@honoluludesktop said:

Draw a edge creating two triangles out of the quadrangle, if triangler faces are then created, the 4 edges are not coplanar. If not, perhaps the edges are not joined together.

Yea, I tried that, and it seems the quad is not coplanar. Sigh.

I used the line tool to make four vertical lines and entered precise lengths, then connected the ends. Any thoughts on why the result should not be coplanar? Perhaps I just slipped.

Oh well, tear it apart and try again, I guess...

I am having trouble creating faces on an irregular quadrilateral.

When I individually select all four sides and try "Tools --> Utilities --> Create Face", it says "Create Face from edges failed". Not very helpful!

I'm pretty sure the edges are co-planar. They were created by connecting lines from vertical lines that were automagically inferenced to the same height.

What are some of the reason this may be failing? Is there a better way to create these faces?

Yes, I know, the three-button, scroll-wheel mouse is universally recommended.

However, I am quite taken with my four-button plus scroll-wheel Kensington TurboMouse, which is actually a very large, very smooth trackball. I use it with my left hand and use a 12"x12" Wacom drawing surface with my right. This is a fantastic combo for Photoshop, Illustrator, and any number of other graphics applications.

However, I have yet to discover how best to adapt either of these to SketchUp. Should I just give in and buy a three-button mouse? Or can I somehow map all the power I have in those two devices into SketchUp somehow? It isn't clear how to do so... not in the Preferences.

Thanks!

@remus said:

The exporters are the only difference between the free and pro versions.

And the ability to create dynamic components, which alone was reason enough for me to go through the considerable hassle of getting a higher ed license for pro.