Sketchup Constrained Move - Tip

glenn bradley

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Our resident SU mentor, Dave may have mentioned this so forgive the repeat, if any.

I had been stumbling with constrained moves. That is, I have a chest of drawers for example. I want to move the drawer in and out or adjust the gap by shifting up and down without wandering off axis.

Select the drawer (or other) component.
Select the move function.
Press a direction arrow key on the keyboard and hold it down.
Hold your left mouse button and drag.

The motion will be constrained to the Red, Green or Blue axis based on which arrow key is held. You must press and hold the arrow key prior to pressing and holding the mouse button.
 
Glenn, yes indeed, this is a good thing to know. In addition to that, the SHift key also locks direction but it locks in the direction you are Moving or drawing. This is useful when you want to move in a direction that is not parallel to an axis. If you want to move on a diagonal, you can either follow an existing line on that angle or draw a guide line to follow. Holding Shift will lock that.
 
An Ah-Ha moment. I was not getting the result I was looking for from the Shift key. I now realize you must already be in motion (at least a little) before pressing the Shift key to lock the direction. Excellent.

I should also add to my prior post that the arrow keys do not need to be held as long the lock has occurred and you do not release the mouse button. I have a simple mind so I just keep my finger on the arrow key but did notice this 'lock' function when I let go accidentally.
 
I believe you could consider the arrow keys to have a toggle function.

Another thing to keep in mind with the Shift is that you can start a move a draw in the opposite direction of the desired one, lock the direction with Shift and then move in the desired direction. This is handy with the draw tool for example if you want to draw a line from the end of an existing line and that existing line is at an angle. Simple click with the pencil tool at the end, drag back along the exisint line and hole the shift key. Now drag in the other direction to the distance you need.
 
Constrained Move Problems

The movement I have had trouble with is after starting a constrained move I now want to stop in line with a ref point that is not on the constrained movement line. I have seen demos of this type of move but I cannot seem to duplicate it.

Still learning SU
Keith
 
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