Another well taught video by Aaron. At 7:34, however, he is trying to make a simple solid out of the non-solid bracket. This is one of many good arguments for why SU needs more essential native tools to make the software more robust from the get go. If the ability to produce complex solid groups and components in SU are fundamental... and they are, then more time-saving tools to create them must be programed in. Thom Thom's Solid Inspector and CleanUp are two of my most used extensions. They should be native tools, perhaps incorporated with the SU solid tools that already exist. Props to Thom Thom for almost single handedly making SU bearable to learn and use in depth. Thank you for making those extensions free of charge to both Trimble and me.
I sometimes convert to a group before intersecting the model, that way I have a wire frame of the intersection points that I can work on separately and use extensions if I wish, without it being part of one of shapes.
I was thinking that when exploding groups, for the purpose of intersecting faces, and cleaning up the overlapping geometry....that it might be a good feature in Sketchup . If it could 'remember ' the groups after the intersection. Sometimes we need to intersect multiple groups together, but don't want to loose their individualality.
Looks like someone has spent a few vacation days in the sun, either that or you need to get the studio lighting checked. Nice video explaining a great use of groups Aaron. Thanks for the information. Grouping geometry has saved my butt on many occasions just as not grouping has caused me headaches as well.
Great stuff Aaron. I always learning something new from your videos. I never would have tried using the move tool to close a face. Very cool, thank you.
I use Groups primarily to define subassemblies and assemblies. I create components and then "assemble" (group) them into subassemblies and assemblies. They show up that way in the assembly Tree.
If I have a complex piece that I move parts of it out the way to model inside the remaining geometry I have found that occasionally when trying to reposition the part I moved it can be difficult to reattach at the correct point. To overcome this I now always move the part constrained/locked to whichever of the 3 axes that is best and move it a fixed distance so that when I come to move it back I lock it to the axis and type in the same distance after starting the move. The object always ends up in it’s correct location! Ps I model in metric so I move it in multiples of 50.
Don't forget that after most Solid Tools operation, the resultant shape is given a new component name which will still be inside the group. It can get a bit messy if you are doing a lot of Solid Tools work.
I am Grooooup! Thanks Aaron! That is a good one. I think if you are in a hurry to model something you could make lots of garoops and then change them to Components later...very handy. Have you read Dr. Dolittle? Familiar with an animal call the Pushmepullyou? Perhaps we could rename the Push Pull tool! Cheers, Steve
I use Sketchup since 2006 and never once I used groups when components are right there. Components has everything that groups have and if you modify one you modify all. Groups are garbage.
Grouping.. I often think how awesome it'd be if SketchUp would offer a configuration option that would allow to make each drawn 3d-object a group by default and use explode to dissect them into individual faces. I'm sure it would speed up my (architectural-) workflow.
The fastest way of grouping is Loose To Groups (Christ Fullmer) - one command with no selection, converts all the raw geometry in the model in its own group (all connected in its won group); one command with a selection, converts all the geometry connected with the selection, in its own group.
Hi Aaron, first & foremost TY. A related question if I may, do nested groups / multiple groups add more weight than a component? Is it good practice to explode & re-group or just use “clean-up” or model info?
If you make it a Component, you can right click, and "Save as". This will let you save the component as a separate SU file from the rest of the modell. If you want to make changes to the component you can edit it in a new SU window, and then swap it in the main model by right clicking the component and select "Dynamisk component, Swap components" This will bring the new updated component inn in the same place and replace the old one.
We thought so, too, but just check out the comments! We will continue to try to balance the line offering a solid mix of begginner and intermediate learnign materials!
