First and foremost, thanks Clark for the fantastic Sketchup class and presentations you offered at the WTF Conference. As I have started to work on a Sketchup model at home a few questions have come up. If these have been previously answered on this forum, I apologize. I read through many of the posts and didn't see any information pretaining to these questions. 1) I created a post with an attached tenon (joint) that I saved in my library. It works as a joint in all but one location when I created a shop drawing. I used one primary post (from the library) and copied it for the additional posts in the frame. As far as I can tell it's identical to the ones that did produce a joint. Thoughts? 2) I resized several posts (from the previously mentioned one). There is an outline of the tenon that stayed on the post where it was previously located. Ways of addressing this? 3) I am having trouble inputing angles, roof pitches into the protractor tool. I'll activate the protractor tool and input an angle, but nothing comes up in the VCB. What am I missing here? 4) There was a man in the compound joinery class that showed how to use the dimension tool (I believe) to layout spacing. My notes show that he accessed this with the F4 key. I have had not luck with this. Ideas?

Thanks for any info! I have made great progress with Sketchup since returning from Coeur d'Alene, but obviously have a ways to go! Thanks again Clark!

Dave

protractor tool:
-clic on the point of rotation
-clic on a line connected to the point of rotation
-you can now spin the protractor on your point of rotation, or set the angle with your keyboard

I layout spacing with the move tool
eg:
clic m
clic ctrl
clic on a component, group, or something selected
you can now drag a copy of same away.
clic to drop the copy
clic 2, x, enter
you should now have one more copy on center with the first two.
if you want more clic 3x, 4x, etc.

If you want to simply fill an area with centered copies:
do steps above untill:
clic to drop the copy at the other end of the area
clic 6, /, enter
to create 6 spaces between members

I've seen weird outlines appear in my models. It's usually time to copy the esentials to start a new file.

thank you thank you thank you

that is a good tip

Thanks for the kind words, Dave.

1) and 2) If you want to email your skippy to me, I'll take a look at it, but I suspect that you have a tenon that is not a subcomponent of its timber. That's why it won't cut a mortise, and why it does not stay with it's timber when you move the post away.

3) There is a brief point in time when you can type into the VCB, usually just before or just after the final click for using a tool. For the protractor tool, this is after the second or third click as Mark describes above. You can type a value in degrees (eg 14) or a roof pitch using a colon (eg 3:12). One other note about the protractor tool: it changes color to show you which plane it's on. You can lock it onto that plane with the shift key.

4) Mapping a tool to a specific key is done like all other shortcuts: On the main menu, use window | preferences | shortcuts. I distributed a file called preferences.dat in the precon, which mapped the dimension tool to the F4 key, along with several others. When adding dimensions to shop drawings, I find I'm frequently switching tools, and the dimension tool really needs a shortcut key. One other note about shortcuts. You can map shortcut keys to items on the context menu (the menu you get when you right-click on something). But the context menu contains different commands depending on what you right-click on. So you must have an item of the correct type selected before you open the shortcuts window. For example, if you want to map "flip along components red" to the F6 key, you must first select a component and then open the shortcuts window. All the menu items that would appear on the context menu are now listed under "edit/item".

Mark's "x" and "/" tricks are really useful. Someone at the conference showed me a similar trick: Draw a line (along the edge of a principal rafter, for example) and then right click on it and select "divide" from the context menu. Note the red dots that appear, dividing the line into equal length segments. Move your mouse, and you see the number of segments change. Pause, and you'll even get a hint to show you the length of each segment. Once you click to finish the divide, you can use the segments as guides to locate components (say common purlins). You can delete the segments when you're done.

CB.

Hi Clarke
I enjoyed the precon SU workshop, also. I am challenged loading the file, preferences to my home computer and making it work. My TF files are setup differently than your TF setup, and some tweaking maybe required? Is there a crib sheet that I can print out detailing the TF shortcuts you have created?
Cheers from Canada
Irv Graham

Thanks Irv.

I recall that several people had trouble importing the preferences.dat file. I'll look into that one of these days. Meanwhile, here are the relevant keys:

0 0 0 F6 Edit/Item/Flip Along/Component's Red
0 0 0 F7 Edit/Item/Flip Along/Component's Green
0 0 0 F8 Edit/Item/Flip Along/Component's Blue
0 0 0 F4 selectDimensionTool:
0 0 0 F3 viewZoomExtents:
0 0 0 F11 Edit/Item/TF Make Shop Drawings
0 0 0 F9 Edit/Item/Text Position/Outside Start
0 0 0 F10 Edit/Item/Text Position/Outside End
0 0 0 N selectTextTool:
0 0 0 A selectProtractorTool:
0 0 0 V selectFieldOfViewTool:
0 0 0 F5 Edit/Item/Rotate 90 around Z
0 0 0 F2 viewFront

This is just an excerpt from preferences.dat, which is a simple text file. The first 3 columns indicate in the Ctl, Alt, or Shift keys are used. None of them are for these examples. CB.

Thanks Clark
I should have looked inside the preferences file, duh
In the preferences listing, my TF timbers, TF joints library files are located differently, does this make a difference?
BTW I showed you my method placing shop drawing by placing timbers at 45 deg angle so it can be viewed front, rear, top, & bottom.
Cheers
Irv

Good evening everyone! Thanks for the feedback and the info...this has been very helpful! So I realize that I'm still really struggling with changing the length of existing posts or beams. I understand that if a post only has a tenon on one end, I can push/pull the other end to increase/ decrease the lenght. But for the life of me, I can't seem to get the process for changing the length of a member that has joinery at both ends, IE collar tie, brace. I do realize this is a rudimentary question, but.........I guess we're all where we're at. :^>
Dave

Dave:

Since this is a commonly asked question, I started a new thread and answered it there. CB.

A discovery about my question #1. When I placed the post that did not produce a mortise, I placed it a fraction off my grid lines and thus slightly too long for the cooresponding tie beam. This was not visible until I zoomed way in. When I moved the post where it should have been, the mortise appeared in the shop drawings. Thought I'd share this just in case anyone was puzzled by a similar situation.
Thanks again for all the assistance.
I feel like I'm making good progress and off and running with sketchup.
Dave