Sketchup Help

[ECW Dan Selby]

I'm growing a little frustrated with Sketchup right now

I use a blend of straight lines, freehand, and arcs for my tracks. I draw one, go to 'Offset' it, and low and behold, I can only off-set certain sections.

Am I do something wrong?

Selby

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Post your (part of) your design so I can see what's happening. It's difficult to know just from what you've posted. It could be a number of things.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Um, I just did the same thing and now it's fine :/ Always the way....

Although I do have a lil problem:

I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this little bit cutting in?

Also, how do you get all your fancy buildings and kerbs/run off?

Thanks in advance,

Selby

[ScotsBrutesFan]

To snip of the part cutting in, simply draw a line where you want the circuit edge top be and then erase the other part. The whole of the inner might might go back to being a heavier line but just go over the new section again and it'll settle back down to the thin "settled" layout.

I don't actually add kerbs to my designs as they are an effort that to be honest doesn't really show up that well unless you really zoom in.

The run offs are relatively easy.
My method is to add additional offsets on both sides of the circuit one set at the width of grass/whatever other surface before reaching the gravel and the other at the width of grass you want along side the straights.

From there it's simply working out where and how much gravel you want and adding lines to create the area. If you want to be fancy, then decide if you want a grass strip beyond the gravel that a vehicle could if lucky safely reach and then drive around the outside of the gravel to rejoin the track.
If you want to do that then off set that distance around the gravel area.
The final part is linking the outside to create the the shape of the "enclosed circuit" area. The more practice at that then the more you'll be able to blend them back in.
I've does some quick diagrams to show the stages.

The buildings aren't that fancy, infact my designs often exceed by intrest levels, in that I think of a detail but get fed up having to apply the sdame detail along a building.
Pit building are easy, a rectagle off the pitlane and then use the elevate tool to create the height.
Grandstands, draw one side, make a line along where you want its length and then use the Follow tool along the line. Hey presto a 3D grandstand.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Fantastic - thanks very much mate.

Do you mind if I ask a few more questions? It's really helped me out thus far, and i'd love to be able to contribute using Sketchup.

So i've created my pit building. How do I rotate it? I'm finding the rotation tool incredibly difficult to use :/

Selby

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The rotation tool is difficult. I tend to avoid it where possible.

For Pit buildings, once I've got my pit lane I just draw lines at 90 degrees off it and a parallel line to create the floor plan of the pit building then use the elevation tool (the square with the arrow going up from it) to pull the rectangle up to a height.

From there you can add as much or as little detail and styling as you want.
In this case I added more height to the front and then used the arc tool for a curved roof, and dragged it along with the follow tool.
The garage doors etc are a pain in terms of detail, they take ages but unless you zoom in at just the correct angle they aren't really seen.