www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I wish I had a book! Or a mentor!

I want to draw a floorplan consisting of: an L-shaped building of overall size 12m x 14m(roof outline)
an outer wall outline 11m x 13m and an inner wall outline 10m x 12m, with a corner cut out in proportion. I can do it one line at a time, but can I set the lengths before I draw them?and make the three parts concentric. I can create components but how do I know which one is active before I ruin it!

This is just for a drawing to submit to planners before I contact an architect.

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3308 ... %3a3308072

Press 'L' to draw a line. Left click and drag the line in the direction you want it to go - just type the line length you want (it enters automatically in the box at the bottom right of the screen) and hit enter. You are then ready to drag the line in the next direction and repeat.

I've had NO training and read NO books yet after only a few weeks of 'playing' with Sketchup I did this:

Stick with it - it's worth it!

I'm very impressed!

Nice work KE

Also if you use the rectangle draw tool you can set length and with by use of a comma. Just click to draw the shape on the axis you want then type 11000, 13000 for 11x13 m.

It's brilliant, well worth getting in to.

I've been using sketch up for years, much more fun than AutoCAD great for
Quick drawings in 2D but mostly 3D for me, As Chop says typing your dimensions is so easy,
either in metric- say 305 or imperial 12”

Getting better at Sketchup, I had to do some 2D sketches for the planning woman, let's hope she likes my ideas. Ceredigion is getting more adventurous, a house with curved roof and porch has just been built. As soon as I download image from phone I'll post.

Going to W H Smith to order a book. What extras do you get if you pay for the pro version?

Sketchup has online tutorials by the bucket load (including as part of it's own installation) so purchasing a book would be a waste of money at this stage. There are alos zillions of online tutorials/examples (AND books) if you look.
The pro version isn't something I'd bother with until I got very familiar with the standard version first - I'd give it a year or so before considering it.

Online tutorials are good, but I often find it easier to have a book to look at when I'm away from my desk. Adding dimension lines has to be my next learning task.

But I won't rush in. A young woman to give me some hands-on lessons would be great!