Tracing in sketchup, help!

[simon seasons]

Hi all.
I have to redraw a set of floor plans cause I made such a mess of the first lot. I am new to SU and deleted heaps of faces and generally ruined it's computational integrity, even though it still looks as if it could be functional, it isn't, but the wall placements and thicknesses are accurate and it'd save a heap of time if I didn't have to do the extrapolations from rather warped pdfs of Cad drawings again. I could pester my 'boss' for questions but he gives me lots of help already and I'm burning midnight oil and I thought,

" I know, I'll throw it to you good people!"

Here's my plan. I'd like to trace over the original work and then delete the original work. Gathering tips from my SU master, I am intuiting that if I turn the original work into a group first I wont affect the new tracing and I can then move the grouped original out of the way and extrude up elevations from the new drawing. Is this possible and do I add a long grip handle first before I make the group or is there a setting I can use so that I can pull the group out from under the tracing.

OR should I highlight it and make all the original line work into a new layer which I can just turn off when I have finished tracing and hopefully delete it after I have sent the tracing to layout?

I am not sure of this option because I have read (in the manual) that some lines can exist in more than one layer and I am not sure of the first option because I am not sure that I can pull the original out from under the tracing.

Any suggestion greatly appreciated.

[mperna]

if i understand your problem correctly, i would use the section tool to cut a horizontal (plan) section through the walls, and export a section slice (file>export>section slice) to CAD (the only file format available) and then bring import that cad file back into sketch-up, and re-extrude.

[tdmc]

If you're making a group use the select tool - select either individual lines, or drag the select tool, mouse down to select a number at the same time.

If you've then traced over you should, with a little mouse control, be able to drag the group away.

Alternatively, re-trace over the original, ungrouped. As you do so you should see faces being created.

[simon seasons]

I am going to try both options and see which is quicker for future reference. mperna, I'll just drop all the line work into cad as I haven't yet extruded walls and then send it straight back and tdmc, I'll do a mass group because I am worried that not grouping will corrupt the new work with old lines lying underneath which will interfere when I try and extrude the new work. That's what happens in Revit anyway and it gets infuriating when unwanted hidden lines still attribute and you can't find them. I wont try the layer conversion option unless time permits.

Will report back here, now to work. Thank you very much, mperna and tdmc.

[simon seasons]

mperna, the import export autocad method didn't work for the following reasons. As a jpg I didn't have a linked reference with which to scale it to start with and then bringing up to usable size to start tracing with made it too pixelated to trace from. I used a scale bar but it was still too pixelated to trace from. Thanks anyway, I was excited for few moments in anticipation.

[Richard]

Simon

Mate i'd group the geometry you wish to trace and put it on its own layer that you can control and delete later - when deleting the layer the option will come up to delete the contents of the layer. Then trace in SU, I've never had a lot of luck getting faces from imported can files, you can spend half your life trying to get a face to fill!

[simon seasons]

Originally Posted by Richard

Simon

Mate, I'd group the geometry you wish to trace and put it on its own layer that you can control and delete later - when deleting the layer the option will come up to delete the contents of the layer. Then trace in SU, I've never had a lot of luck getting faces from imported can files, you can spend half your life trying to get a face to fill!

Mate, I grouped the whole lot together (both floors side by side) and did a full trace. Any faces that didn't fill were revealed as not closed when I moved the group away. I tried setting it on a new layer but for some reason I got a dialogue saying that the layers were merging as I traced. I wasn't sure if I wasn't wasting time down that route so I turned back and stuck to the grouping>trace>delete group method. I can well imagine the CAD import method would leave a lot of 'holes'. Thanks for the warning I won't go there again till I have SU we'll in hand.

The trace has worked fine but now I have two elevated models side by side and I am tinkering with how to get them on top of each other with a 300mm floor between. Also I have gaps where the windows are because I am trying to think ahead of a simple way to put the correct sill and head heights in. Any suggestions there before I start? I am thinking raise the setback window to full height and then score a line at sill and head and then pull those faces above and below the window out. How does that sound?