Placing shelves in Sketch-Up

[Dave Tinley]

My question involves a bookcase (but could be anything where components are joined).
I draw the sides, top and bottom of my bookcase, then I want to draw seven shelves and place them inside my bookcase. Now normally I would draw one shelf, make it a component and then use the move tool and the ctrl key to make multiple shelves. The problem I am running into is placing the shelves inside the bookcase with different spacings between shelves.
I am having to measure and make a mark then move the shelf to that spot, and sometimes I cant get it to align front to back??
Surely there must be a way to duplicate the shelf and "glue" it to the spot its suppose to go????

Hope this makes sense.................

Thanks
Dave

[Gary Ratajczak]

1. Create the bottom shelf - make it a component, and place it where you want it

2. Select the shelf compoent, and activate the move tool

3. Hold down the Ctrl key, and drag a copy of the shelf component

4. Position it as the top shelf, where you want it to go - and click once to place it there

5. BEFORE you do anything else, decide how many "spaces" you want in between. As an example, if you wanted two shelves inbetween the top and bottom ones you just placed, that would result in "3" spaces between the shelves

6. Type "/3" on the keyboard - this enters the value in the command line box in the lower right

7. Hit "Enter" for your perectly spaced and placed shelves.

[Chris Schoolland]

Have you tried using Construction Lines? I use them all the time, positioning them by entering dimensions in the VCB. Construction lines are made using the tape measure. Turn on the instructor (under Window drop-down menu) and activate the tape measure. Look at the "Advanced Operations" to learn how to use Const. lines. Click and drag, and instead of manually placing the line, hold the mouse still and enter the dimension where you want it to end up and press "enter". This can be helpful for visualizing spacings, or plotting intersections, or all kinds of fun stuff. Double-clicking on a line or edge while using the tape also creates a Constr. line along that line or edge.

You can also move the shelf by grabbing it with the move tool, dragging it in the direction you want it to go, and again without moving the mouse (disrupts your VCB entry) enter the distance you want it to travel.

Consider where you grab your shelf from, as the dimension you enter will calculate from where you grab.

Hope that helps. It's a great program, isn't it?

CHRIS

[Ron Fritz]

Dave, Gary and Chris have given you the 2 best ways to greate multiple shelves. Use Gary's to make even spaced shelves and use Chris' to make one or more uneven spaced shelves. Ron