Humiliated by Sketchup

[MattCiapa]

Not true :D
But You have to be aware that some things You cannot unfold .
Other with some adjustements are totally unfoldable.
Matt

[jleslie48]

gillman, your tip on the left to right vs right to left just saved me hours of frustration. thanks.

[Pem Tech]

Thanks to everyone for your input, I was afraid this thread was dead.
Your suggestions and advice are most appreciated.

[duditz72]

Don't worry Pem I am in the same boat I have just started with SketchUp but I have a feeling it's going to be a long term relationship .I am right now just working sketching up a fictitious radial engine just to see what I can learn but am really enjoying it

[sporticus]

Originally Posted by jleslie48

how was I ever going to figure out that subtilety???

Well as I have said to many different friends/partners over the years when they ask how to do something on their new phone/vcr etc etc.,....er why don't you read the instructions! Or even better with sketchup you have great little videos showing you how to use the tools Google SketchUp including one which explains this selection thing.

Now, like you said it is a subtle thing, but when you understand it, it's actually a good little tool. Learning anything new takes time and I have gone back to these videos and other instructions a number of times as I come up across things i can't work out while desigining in sketchup.
Some of the stuff is intuative, some isn't.
It certainly doesn't have all the features of a full cad package, but in my humble opinion that's great because it's not too complicated and can be picked up by a beginner. To get good at it takes time, practice and a bit of research when you get stuck.

[jleslie48]

Originally Posted by sporticus

Well as I have said to many different friends/partners over the years when they ask how to do something on their new phone/vcr etc etc.,....er why don't you read ...
Now, like you said it is a subtle thing, but when you understand it, it's actually a good little tool.

Ahh, now we are getting a little philosophical here. Let's just look at the current example, the fact that the select tool is directionally sensitive. Where exactly ITFM is that I should of RTFM and find it? I have watched a dozen video's on sketchup and it was not mentioned. But the issue here is bigger than not getting the answer to the question. the issue is I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW it was a question. That's the big deal.

For example I know to rotate I have to pick a protractor in the right color, red, blue, black, or green, but the colors were constantly changing on me, and many times I couldn't get the right color I wanted to appear anyway. This is an example of a question I know I had, but I didn't have an answer. I looked it up. Well I got half an answer (IF I hold the shift key the protractor color is locked, and won't switch color on me while I move,) but the other part, how do I force a color protractor? That took 2 hours to find the answer to that, but at least I KNEW ENOUGH TO ASK THE QUESTION (why sketchup doesn't allow the obvious, right click on the protractor and pick the plane is a whole other level of WTF we are not talking about now but I digress...)

Now onto the directionally sensitive mouse movements. I've spent hours and hours trying to "select" an object with no way of knowing that the direction I move the mouse is significant. I NEVER WOULD OF THOUGHT TO EVEN ASK THE QUESTION. When software has features like that, you've got a problem.

Bottom line every functionality NEEDS to have a drop down list clickable (and preferably keystroke enabled) way of getting to it. Its not necessarily that you want to access those options from the tab bar, but it does go a long way in making the user aware that the option exists and gives him the proper spelling of the option so he can type it into google to look it up. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have a question about some of those hyroglyifics that are now called icons and not knowing what to call it when I want to type it in a search engine. This is exactly the trouble Micro$oft got into when they introduced the ribbon in Office 2007. By eliminated the written word lists of options, people had no way to ask questions. At lease in Office 2010 I see they added a lot of that back in.

Back to sketchup, if I was able to right click on the "Select" icon/hyroglific(is that what its called, I have to call it the black arrow thingy instead of its real name) and get a list of options that I could choose (select anything touching, select only object completely bound, ...) I would of known that there are TWO ways to select an object. Something like hitting the F2 button while hovering over an option should bring up help. (EG, hover over the "select anything touching", hit the F2 button, and a popup shows the instructions for this option (and an explanation that the quick way to do this is to use the select icon and drag from right to left...) )

My point is, don't be so quick to jump on the FTFM bandwagon its a poor answer that rarely answers any real questions.

[mldixon]

Originally Posted by duditz72

Don't worry Pem I am in the same boat I have just started with SketchUp but I have a feeling it's going to be a long term relationship .I am right now just working sketching up a fictitious radial engine just to see what I can learn but am really enjoying it

I Started with sketchup when it first came out, worked with free version for a long time and then went pro. I used the crash bang method of learning. Same way you are starting, picked a subject and modeled it. Looked for answers when I needed them, but mostly just clicked and highlighted different things. Tutorials are great but the only way to learn this program is to model something you love and you will find the way.

Here is a link to one of my early models from the warehouse.
http://http://sketchup.google.com/3d...e5595f842d8d81

[goodduck]

exactly, mldixon. that's how i learned maya, rhino and now sketchup.

[gillman]

One other thing about selecting, if you've already selected something but you want to add more, hit space bar, then hold the control key, that will allow you to add to the selection you already made. Conversely, hold the control key and the shift key and you can subtract from your selection.

[jleslie48]

Originally Posted by gillman

One other thing about selecting, if you've already selected something but you want to add more, hit space bar, then hold the control key, that will allow you to add to the selection you already made. Conversely, hold the control key and the shift key and you can subtract from your selection.

thanks gilman. I've also found that if you hold the shift key it becomes a toggle for adding and subtracting stuff to the select tool. The difficulty I have now is selecting just a single face, and I don't know what it means when I select a face vs selecting an edge (the face shows up as blue dots, and the edge a solid blue line.) I'd love to be able to delete a bunch of internal blue lines...

The other one that is very frustrating is if I start clicking on a bunch of faces and collecting them, and then accidentally click outside, it erases all my selects. the "undo" button doesn't seem to remember the previous selection, anyway around this?