Cheers Ross thats worked perfectly!

Hi Everyone

Im trying to find out if there is a X Ref style tool just for Sketchup models - I have a city centre plan with a number of different concepts for a new building that I have pasted in as components or groups. I keep each one on a seperate layer and switch them on or off to view them in place.

These concepts are stored and edited in seperate Sketchup files, and I would like for them to update within the city centre plan as i work on them . I know there is a similar plugin for working with DWG files from Autocad. Is there anything that would perform this function? Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, I searcvhed the forums but couldnt find much!

Many Thanks!

Zootsuit

Joe

The main issue I had was that I had to print out at scale 1:1 as I was using the print out to make card models of an architectural site. Using any different scale just so it would fit on the page would not have helped me in this case. As my entire model plan was exactly the same size as an A3 piece of paper, and my printer was set up to A3 I could not understand why I could not enter the print dimensions as A3 (420,297) and also keep the scale at 1:1 in the Print Preview dialogue box. To keep to 1:1 scale meant the paper size dimension changed in the dialogue box and I had to print on oversized paper - A2- which was a bit of a waste.

Following your advice I checked, then unchecked the 'use model extents box', which did help to an extent, but the page dimensions remained slightly too large. It seems to be more a matter of adjusting and trial and error, which can be frustrating when working to a deadline!

Anyway thanks for your advice, once Ive got the model finished I'll try to post an image! Ive been using the unfold plugin to convert my Sketchup model into a 3D card model . Aside from the printing issues, it has proved much quicker than working by hand and produced some excellent results!

Joe

Thanks for your detailed reply! I had followed all the steps you laid out and was still having problems. I agree it seems to be more of a 'bug' issue than anything. I found that if I zoom into the model so it just fits on the screen it will print to one page but the model has to fit the screen exactly and that ratio is not proportionate to and A size page.

Printing/plotting is a fairly routine procedure which most if not all graphics and CAD programs seem to handle with out any problems. I appreciate Sketchup is not a full CAD system but when dealing with graphics I can think of any other program that has these flaws! One I think Google really need to improve on.

Hi

When I try to print to scale, i.e 1mm in sketchup = 1m on page, Sketchup positions the image in the corner of the page so it's spread accross 4 or more pages . My model is a simple 2d plan and the entire dimensions are 210 x297 i.e. A4.

Does anyone know how to centre the image on 1 page without losing the correct scale? If i try to type in the page dimensions (120,297) the print dialog box changes the scale as I type! Why is this happening?

Many Thanks

Hi

Thanks for both those suggestions, problem now fixed! Ill post model as soon as I can!

Hi Tomsdesk

Ive already remodelled the area but thanks for your suggestion, I'll remember it for next time!

Hi Everbody

Does anyone know if it's possible to turn off edges for just one component but not on the rest of the model ? I have a terrain surface I created in Sandbox that has a few edge lines on it that I don't want, but I do want to keep them on the rest of the model. I thought of changing the edge colour to 'by material' in the style menu, but agian this affects the entire model.

Does anyone know if you can perform either of these operations to specific components/groups only?

Cheers

Peter

Hi

I have restarted the model with the image as a group so it does not interfere with the drawing. It was all getting a bit messy! Thanks for your help!

Sorry i cant get the flie size under 4mb. The strange thing is I moved it all on to one layer and cropped it down to a small portion of the plan. But when i try to move the remaining portion to the the axis origin the plan image underneath changes, as though the entire plan image is still there but hidden , and as i move the model it scrolls across the hidden image. Hope that makes sense, maybe this is part of the problem?

Hi

I have attached a smaple area of the plan. If you click on some areas e.g the garden areas behind the houses, some are closed areas, but some aren't.

thanks

Hi

I'm having difficulty with a model I'm working on. I'm tracing an image of a residential site plan as described in 'How a Pro Builds a House in Sketchup' by Krisidious. I created a planar surface then applied the image as a texture to trace over. The problem is only some of the lines I draw seem to close into sepereate areas. Im sure Ive sen a similar post to this before but I cant find it now!

Ive tried intersecting all the line in the model and this didnt work. Ive also tried colouring lines by axis but as the model is an irregular houseing estate none of the lines really fall on the green or red axis. I cant work out why all the areas arent seperating. I can only think that the lines arent falling on the same plane but looking at the file the appear to . Has anyone come accross this problem before? Sorry Im sure this would be clearer with the model but I cant really post it as its for a live project. I could try to post part of it if this helps...

Many Thanks

Zootsuit

Thanks Gaieus , I'll try it on a small scale and see how it works out.

Hi there.

I'm working on a large scale residential estate for an architectural project. I have a PDF of the plan site which I want to use as a base to trace over in Sketchup.

I have converted the PDF to a jpeg in Photoshop then imported it and used it as a material on a base rectangle. The problem is that it needs to be scaled up so much that the image is very blurry and hard to trace accurately. Is there a better way I can do this ? Should I model on a much smaller scale , i.e the original size of the jpeg, then scale the model to size after? If I try to scale the Jpeg up in Photoshop the file size goes through the roof!

Many Thanks

Zootsuit

Excellent, I didnt know about the hidden geometry command. That makes things a lot easier! thanks for all your help!

Hi Gaeius

Thanks for your speedy reply! Im the meantime Ive made a little headway but still running into a few problems. Ive attached a model file showing how I got to the end result.

When using the rotate tool is is possible to lock it to an axis as you can with the pen tool, I find it jumps around rather erratically!

thanks

clock tower dome.skp

Hi Everybody!

I'm fairly new to Sketchup and am really glad I've found this exellent website! I have previous experience using Rhino3D and the controls in Sketchup are quite different (but exciting)! I'm trying to create curved surfaces. In Rhino you can create them from the joined edge curves. I cannot work out how to create them in Sketchup, though I suspect it might be possible by intersecting objects.

I have attached an example image. Can anyone give any pointers on how I could create the top turqoise part of this clock tower? I can create the basic shape by creating a cross section from the centre to a corner point and using the follow me tool around the square base. The part I cannot do is the raised semi circular part in the middle of each face. Sorry if this isnt clear, If its confusing let me know I'll try to explain it better!

I also find it difficult to model without a mirror/copy tool . I undertand how to mirror objects using the scale tool set to -1 or flipping the object along the axis, but can you do this so it makes a copy rather than moving the original object? I've had a brief look at the Ruby threads and I think there is a tool for this like in Autocad & Rhino but being fairly new to Sketchup I havent really investigated Ruby yet!

Thanks for your help!