I expected that. But others had said you could access both during the trial period.

I still have lots of pure design work to do, for which I don't need Pro. I'm definitely gong to buy it, but I thought I could use it sparingly in Dec, and then make the expense sometime in Jan. Looks like I'll have to let it expire, and then buy it straight up next month. Not too big a deal, but not what I was hoping for.
OK, so I have another question: When exporting from Pro to AutoCad, do you need to have the whole file visible on the screen? I did some exporting last night, and was surprised to find that the whole file didn't export-- only whatever was visible on my screen. I then made sure the whole file was visible, but that seems like a crazy way to design that function. Is there some way to set it so that it defaults to exporting the entire file?

It still send me to SketchUp Pro. I think I did exactly as you recommended, and it even says "SketchUp 6" on the .exe file (not SketchUp Pro), but it sends me to Pro. I went to Windows Explorer, right clicked on a .skp file, and went to the location you recommended, but still ended up in Pro. I no longer seem to have a "free" SketchUp .exe file anywhere. There is only one, and it sends me to Pro.

@unknownuser said:

Response to each question:

1. NO, it will not disable the older, free version of SU.

I downloaded the trial version of Pro last night, and I am no longer able to access the free version. Maybe I'm missing something on how windows stores these programs, but all my access points now take to me to Pro (the icon on my desktop, and the listing in the "program" list).

Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

@gaieus said:

The printer shouldn't matter actually. Are you sure you did steps 1 and 2 correctly? Say are you really in top view for instance?

:
Damn, I feel like an idiot now. I wasn't in "parallel projection". It works now. Thanks for your patience on this. I gotta pay more attention to all these details!!

Yep, that's the same box I get, but the settings on the right are never enabled.

Is it possible that the problem is my printer, and that it won't support scaling? I may run over to Kinko's today and see what happens if I set this up on one their printers. Mine is pretty old.

BTW, how did you cut and paste the print dialog box into your post? I have no idea how one would do that...

@gaieus said:

In order to print to scale you have to make sure that

• you use "parallel projection" (not perspective view - see in Camera menu)
• set one of the "standard views" (also Camera menu - or from the toolbar)
• in the Print dialogue uncheck the "Fit to page" checkbox and there you go; on the left you can set your scale.

Note that if your model cannot fit on a page by the set scale, you have an option in the very bottom left corner to print it on tiled sheets.

I tried to do this today, but there is nothing "on the left" of the "fit to page" dialog box. There is something to right of it called "use model extents", and it does have boxes for "scale", but they are not accessible in my copy of the SketchUp-- they appear in shadow, as something would be that is disabled.

The (unaccessible) boxes below "scale" say "in the printout" and "in SketchUp", and they have pulldown menus to set the scale. But again, they are disabled. I tried selected and deselecting everything on the page, but nothing activated those menus.

@gaieus said:

In order to print to scale you have to make sure that

• you use "parallel projection" (not perspective view - see in Camera menu)
• set one of the "standard views" (also Camera menu - or from the toolbar)
• in the Print dialogue uncheck the "Fit to page" checkbox and there you go; on the left you can set your scale.

Note that if your model cannot fit on a page by the set scale, you have an option in the very bottom left corner to print it on tiled sheets.

Thanks. I'll have to try that. From the SketchUp Help section on Printing, I read this to mean that you needed the pro version to print to scale:

@unknownuser said:

PROPrint Size
The Print Size section of the Print dialog box is used to adjust the physical size of your output.

Fit to Page: The Fit to Page option is used to size the model to fit on a single sheet of paper. This option must be disabled in to specify a different size or scale.

Page Size: The Page size fields are used to enter a custom page size for your output.

Scale: The Scale fields are used to scale your model for printing. The first measurement, labeled In the Model, is the measurement of the exported geometry. The second measurement, labeled In SketchUp, is the actual measurement of the object in real scale. For example, for a scale of 1/4" = 1', simply enter 1 inch In the Printout equals 4 feet In SketchUp.

@gaieus said:

Goggin,

First of all, welcome - though you found us in the middle of a move (so please, read the announcement right now).

Thanks. Which announcement are you referring to? The one in this forum? I read that.

