Drawing Multiple Tangent Arcs
What if you wanted to draw a series of multiple arcs, such as those that appear in Figure 4.5?
FIGURE 4.5 Multiple connected arcs.
The trick is making each new arc tangent to the previous arc so that the series of arcs appears smooth—and SketchUp can help. Here’s how:
1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and delete the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template by default.
2. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar and move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw.
3. Move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw and click the mouse. When you do, you anchor an end point of the arc you’re drawing at the location.
4. Move the mouse to the end point of the new arc you’re drawing and click the mouse. When you do, a line appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.
5. Slide the mouse along the line between the two end points, and move the mouse to “pull” the line out into an arc and click the mouse. The arc becomes permanent (unless you erase it, of
course).
6. Click the end point of the arc you want to continue and move the mouse away from the end point. As you do, SketchUp will draw a new arc in blue tangent to the old arc.
7. Move the mouse to the new arc’s end point and click the mouse. The new arc becomes permanent.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for additional arcs. That’s it—now you can draw all kinds of fancy spirals.
Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes
