FSUT for Friday 19 May 2006

[SketchUp Guru]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to put this up on Friday so I'm doing it now. These are the pages from the tutorial I did for Gidon on rotating something that is at an odd angle. I hope the text is readable and that you find it useful. Please note that much of what I do here with added geometry can be done simply using the inferencing engine in SU. It's is difficult to show that and the added geometry helps you to see what is happening and what needs to happen next. If you try this on your own you may discover you can shorten this up by relying on the inferencing instead.

There are a couple of remarks in the images about clicking on the object to see the bounding box. Sorry, clicking on the pictures won't show the bounding box.

 

[Nick W]

The thing I'd add to this is that it is possible to rotate about any axis you want as long as there is a line to define the axis in the drawing (a construction line will do). When placing the rotate tool, rather than just clicking, press the left button and, while holding it down, move the mouse along the line until SU gets the hint and aligns the circle perpendicularly to the line, then release the button. You can then proceed as normal selecting the from and to angles.

EDIT: Oh yes, you can also align the axis of rotation perpendicular to a face by moving the mouse on to the face. If you want to use that alignment, but rotate about some point not on the face, press and hold <shift> while you then move the circle to the required point.

 

[gidon]

Great tutorial Dave. I would highly recommend going through this one (actually trying it yourself) especially if you're fairly new to Sketchup - and then as Dave says trying it just using inference in its final position.
Cheers
Gidon