@unknownuser said:

As for your problems:

1. works the same in the Pro and the Free versions now. Really no difference.

Interesting. I thought that pro allowed you to easily select the scale, but that the free version didn't. If I want to print to scale at 24 x 36 (say 1/4" = 1'), do I draw a border around the plans so that printing to that border produces the desired scale? Otherwise, how would the program know how to scale things?

My only printing experience so far has been limited (I assume) by the ability to print only what is viewed on the screen at the time. Maybe I'm missing something...?

I'm in a similar mode-- trying to decide whether to go pro or not.

The big drawbacks of the free version for me are

1. Difficulty in printing large (11 x 17 or 24 x 36) copies of blueprints.

2. Exporting to .dwg format.

If I have to have those two features, is there any option other than going pro?

Thanks. This is my first post here. I've been using SketchUp for about 2 weeks now, and I just found this MB a few days ago. Lots of good info here!

@l. banasky said:

Thank you for your replies, the problem is right clicking to access the menu to select "divide" and "create curve from edges" you also have to right click on the line. I would like a keystroke combination to select these commands.
Thanks, Larry

What is "create curve from edges", and where do you get that function? I don't see that option when I right click on anything.

@jean lemire said:

Hi folks.

Measuring from the center of a line to where ?

Measuring or dimensionning ?

Can you be more precise or post a model with some identification of the points you want to measure ?

See attached SU file for ideas.

Thanks for the advice, and sorry I wasn't clear enough in the OP. What I want to do is measure, and put down a mark, from the center of a line along that same line. The tap measure trick doesn't seem to work. It does allow one to measure along the line, but it doesn't mark the spot that you measure to so that you can come back to it later and place something there.

I'm just wondering if there is some reason why the center point is treated differently from the end points. Seems to me they should be the same.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how to take a measurement from the center point of a line. The tape measure always just reads "0". Is there a reason for this, and is there some other way one is supposed to measure from that point? I find myself wanting to do that quite a bit, and it's really annoying to have to work around-- I usually draw in a dummy line perpendicular to the the line I'm measuring and then deleting it afterwards.

Thanks for the help.

@greentoaster said:

After you switch you'll be 100% glad you did.

Yeah, I know. I've been a Mac user in the past, but had to switch due to work. I'm pretty sure the next one will be a Mac-- it's more an issue of "when" rather than "if". Might be a few more years. I gotta talk to one of my buddies at Apple and see what kind of deal I can get.

Thanks! That's good news on both questions. I was thinking the answers would be different.

For $50, it's worth it to jump in now. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to switch platforms anyway.

I'm just about ready to make the plunge and go "pro", but I have a couple questions first.

1. If I take advantage of the free 8 hour trial period for "pro", does it disable the older, free version of SU? If so, I'll probably wait until I get my plans further developed on the free version.

2. There is a good chance I will be switching from a Windows based PC to a Mac within the next 12 months. If I buy the Windows version of "pro", will I have to purchase the Mac version once I get my new laptop? If so, that's another reason to wait awhile.

I do want to go "pro", but I don't want to make a bad financial decision in the process.

Thanks for the help.

When you say "select all", do you mean go to the edit pull-down menu and click on "select all"? Then I have to right-click on something to get the "intersect with model" option, and it's unclear where I should click, or if that matters. But nothing happens when I do that.

Can you explain what step 6 is for? Once I click on that face, I get an extrusion as soon as I move my mouse to do something else, and the extrusion comes forward or backwards, depending on which direction I move the cursor-- ie, to go up to the edit pull-down menu.

Maybe I'm just being slow, but it seems like there are some steps missing between 6 and 7.

I don't understand how you go from step 6 to step 7.

When I "select the roof and intersect with model", nothing happens.

Don't you have to do more than "get the Follow Me tool and click here" and "select the roof..."?

Great thread!

I just got into SketchUp a few weeks ago, and did a mock-up of my home renovation plans. It came out pretty good, but I sure wish I had seen this tutorial first. I learned a lot of what you're advising the hard way-- through making lots of stupid mistakes.

I'm fortunate in that I'm starting with a .dwg file, so I don't need to trace anything. I look forward to rebuilding my house using your instructions.