Rotating a Point to Meet a Face
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Hi all,
I'm a long term lurker here and have benefited from many of the plugins you wonderful people have written, so thanks for that!
However, even after searching for 20 minutes + with as many different key words as I can conceive of, I can't seem to find a method (or plugin) allowing me to do something specific:
Just as an example, I want to rotate the first square, without altering its dimensions, until its top edge exactly meets the face of the second square:
However the tool will only snap to points:
The only way I have managed to do this so far is to do it mathematically using online trigonometric calculators to calculate the precise angle, but this obviously isn't entirely accurate due to the nature of the way SketchUp rounds off the numbers for the display etc etc.
Any ideas?
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I would use the Rotate tool in Fredoscale which you seem to have.
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Thanks for the reply, Dave.
It's a nice tutorial, but it relies on me stretching the group/component, and I need it's dimensions to stay fixed.
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That's not true. You don't have to stretch it. That's not a requirement. You already have the tool. Investigate its functions.
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If you have some extra time, this worth reading:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=44972&hilit=+challenge
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The thing is, Dave, I tried it the way you suggested and even after 10 minutes of playing around with it I couldn't get it to work the way I need it to, which is to make the top edge of the piece I'm rotating line up exactly with the face, not point to its vertices.
I didn't download these plugins willy-nilly; I'm aware of their functionality to the degree that I regularly use them for practical applications, so please don't assume I have just thrown up a request for help without first trying to find a solution elsewhere.
Gilles, nice challenge. Took me a minute to work it out
Both these examples, however, rely on the variable being the length of the diagonal element in order to meet the vertical face. What I need is a way of keeping everything but the angle of rotation exactly the same and making the edge touch the face as described above.
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Well, excuse my attempt to help. Maybe someone else can make a different suggestion, then.
The Rotation tool in FredoScale works fine for me. The tilted plane is exactly the same size as the vertical one. It doesn't require the length of the diagonal being variable.
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I have been nothing but courteous to you, Dave, so I don't understand your tone. At no point did I say anything to warrant your rudeness. I am legitimately requesting help using the best descriptive language and images I can and I have been met with a condescending attitude.
I have tried to do exactly what you outlined, but I cannot achieve the result you have. It's hard to tell from the screenshot you've posted, but when I get something that looks like that, zooming in reveals that the faces are either slightly overlapping or not quite touching, no matter how hard I try. I initially thought your solution was viable but realised that, at close examination, it wasn't quite there.
I genuinely appreciate you taking time to try and help me out, but either I'm misunderstanding your instructions or I'm using the tool wrong, and I don't think either is the case after trying it every-which-way.
I apologise if I've come across as ungrateful or contrary, that wasn't my intention.
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I wasn't being rude. My apologies if you took it that way.
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I've obviously just misinterpreted you then; no apology needed.
I'm still stuck on this one though
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With Fredo scale rotate tool:
1 set the axis for rotation
2 draw reference direction (on vertical edge of your face)
3 pick target point (on the edge you want to touch the other face)
4 rotate to the face.@unknownuser said:
Took me a minute to work it out
Really?
I'd like to see how you did it. -
Here is an image of the workflow with the tool that Dave suggested.
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Gilles, allow me to clarify: it took me a minute to think I'd worked it out. Turns out the problem it a lot more complicated than I had initially thought! I'm still trying to work out how to do it.
Massimo, I cannot, for the life of me, get the ornage line to come up! Now, I know this can't be a plugin age issue because I only installed SketchUp on my work computer a few days ago and went searching for all the plugins I need, which are all up to date.
Is there a trick to getting the orange edge?
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@kenythedude said:
Is there a trick to getting the orange edge?
Of course that only works if the two rectangles have the same width (like the image you posted). Try to hover along the target rectangle's edge while rotating and you'll find it.
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@massimo said:
Try to hover along the target rectangle's edge while rotating and you'll find it.
Yeah, that just isn't happening.
I honestly don't know why... -
for me it works rotating to the edge, not a face and in either case there is no inference tag. It sort of snaps, that's the only way to tell. And the line doesn't bisect the plane untill you draw over it... for me.
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@kenythedude said:
@massimo said:
Try to hover along the target rectangle's edge while rotating and you'll find it.
Yeah, that just isn't happening.
I honestly don't know why...maybe try it with just lines at first?
some more info here regarding usage:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=17948&p=404020#p403999
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As far as I can tell, I've duplicated everything exactly as you guys have done it, but I must be doing something wrong. I'm getting a snap for "Endpoint" "On Edge" "Parallel To Edge" - nothing works.
Thanks for trying guys
Edit: Yeah Massimo, I tried just edges too; no luck I'm afraid.
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Yeah, I think something is messed up with my plugins directory or something, because I'm not getting a lot of the snaps and inferences I should be... I'm going to go check that out.
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Check your modelling scale, snap and precision.
If you are trying to work too small and your snap to precision is set too high inferencing can get screwed up.
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