Jeff, That was the problem.

Thank you...

Gjenio, thank you for your reply but that didn't do it.

I tryed turning all layers on and unlocking all to no avail. In xray I can see squares and circles but lines will still not draw.

Not sure what is going on but sometimes the "Draw" function seems to be drarwing invisable lines. I can click on a surface or in space and go through the drawing process, starting and dragging or creating a square or circle. As soon as I release or click the end point, the lines disapear. If I turn on the xray mode, I can see very the lines or shapes I've drawn.

Any one have any thoughts?

Thank you.

Fifo & Jim.

Both your suggestions were very helpful regarding moving objects on the slanted surface. I was able to rotate the axis as well as slide it along the surface. Sliding didn't seem to work when I was using the Xray mode so I could see the hidden structure but with Xray turned off, did the job along with using construction lines for accuracy.

Thank you all.

Fefo, I will give that a try, thank you.

Construction lines do seem to work the best and zooming in as tight as possible seems to help also.

Weird things happen if I try the Press the Sift key, sometimes the object jumps to another part of the screen and sometimes it just dissapairs.

Sometimes I've found it very difficult to start the object moving in the desired direction hence it would be really nice if you could just select the desired axis (red, green or blue) with assigned keys.

Doug

Good morning, sorry for the delay in replying, I was out of the office yesterday.

Dosen't seem to resolve my situation. It may work in the three major axis but I am moving the objects in non major axis. Specificlly I am working on a machine sloped front panel, moving objests in non major axis directions. One problem is placing objects on the surface so I draw temp alignment lines on the surface and click to place the item on the intersection of these lines and that works fine, however if I need to withdraw it from or place deeper in this sloped surface it becomes very time consuming to do.

I will try the withdraw and insert method for closely placed items.

That my friend may do the job. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Thank you very much.

What follows is not uncommon. As I am adjusting the components realitive to each other in any of the three axis, I will select the object, start to move it in the direction I need, depress the shift key and the line becomes heavier and when I move the object, it takes off too far. If I release the shift key, it comes back to where I started. Working in close quarters it is often difficult to move the object in the direction you want so I can lock it in. It would be very handy if there were a key assigned to a direction.

I am using Sketchup to design manufacturing equipment and I am wasting a lot of time trying to get obects moved when fine tuning the design and fit of all the components.

I understand that when moving an object you can lock the axis once you start to move it but that isn't always possible. Is there a way to select the axis before you start to move the object?

For example, it wouold be great if I could select the object, select the axis by pressing a key (for example) then grab it and move it. Using the click on the object and click on the location dosen't always work out.

Thank you.

Gaieus,
That looks like it will do very nicely.

Thank you very much.

Doug