Humiliated by Sketchup

**Pem Tech** · #1 05-13-2012, 05:57 PM

OK, this is so embarrassing...
With years of experience with Adobe products, rocksim, HTML programming etc, I just assumed Sketchup would be a snap.

It was not to be......

Yes I have done a forum search
Yes I have followed tutorials (CSS Texas how to with Google Sketch up.)

But this program has me stumped!
Here is the work flow...
Parallel projection
View Top
import image
scale image

Then it all goes wrong.
WHen I try to draw I cannot get the tools from snapping to line or follow any subtle curves.
Even scaling the drawing to large proportions (200' for the one I'm working on now) doesn't help. The draw tools act like the image is tiny and are jumping from pixel to pixel, to use a photoshop example. I did not see any options in the preferences that would help.

Please be patient with the noob....

**jleslie48** · #2 05-13-2012, 07:34 PM

don't fret, its not you. it is not an intuitive program. I too have been a software engineer for 25 years and find 3d software almost impossible to work with. the only one I've had some remote success with is AC3D, don't feel bad.

- Jon

spaceagent-9 · #3 05-13-2012, 09:38 PM

i have gotten so very far in sketch up on a project, just to have it all go haywire for no reason i can identify and then i have to start all over.
i have given up on sketch up.
jim

**goodduck** · #4 05-13-2012, 10:38 PM

perseverance, perseverance, perseverance. just stick to it, build easy stuff first and work your way up to hard stuff. i getting to like sketchup a lot and i specially like the sketchy edges style and the style builder winners options, turn my 3d models scenes i built in couple hrs into a pencil drawings that my boss think i spent 2~3 days of hard works on, more time for me to play :D i'm eyeballing the pro version, think i'll just going to buy it... soon. the video tutorials in the help menu are very helpful to me too, so far i got all my answer from that. sketchup actually is not hard, i think it is easier then rhino 3d. if i got the pro version first before i got rhino 3d, i may not have bought rhino. again, perseverance, don't give up.

**gillman** · #5 05-14-2012, 06:49 AM

Unfortunately, Sketchup will try to snap to a line/point that it thinks is close, changing size doesn't help much. If it were a meter long, it would try to snap to anything within a few centimeters, scale it up to a kilometer and it's going to try to attach to anything within 10 meters.

If you zoom in close to where you want to start, close enough that it seems to fill your screen, that should let you start the line where you want to start it. Something else that might work for you is to scale the texture so that you have some room before there are any lines close by. If your image is 8.5 x 11, you could start with a plane that's 17 x 22 so that the top, bottom and sides don't matter because what you want to work with is in the middle. After you have all the lines you want, trim the excess.

If you're working with a 3-view drawing, I like to make the initial drawing a component so that I can copy, paste and rotate it to like up with the other views. Depending on the source, I've found that the top and side views of an object end up being slightly different lengths on the same drawing.

**jleslie48** · #6 05-14-2012, 07:14 AM

I was about to start a bitch session on sketchup, I'll leave it alone.

My big problem is you can't expressly control things in sketchup. even something like selecting a face is at the mercy of what sketchup "thinks" you want rather than giving you a definitive way of selecting it.

I can't even figure out how to box (with the mouse drag) an area and get sketchup to "select" objects.

**MattCiapa** · #7 05-16-2012, 07:04 AM

I can only say:
Practice - Practice - Practice
And will add:
Use Ruby Scripts where Vanilla Sketchup comes short.
Greets
Matt

**gillman** · #8 05-16-2012, 01:01 PM

If it wasn't mentioned yet, if you're doing a select (space key is the shortcut) and a mouse drag from left to right, it will only select what is completely within the box, while a mouse drag from right to left will select everything that is even partially within the box. Another way to select that might work better for you is space key, left click on the face you want, then right click for the menu, from there choose select bounding edges. That will select every line touching that face.

And I concur on both of MattCiapa's points, practice and plug-ins. And motivation, if you have something you're passionate about building, that makes the learning curve worthwhile.

Breaking up the end result into a series of smaller tasks allows me to recognize that I'm making progress.

**terrinecold** · #9 05-16-2012, 02:13 PM

the problem you are having with picking and sketch up trying to be smarter than you is because it is software meant for the general public and not a real CAD software. With those like CATIA you wouldn't have this kind of problems on the other hand the learning curve is much steeper with a professional tool

**jleslie48** · #10 05-16-2012, 02:35 PM

gillman, ok now that is brilliant thank you. how was I ever going to figure out that subtilety??? direction of mouse movements changes functionality? I never would of guessed.

terrincold, I agree and I have very little trouble moving about in ac3d, and selecting items, rotating, etc. however, to UNFOLD I have to use sketchup... this is a problem, no tool does it all.