Gaieus, that is neat. I still would have had problems because the shape and exact location of the stairs have always been a problem for me (in all my sketches and doodles, before and since SU, I've ignored the fact I need stairs and decided if I ever want to build it, someone smarter than me can work it out), but extracting a footprint, over several levels if necessary, building the component and putting it back in the same spot is what I think you're suggesting.

I just chopped a square out of the floor in 2 levels and placed the stairs using a common point. Seems to have worked a treat but sometimes it seems you can't see the bit that is going to cause you trouble. I've taken a few shots (first time I couldn't make the floor and the stairwell separate. I had EITHER no floor or a covered stairwell, second shot I forgot that I had a 50mm difference in my house model floor levels to my stair model total rise) but I think I have something that works. Think I'm a fair way off 'plug-ins' yet. I probably got a bit carried away trying to build a house. With stairs. That curve

I'll have to work out how to post a pic or something. Subject myself to some critique.

Dex.

Oops. Sorry for the double reply. I assumed I'd forgotten to submit the first one when I didn't see it, so I wrote another one.

In drawing the house I ignored the stairs because I couldn't work out how I was going to do them. Recently I started doodling with them on a separate drawing and come up with something I like. I have drawn bits of the house around the stair to make sure the dimensions work, so nearby or touch walls, floors, so on. Now I either need to strip the stairs back to basics and carve out a hole in the house, or insert the stair into the house and maybe use that 'show intersecting geometry' (something like that) I think I read about somewhere, and delete all the bits I don't need. Will sketchup replace parts that use the same space? Like if I had two, four sided rooms and put them together, would it, given they are a perfect match, count the shared space of the two walls as one wall?
I'm trying a few things.

Thanks for your help

Dex.

Thanks. That was pretty simple once I changed the extension to .skp
Your draw handle demo is for an external addition. Can I just jamb my stairs into my house then delete all the overlapping bits, or should I carefully cut away the shape the stairs need to fit into?
Maybe there is a thread I can search for that has already discussed this?

Dex.

Sweet. I didn't know about changing the file type when I went to open a file. I just worked out how to change the axis point. Is that needed. If I just picked the component up anywhere easy to match (corner or centre point) it would do the same thing maybe. So now it's in place, I think all I have to do is delete all the parts of the shared space that I don't need.

Thanks.

Apparent that wasn't my first post. I introed myself last year. I'm a veteran it seems.

Dex.

I'll be back no doubt.

Hi all,

First time post, short time user.
I know how these forums work. The answer is in here somewhere. I just need some help searching for it.
I am designing my new house (well one day maybe) and have recently worked out and drawn the stair case for it (a neat little figure S that I'm quite proud of. I wish I knew how to share it). Anyway, I now want to take this component, saved in a different file, and install it in the house. I will soon have a bunch of questions related to fitting a component into a different drawing, but for now I just need to work out how to use a drawing in one file, in a drawing from another file.

Thanks for your time,

Dexter.

PS. Sketch up is mint. Apart from some latent ability to understand plans and drawings, I have no training or experience in either drafting or computers, yet I've managed to draw a passable (?) house and a spiral stair case in a couple of weeks. It takes clever people to make me look that capable.

Hi everyone,

To say that I am out of my depth here would be a understatement. I'm a 35 year old Grape grower that regularly stares at the computer in complete confusion, but I have always had an interest in plans and building (I still have a graph book around somewhere with house plans I used to draw when I was about 10). I did tech drawing in high school and pretty much blitzed, but never did any more than that. I've never found a program that would work the way I thought it should (probably not the programs fault ), until now!! I drew up a steel frame bench that I built to post on a related forum and thought I had the thing sorted, but it really only used the features explained in the 'chair tute' and now I am stuck trying to draw some pipe fitting and 'T' pieces, so here I am, about to try out your search function.

I look forward to learning some stuff I've been intending to do for years.

Cheers,
Dex.