Hidden geometry head scratcher

mics_54

Is there a way to "lock" all of your drawing into the Z plane?

Another suggestion would be to create a large plane then draw your lines on it. Having a surface to draw your 2d lines on will help prevent snapping to some arbitrary point.

I think that is what drawing your sheet plane would effectively be doing. Each time you ad a line or other element you will get "On Surface" indication.

mics_54

Boofredlay as an aside...if one is using 2D tools is it advised to mix in the standard textures rather than the 2D hatches?

boofredlay

Pete, I don't know of a way to lock your drawing tools to a z plane. One way to be more sure you are drawing on a single plane is to do it in perspective mode and continually rotate around your drawing. I don't use SU for 2d much so someone else might weigh in with a better solution.

As far as flattening your geometry when it goes South, you could use TIG's Flatten to Plane plugin:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=281320#p281320

Michael, I am not sure I understand your question.

mics_54

@unknownuser said:

Michael, I am not sure I understand your question.

I think that probably answers my question.

boofredlay

@mics_54 said:

@unknownuser said:

Michael, I am not sure I understand your question.

I think that probably answers my question.

Glad I could help

boofredlay

Pete, I had a bit of time at lunch so I did a quick video of how I would go about a 2d plan like you are showing. Hope this helps.
Draw a plane, group it, use it as a canvas, delete it then finish up your plan.

[flash=853,505:32x4el71]http://www.youtube.com/v/Pmc-hJzqhl0&fs=1[/flash:32x4el71]

mics_54

but one question...how did you do the line extensions when doing the intersections for the hips and valleys?

I dont get the inference.

boofredlay

Start your line, hover over the existing line then hold down shift. This will extend the line allowing you to reference another point on the drawing. Or start your line, move it along an axis and hold shift, again it will continue along that same path allowing you to reference another point.

mics_54

dang it i knew that!

boofredlay

There is a more detailed explpaination on the GSU videos.
http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/training/videos.html

Under "Familiar with Google SketchUp" then "Google SketchUp Techniques: Inference Locking"

mics_54

The screen capture video worked so flawlessly..what software is that?

boofredlay

I use Hypercam2
http://www.hyperionics.com/hc/

Make sure you change the keyboard shortcuts (Hot Keys) because they can interfere with your SU ones and mess up your video. I found that out the hard way.

After taking the video I used Windows Live Movie Maker to add text and edit it. Then uploaded to Youtube.

Both Hypercam and WLMM are free.

mics_54

you rock

PETE838

That was astounding how quickly you did that. The same workflow for me takes 20 minutes. Thanks a million.

boofredlay

Thanks Michael

Thanks Pete. Practice practice practice.