The “Follow me” tool (3)

In this example I will place a roof on the house using the “Follow Me” tool and the “Protractor” tool.
I have already drawn a house with two floors and a garage. By now, you would know how you do this.
For clarity, I have indicated it in the figure below.

Now, to get yourself a roof you would have to make a line in the middle of the upper cube and draw it up with the “Move” tool and you immediately have a roof. It is not much, but you will have a roof.

In this lesson we’re going to make a roof that is nicer and more modern.

We make use of the “Line” tool, the ‘Protractor’ tool, the “Tape Measure” tool and “Follow me” tool.

The First thing we do is to draw a number of construction lines with the “Tape Measure” tool, this will help us draw easily.

 

When we select this tool in the tool bar and we move the mouse pointer in the drawing area, you see that the pointer is changed to an icon of a measuring instrument with a plus sign above it.
Click on the edge of the top floor, it does not matter where you click as long as SketchUp displays the text “On Edge” (on Edge).
Move the mouse up and click again when you’ve reached the distance you want between the top of the figure and the construction line. It is easier when you use the VCB box.
In other words, use the mouse pointer to move up by the distance you entered in the box and click.
Our first construction line is set, this will help us later on to determine the height of the roof.

I position the second construction line next to the right edge of the house.
This will help me when I determine the overhang of the roof.

So we do the same, you place the cursor on the right edge of the house, click, type the distance and press the Enter key on your keyboard.
When draw construction lines, just make sure that they are parallel to the axis on which you draw. You can see the color of the arrow between the beginning and end of the construction line in the drawing below, that is “red”.

 

And finally I have to determine the slope of the roof.

For setting this construction line I use the “Protractor”.                   

When you move the mouse pointer over an object you can see that, just as with the “Rotate” tool, the protractor itself behaves like a magnet.

 

Move the mouse pointer over the anterior surface of the house so that the color of the protractor changes to green. Keep the Shift key on your keyboard pressed so that when we move our mouse, the protractor always remains aligned with the green axis.
Click for the first time at the intersection of the two previous construction lines.
Move the mouse over the horizontal construction line.
Click for the second time on the horizontal construction line.

Release the Shift key on your keyboard.
Move the mouse pointer up and you click for a third time.
Type a slope for your roof and click Enter.

 

In the next lesson we will put the roof on, before it starts to rain.

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