Using the guide tool, double clicking on an edge immediately creates a guide along that edge. If you are trying to inference from an intersection between two guides, if a small red cross does not appear when you hover over the "intersection", the guides are not perfectly aligned.
I LOVE guides. I have been working on a project where I'm having to replicate parts, so I take precise measurements and replicate the dimensions in Sketchup. Having reference lines that don't cut into geometry that are parallel to other edges is so great. I ended up having over 100 guides for one component.
I'm a big time Guides (and Protractor) user. So much so that I add custom shortcut keys to Hide/Show Guides and delete Guides. Also, your "click, then click again" method you showed for creating a Guide on an edge can be simplified to just a double-click on the edge.
You can make a guide point by drawing a line, and then drawing a guide starting at the end of the line and stopping somewhere along the line (not all the way to the other end.) Now erase the line and you'll be left with a guide point, which you can move with the move tool to wherever you like. Another way would be to draw a circle or polygon, right click on it and choose "find center". A guide point appears at the center of the shape. It remains even after you erase the shape.
I use the guides layer(tag) trick a lot. I wish it were possible to set in model parameters that guides were always placed on their own layer(tag) so that the extra steps to move them over there would not be necessary. If that was turned on then any guide drawn would be placed on the Guides tag when it is created. Another option I would like to see is when drawing a circle or polygon that a center is automatically created (so no more right-click -> find center) and that a guide is created on the axis of that circle or polygon.
Hi Bob. Let's assume that your model has a drilled hole, and you want to find its centre. Simply hover your mouse pointer briefly on the circumference, then move towards the approximate centre. You will see the exact centre is then shown.
@@MickHealey Yes, I'm aware of how to do it using current tools/features. I always fight finding the center that way. It takes time plus it's a PITA when you are moving an object and want to center it over a circle, hex, what have you.
I am trying to use a guide line as my reference and add an infinite line. For example :I want two (infinite) guide lines offset 5" from each other, but not referencing an actual line. Is there a way to do that other than using the copy command?
You create a guide line at a specific length from a midpoint or edge, and you can also make one on a face. Copying an existing guide line works, or you could create a new one 5" from the first. This article goes into more detail help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/measuring-angles-and-distances-model-precisely
Most of the time I DO NOT use guides on a layer. It feels extra complicated and I'd rather delete all once I'm done and if I need them again, it doesn't take too long You forgot protractor
Great tips about creating and manipulating guides, but you never talked about WHY guides exist. What are they good for? Why would I want a guide? I know the what/why, but does your audience?
I'm not sure Aaron knows the answer. I'm just kidding of course, because Aaron is obviously a very brilliant Sketchup user and teacher. But he seems to avoid using guides in his presentations. He's even admitted in the past that they're just not part of his repertoire.
Ha! Yeah… I’m not a huge guide advocate, but I do understand their purpose… using a guide will slow you to have geometry without impacting existing faces or edges. Drawing an edge across an existing face will break it while a guide will happily stretch off to infinity without ever effecting any geometry.
@@AaronMakingStuff I use guides for alignment. I want this wall to be lined up with another wall on the other side of the house, or I want to align different elementsf in a scene. They're also handy for laying drawing placement lines before drawing the actual objects--whether that's windows on a house, houses on a street, holes in a piece of steel, etc.
Using the guide tool, double clicking on an edge immediately creates a guide along that edge. If you are trying to inference from an intersection between two guides, if a small red cross does not appear when you hover over the "intersection", the guides are not perfectly aligned.
I LOVE guides. I have been working on a project where I'm having to replicate parts, so I take precise measurements and replicate the dimensions in Sketchup. Having reference lines that don't cut into geometry that are parallel to other edges is so great. I ended up having over 100 guides for one component.
you can set key board shortcuts from Window> Preferences>Shortcuts to toggle them on / off or delete. Alt-G to hide or Ctrl-G to delete
I'm a big time Guides (and Protractor) user. So much so that I add custom shortcut keys to Hide/Show Guides and delete Guides. Also, your "click, then click again" method you showed for creating a Guide on an edge can be simplified to just a double-click on the edge.
I use guides all the time. Perfect tool for me. 😄👍
Hey Aaron. Great tips. I never noticed the mode change option and wondered why I always got different results with the tape measure.
infinine guide between two point is the one i am looking for.. thank you.
Quick question: how are you abel to so quickly rotate and pan around the viewport?
Thanks for guiding us through this Aaron 😝😝
To place a guide on a line (not offset), you can also enter zero in the box. But I think a second click would be a bit faster.
Guides are great! One more thing, sometimes I need a guide that is just a point, like to mark the center of a circle. How do you do that?
You can make a guide point by drawing a line, and then drawing a guide starting at the end of the line and stopping somewhere along the line (not all the way to the other end.) Now erase the line and you'll be left with a guide point, which you can move with the move tool to wherever you like. Another way would be to draw a circle or polygon, right click on it and choose "find center". A guide point appears at the center of the shape. It remains even after you erase the shape.
Great tutorial...much appreciated ☺
Off topic question: why can't I open multiple projects on Windows like on MacOS?
I use the guides layer(tag) trick a lot. I wish it were possible to set in model parameters that guides were always placed on their own layer(tag) so that the extra steps to move them over there would not be necessary. If that was turned on then any guide drawn would be placed on the Guides tag when it is created.
Another option I would like to see is when drawing a circle or polygon that a center is automatically created (so no more right-click -> find center) and that a guide is created on the axis of that circle or polygon.
Hi Bob. Let's assume that your model has a drilled hole, and you want to find its centre. Simply hover your mouse pointer briefly on the circumference, then move towards the approximate centre. You will see the exact centre is then shown.
@@MickHealey Yes, I'm aware of how to do it using current tools/features. I always fight finding the center that way. It takes time plus it's a PITA when you are moving an object and want to center it over a circle, hex, what have you.
I am trying to use a guide line as my reference and add an infinite line. For example :I want two (infinite) guide lines offset 5" from each other, but not referencing an actual line. Is there a way to do that other than using the copy command?
You create a guide line at a specific length from a midpoint or edge, and you can also make one on a face. Copying an existing guide line works, or you could create a new one 5" from the first.
This article goes into more detail help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/measuring-angles-and-distances-model-precisely
thank you bro , please can you learn us how to design a car radiator in sketchup ?!
Thank you and nice shirt !
Saludos desde Panamá 🇵🇦 🇻🇪
Most of the time I DO NOT use guides on a layer. It feels extra complicated and I'd rather delete all once I'm done and if I need them again, it doesn't take too long
You forgot protractor
Great tips about creating and manipulating guides, but you never talked about WHY guides exist. What are they good for? Why would I want a guide? I know the what/why, but does your audience?
I'm not sure Aaron knows the answer. I'm just kidding of course, because Aaron is obviously a very brilliant Sketchup user and teacher. But he seems to avoid using guides in his presentations. He's even admitted in the past that they're just not part of his repertoire.
Ha! Yeah… I’m not a huge guide advocate, but I do understand their purpose… using a guide will slow you to have geometry without impacting existing faces or edges. Drawing an edge across an existing face will break it while a guide will happily stretch off to infinity without ever effecting any geometry.
@@AaronMakingStuff I use guides for alignment. I want this wall to be lined up with another wall on the other side of the house, or I want to align different elementsf in a scene. They're also handy for laying drawing placement lines before drawing the actual objects--whether that's windows on a house, houses on a street, holes in a piece of steel, etc.
Yes, I use guides all the time for layout of holes and for alignment in metal and woodworking projects.