I'm having a problem that I feel should be easily answered, but I can't figure it out.

First off, do any of you regularly use SU? I'm starting to get into woodworking, and needed a free 2D drafting program. It seems fine for making plans, but I cannot get the print to scale option to work.

I just wanted to create a 3" diameter circle with 3 drill holes at 120 degrees a apart. Just to test, I drew a 3" diameter circle, and tried to print to scale on a single 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. For some reason it is centering the circle in the corner of the page, and therefore requiring 4 sheets of paper for a single 3" circle (quarter circle on each page on the edge).

What in the world am I missing? I have parallel projection turned on, and have also played with the "use model extents" setting to remove any white space it is trying to include.

8/15/2012 11:49:11 AM

Wow, I think I just found it, and this is crazy to me.

Quote :

"The problem is caused by SketchUp trying to print the entire drawing window, not the model (even if "use model extents" is checked.) Paraline - correct Top view - correct Fit to page - unchecked Use model extents - unchecked Scale - 1:1 As far as I can tell, you've done this already. Now here's the trick... You have to, FIRST, zoom-in on the model, to remove any "white space" around the perimeter of the model. You will likely also have to resize the main SketchUp window, so that the borders of the drawing screen 'hugs' the edges of your model. (As little white space as possible.) Then the above print parameters provide the expected results. "

That seems ridiculous, but at least it works.

8/15/2012 1:28:48 PM

FYI, it's not Google SketchUp anymore, and yes I use it regularly, but not for documenting drawings. You'll probably want to use the SketchUp Layout Tool

[Edited on August 15, 2012 at 6:54 PM. Reason : .]

8/15/2012 6:53:28 PM

^ bah, is layout only available in the $495 pro version?

I'm trying to end dumb stuff like this:



I'm spending more time trying to trick the program into letting me print on a single page than I am actually drawing the piece

[Edited on August 16, 2012 at 3:45 PM. Reason : .]

8/16/2012 3:32:15 PM

We ran into this sort of problem with Chris & his knife cutouts/designs. Layout is only in the pro version I think, & that's what you need. I think.

8/16/2012 3:46:56 PM

^ did you switch to a different program? It's not like this stuff is complicated, I just would rather have a template instead of taking the time to measure something out on a piece of wood.

8/16/2012 4:17:12 PM

Well I have sketchup pro at work, but I still ended redoing it in autocad. I work at an architectural firm

8/16/2012 8:51:35 PM