Sketchup - Add Grid to Bay Floor

[BillChunn]

How do I add a 4' x 4' grid to the bay floor of an existing stage design?

Thanks,

BC

[BillChunn]

Dang... I knew this was not going to be just one point-n-click.....

Anybody???

BC

[spanky]

According to a few articles I found trying to get an answer for you, you'll have to draw your own grid. There is no native grid in Sketchup.

[BillChunn]

Thanks. I'll just start with a stage that already has a grid and modify it from there.

BC

[n2ipsc]

This isn't tough to do (although it might sound like it, it really isn't after you've tried it once or twice).

• Make sure you can see the "large" toolbar set (View-Toolbars-Large Tool Set)
• In the 4th group down, upper LH corner, look for an icon that looks like a tape measure and click it
• Select a point on the edge of your "range floor," and start dragging; you'll see a dotted line/gridline appear, transverse to the direction you're dragging (that is, if you're dragging "across" the range floor/on the red axis, the dotted line will appear front-to-back/on the green axis)
• Release the mouse button when you're close to the grid size you want, and then, without touching anything, type in the dimension you want, and hit enter (e.g. for 3' spacing, type 3 and hit enter)
• Now where's the magic comes in. Click on the line you just created (again, with the "tape measure" tool), and start dragging again; Sketchup will "snap" a new line to the same dimension when you get near it (watch the "length" box in the lower RH corner of the display to see this happening)
• Repeat on the green axis, and you can very, very quickly "grid-out" your range floor

[Mark R]

And it's a good idea to make the grid on its own layer so you can turn the grid off when you go to print the stage. Looks cleaner without the grid.

[BillChunn]

Thanks for the recommendations. The grid helps our setup crew position things relative to each other. For the printed version, I agree the no-grid version looks cleaner.

BC

[ncxdm]

If you want another quick way to make things repeat in sketchup add a tail to the line. So basically make an L shape with one side going across the bay and the short side going your 10' or whatever dimension. Then group the parts grab themand you can copy and until you get where you have covered the area you need. Then grab it all and rotate while holding control it will duplicate the whole thing and let you drop it again at 90deg.

I will try to add some pictures when I have a minute. Your friends in sketchup are the group command and the copy (control on pc). At least until they add a working mirror command.