I would like to check if there is this kind of tool/addon is available in Blender. I have been using Sketchup for quite some time but I see that Blender has improved so much lately that it is time to start learning it.
When drawing with Sketchup I think that one of the most essential tools has been Tape Measure tool, which can be used for drawing construction lines (http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/95005). I know that modeling workflow in Blender is fundamentally different but still I think that construction lines are just great when editing geometry and placing items in exact positions, for example in below picture I have placed a cylinder in exact position with the help of construction lines. Do you know any functionality or addon that would have the ability to draw similar construction lines or guides for placing objects in the model?
I have been using Sketchup for quite some time but I see that Blender has improved so much lately that it is time to start learning it.
I have used sketchup and I would have said this exactly the opposite way. Blender has always been a more full featured modeler, and even if sketchup at first glance seems very easy to use that ease conceals some serious limitations on what can be modeled with it.
In any case - although most users of Blender do not in fact use guides other than the built in grid that is visible behind ortho views and the x, y and z constraints when transforming objects, you can use empties as snapping targets like guides and place them in your scene for that purpose. Note that you can only snap to the center of an empty.
If for some reason you need even more elaborate guides you can make a mesh object, turn off its selectability (outliner), make its draw style wire only (in object properties) and use it to line things up. This allows you to snap to various other parts of I as well.
Once you get a little more experienced with blender you will be able to define transformation orientations as well and use those for very precise positioning but that’s a little outside of what we are discussing here.
Hi all, my first post here, what I think miikka1978 is talking about with regards to Sketchup Guides. is the build in volumetric snapping.
I’m a long time Sketchup user and new to blender and also find myself missing this feature.
Sketchup guilds are like construction lines and they can be set to specific distances and offsets very very quickly. you can use them to say layout a floorplan to scale, then quickly drag out geomitry with the push pull tool ( similiar to extrude face in Blender ) and have everything be exactly to scale and specified measurements.
I’m sure there are ways to do this in Blender with hotkeys and typing values. but despite Sketchup’s limitations, this is one thing it does really really well.
