Flexing a project - sketchup

[vanitycat]

Not really sure what to call this but I've named it flexing if doesn't have a name. Say for instance I build say a cabinet on sketch up with a width of 500 using components. Is there a way to change the width to say 300 and the sides will automatically snap to the surface. Or if I was to change the thickness of the material the design would readjust its sizes of the pieces to fit.

 

[Shultzy]

In a word, no. You can scale the drawing up or down but it increases all the sizes of the components in the direction of the scale.

 

[MusicMan]

You can change dimensions of individual components, so yes you can change widths; use Edit Component, Tape Measure to measure the width you want to change, then type the new dimension. I think there is also a way to constrain a component so that it fits to a particular edge/face of another component, but I haven't used this, as the Move command is so simple to use and you can snap corners to corners, etc.

Be prepared to fiddle a bit as sometimes the editing action has (logical but) unexpected consequences if you don't select the right bit.

In some packages e.g. Solidworks, there is a 'Stretch' command which does more easily what you want, but I don't think Sketchup has this.

Keith

 

[Brentingby]

Using the Tape Measure to change the dimensions of a component or the entire model is equivalent to using the Scale tool. This means all of the dimensions get changed. There is no way to constrain some dimensions using the Tape Measure.

The Scale tool might be used since it can be constrained to work in only one direction. It isn't the right tool if the part being modified has details such as tenons or mortises because those details will get scaled, too. The Move tool would be a better choice, then.

An alternative that can be useful for modifying components is the Fredoscale extension.

None of these presents the parametric option that the OP asked for. Dynamic Components could be made to do that however making them requires SketchUp pro. The time invested in making a dynamic component to suit may be greater than the time spent adjusting the parts manually and dynamic components might introduce other issues depending upon what the user needs from the model.