Is there anyway to control SketchUp with minimal mouse input? If you're familiar with a good 'ol app from the early days of mac called MacPerspective, you'll know what I mean. There were three inputs: X, Y, and Z. Entering coordinates would either allow you to draw a line to it or simply move the origin to that point. For example on the keyboard I can enter something like 0 (tab) 0 (tab) + 9.500 and that would draw a line from my last point up 9.5 feet.
In SketchUp if I click at the origin, I have to move the mouse until it snaps to an axis or the angle looks about right, click again, and then I can type 15' or something like that and it makes my line exact. Is there any way that I can say, click at the origin of a new document (with the line tool), type something like -15' 0 4' and have it draw a line that's 15' to the left and 4' higher?
Or is there a program that's better suited to this? The idea is to produce rapid wireframes (basic but exact) that can be viewed from multiple perspectives. I've just looked around though and have yet to find anything that doesn't make the process incredibly slow and complicated. I don't need architectural modeling as much as I need a numbers/keyboard-oriented wireframing tool– the end result is essentially a tracing guide for hand-rendering.
Let me know if I'm not being very clear, but I hope it makes sense to at least a few people.
Reasons against AutoCAD: Windows only (though there is ArchiCAD and whatnot, but it's $$$ if I remember) and it's major overkill. I'm looking for something just as simple as MacPerspective, as that's what my dad has been using for 20 years now and it's really perfect except that it won't run on the Intel processors and has the occasional error (too many lines, hehe). I'm on the hunt for this app for him (he does architectural renderings, watercolor mostly) though I'm equally interested as I am headed down a similar path. I'm fairly comfortable with Rhino and CAD but they're a complete drag for rapid models.
No. This is primarily what makes Sketchup different from other surface modelers.
I actually believe this is primarily one of the proprietary things about Sketchup and one of the basis for the reason it was created. In some ways, this is great for people who have a hard time "sketching" in a program like max or rhino.
Other than the mouse thing, Sketchup has two other patents of note (push/pull [extrude]) and follow me (rotate, lathe or whatever other programs call it).
There's a lot of software companies that actually want to get ahold of Sketchup's mouse tracking concept. Sketchup is for people who when they click and move their mouse want the movements to reflect those movements in the imagined set up their environment is in.
It gets rid of the necessity of having to have 4 viewports and a dozen commands to be able to draw a line vertically.
I should mention perhaps that more than likely someone has made a ruby script to do what you're talking about since there seems to be a growing number of CAD types using SketchUp.
I searched briefly and found something (a ruby script) that was kind of close but not really what I want. I'll keep looking though, thanks.
The inclination to use SketchUp for this particular endeavor is because it's so lightweight and the interface isn't too distracting. I know what you mean though, the kind of functionality I want is basically the opposite of what SketchUp really caters to.
Feb 1, 10 8:13 pm ·
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SketchUp VCB/keyboard question
Is there anyway to control SketchUp with minimal mouse input? If you're familiar with a good 'ol app from the early days of mac called MacPerspective, you'll know what I mean. There were three inputs: X, Y, and Z. Entering coordinates would either allow you to draw a line to it or simply move the origin to that point. For example on the keyboard I can enter something like 0 (tab) 0 (tab) + 9.500 and that would draw a line from my last point up 9.5 feet.
In SketchUp if I click at the origin, I have to move the mouse until it snaps to an axis or the angle looks about right, click again, and then I can type 15' or something like that and it makes my line exact. Is there any way that I can say, click at the origin of a new document (with the line tool), type something like -15' 0 4' and have it draw a line that's 15' to the left and 4' higher?
Or is there a program that's better suited to this? The idea is to produce rapid wireframes (basic but exact) that can be viewed from multiple perspectives. I've just looked around though and have yet to find anything that doesn't make the process incredibly slow and complicated. I don't need architectural modeling as much as I need a numbers/keyboard-oriented wireframing tool– the end result is essentially a tracing guide for hand-rendering.
Let me know if I'm not being very clear, but I hope it makes sense to at least a few people.
I'm pretty sure this is all that AutoCAD is...
Reasons against AutoCAD: Windows only (though there is ArchiCAD and whatnot, but it's $$$ if I remember) and it's major overkill. I'm looking for something just as simple as MacPerspective, as that's what my dad has been using for 20 years now and it's really perfect except that it won't run on the Intel processors and has the occasional error (too many lines, hehe). I'm on the hunt for this app for him (he does architectural renderings, watercolor mostly) though I'm equally interested as I am headed down a similar path. I'm fairly comfortable with Rhino and CAD but they're a complete drag for rapid models.
No. This is primarily what makes Sketchup different from other surface modelers.
I actually believe this is primarily one of the proprietary things about Sketchup and one of the basis for the reason it was created. In some ways, this is great for people who have a hard time "sketching" in a program like max or rhino.
Other than the mouse thing, Sketchup has two other patents of note (push/pull [extrude]) and follow me (rotate, lathe or whatever other programs call it).
There's a lot of software companies that actually want to get ahold of Sketchup's mouse tracking concept. Sketchup is for people who when they click and move their mouse want the movements to reflect those movements in the imagined set up their environment is in.
It gets rid of the necessity of having to have 4 viewports and a dozen commands to be able to draw a line vertically.
I should mention perhaps that more than likely someone has made a ruby script to do what you're talking about since there seems to be a growing number of CAD types using SketchUp.
I searched briefly and found something (a ruby script) that was kind of close but not really what I want. I'll keep looking though, thanks.
The inclination to use SketchUp for this particular endeavor is because it's so lightweight and the interface isn't too distracting. I know what you mean though, the kind of functionality I want is basically the opposite of what SketchUp really caters to.
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