move it over the other one. You have to click the bottom corner of the soon-to-be top box and move the cursor over the top corner of the bottom box.
Press the Esc key to cancel a move operation. When you start to move something (on purpose or accidentally), it’s tempting to use Move to put things back the way they were. Inevitably, Move messes up your model. Instead, the quickest and easiest way to get out of a Move operation and keep your model intact is to tap the Esc key.
Watch for helpful inferences. To move something in one of the colored directions, wait until you see the dotted On Axis linear inference appear; then hold down Shift to lock yourself in that direction. For more information about using SketchUp’s inference engine, check out the earlier section “Keeping an eye out for inferences.”
Move precisely with the Measurements box. You can move things precise distances with the Measurements box; see “Injecting accuracy into your model” earlier in this chapter.
Watch where you are going. In the current release of SketchUp, if you orbit during the move so that you can no longer see the starting point on the selected objects, the objects become semitransparent, allowing you to find the desired destination point more easily.
FIGURE 3-20: To move things precisely, choose precise points to grab things and put them down.
Shaping forms with the Move tool
SketchUp’s Move tool isn’t just for moving whole objects. You can also use this tool to change the shape of your model. To do this, move a vertex (the place where edges’ endpoints come together), an edge, a face, or a combination of any of these. By moving only certain entities (all the things we just mentioned), you can change the shape of your geometry pretty drastically, as shown in Figure 3-21.
FIGURE 3-21: You can use the Move tool on vertices, edges, and faces to model different forms.
To preselect or not to preselect
The Move tool works in two ways, and you’ll eventually need to use them both, depending on what you’re trying to move:
Moving a selection: This process is the basic one, described earlier in this chapter in “Moving and copying like a champ.” When you select one or more entities, the Move tool moves only the selection. This behavior is handy when you need to move more than one thing at the same time. Figure 3-22 shows how to move selected items with the Move tool.
Moving without a selection: If you start the Move tool without making a selection first, you can click anything in the drawing window to move it around. Only the thing you click moves. This technique can create some unpredictable results, however, so we generally advise using the preselect method.
TELLING SketchUp WHO’S BOSS WITH AUTOFOLD
This will happen to you sooner or later: As you try to move a vertex, an edge, or a face, you can’t go in the direction you want. SketchUp doesn’t like to let you create folds (when extra faces and edges are created in place of a single face) with the Move tool, so SketchUp constrains your movement to directions that won’t add folds. To force the move, tap the Alt key (Mac: ⌘ ) while you move. When you do this, you’re telling SketchUp that it’s okay to proceed — to create folds if it has to. This feature is called autofold, and the following figure shows how it works. The Alt/⌘ key is a toggle; each time you tap it, SketchUp switches to the other mode.
FIGURE 3-22: Using the Move tool when you have a selection moves only the things in that selection.
Making copies with the Move tool
Lots of folks spend time hunting around in SketchUp, trying to figure out how to make copies. It’s very simple: You just press a modifier key — a key on your keyboard that tells SketchUp to do something different — while you’re using the Move tool. Instead of moving something, you move a copy of it. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
Press the Ctrl key (Mac: Option) to create a copy. You can press the modifier key before or after you click the entity you want to move. When the Move tool is in Copy mode, a little + appears next to the Move cursor, and your copy moves when you move your mouse. Figure 3-23 shows this in action.If you decide that you don’t want to make a copy, just press the Ctrl key (Mac: Option) again to toggle back to Move; the + sign disappears.
Copying is just like moving except that you’re moving a copy. All the rules for using the Move tool apply to making copies too.FIGURE 3-23: Press Ctrl (Mac: Option) to tell SketchUp to make a copy while you move something.
To make more than one copy at a time, use the Measurements box. Suppose that you want to make five equally spaced copies of a column, as shown in Figure 3-24. First, move a copy to where you want the last column to be; then type 5/ and press Enter. SketchUp makes five copies of the column and spaces them evenly between the first and last column in the row. Neat, huh? To set a precise distance between your copies, move a copy to set the distance between each copy, type 5x, and press Enter.
FIGURE 3-24: Use the Measurements box to make multiple copies.
Rotating the right way
It’s better to preselect. As with the Move tool, rotating something you’ve already selected is usually easier.
The Rotate(Q) tool can make copies, too. Press the Ctrl key (Mac: Option) to switch between rotating your original and rotating a copy.