle needed to alternate between having an edge or a vertex on the top. Custom faces rotate in 90 degree increments. Helpful for fixing faces that are oriented 180 off, or that were drawn on the wrong axis.

That looks like the animal! I'm still quite a beginner here.

@unknownuser said:

Activate it at Plugins>Chris Fullmer Tools>Perpendicular Line Tools

I assumed that meant at the top of that page. It brings me right back to the thread. So I searched for Plugins in the menu options once Sketchup was opened. I could not find it. Then I tried simply downloading it from the attachement in the post above, but to make matters worse I'm just getting initiated into Linux Mint and find it a bit difficult to plug in things in .zip format.

Can this be plugged in directly from the sketchup menus?

wyatt

You need to unzip the contents of the clf_perpendicular_face_tools_v1_2.zip file found at the bottom of Chris's post into your Sketchup/Plugins folder. Restart Sketchup (if it was open when you did this) and the new menu item "Chris Fullmer Tools" should appear near the top of your Plugins menu. You can also activate the toolbar at View/Toolbars/Perpendicular Face Tools. I am not familiar with Linux so it's possible you'll need to tweak the steps to make it work, but generally this should get you going.

honoluludesktop

One way to do it manually:

Save the scene so that you can return to the original axis.
Place a new axis on the line, assigning the green axis to the line.
Place another new axis on the same origin, and select the green axis so that the blue axis is on the line.
Place the red axis as necessary.
Save this scene so that you can return to it later.

Jean Lemire

Hi folks.

If you want to practice with standard SU's tools, see this SU file.

Circle perpendicular to any line.skp

Dave R

Elegant as always Jean.