Sketchup newby question

[Bob Michaels]

I have a casework component with mitered corners. When I want to lengthen the component I do Edit Component / Push Pull and pull the amount that I want to lengthen the component. The component then pulls on the angle and not straight out. That makes sense since the face is a miter. Is there a way to easily extend the length of the component without pulling from one of the ends? I thought about dividing the component near the center and adding the extra length there but I'm not sure how to do that either!

[Dave Richards]

Yes, Bob, there is a beeter way. Instead of using Push/Pull, select the miter face and its bounding edges. Double click on the face with Select will do it or draw a left to right selection box around the mitered end of the molding. Then use the Move tool to move the selection in the desired direction.

[Gene Davis]

I find it best when doing this, to click a guide line in place on on corner of the face that's to be moved, the guide line in the proper direction.

When doing the subsequent move, the guide line helps to keep your move going in the right direction in 3D space.

To move a determined distance, you can begin the move in the direction wanted, then type your distance and hit RETURN to complete the move. Or to to to an line intersect or a face intersect, just move it until it snaps.

Guide lines can be one of your best friends when using Sketchup. My models get jam packed with them, and I find myself using EDIT > DELETE GUIDES to clean the slate.

[Dave Richards]

Guides can be useful in many cases although generally for something simple like this they shouldn't be required. If you have difficulty moving on axis, you can lock the direction with the appropriate cursor key or you can hold Shift after getting the move started. If you use a lot of guides, make a keyboard shortcut for Delete Guides to make cleaning them up quick and easy. Don't let the model get cluttered by guidelines, delete them after they've served their purpose.

[Bob Michaels]

Thanks Dave and Gene. I'll give it a try.