SMART OPENINGS IN SKETCHUP with Flex Tools
In this video, learn about FlexTools – the SketchUp extension for creating smart objects like doors, windows, and more! This extension is built on SketchUp’s dynamic components engine and allows you to quickly and easily place doors, windows, louvers, and other objects within openings in your SketchUp models!
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FLEXTOOLS LINK (Affiliate Link)
http://www.thesketchupessentials.com/flextools
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Plugin Name:
Flex Tools
Plugin Developer: Flex Tools
Plugin Cost: Around $33 for one component, or around $114 USD
Where can you get it? You can get it by visiting www.thesketchupessentials.com/flextools (affiliate link)
Tool Functions –
FlexTools is a series of opening creation tools built on top of SketchUp’s dynamic components engine. Basically what that means is that this extension contains responsive objects that scale and adjust to openings automatically.
The nice thing about these components is that they resize without any kind of distortion. The problem with regular door components is if you scale them to fit them in an opening, not only the door, but also the frames will resize and distort.
With these dynamic components, only the parts of the component that are supposed to resize, like the door, or the glass in a window.
All you have to do is take the objects, drop them in the opening, and use the scaling options to size the objects to your opening.
In addition, all the objects are fully customizable as dynamic components, allowing you to adjust things like depth, height, frame size, whether doors are open or not, number of window panels, and more!
The tools in this toolset include doors, windows, trapezoidal windows, slat openings, and a flex panel. In addition, new components are being added all the time.
You can toggle the option for “Cutter” to turn on components that cut openings in single faces. At the moment, components can’t cut openings in double walls, though they should be coming out with a tool soon that will within flex tools.
In addition, FlexTools also comes with several tools for working with components, including Zapper, which removes dynamic behaviors from objects, cleaner, which deletes deeply hidden nested geometry, and Planview, which will turn on and off FlexTools objects in your model which aren’t optimized for 2D plans.
When you activate Planview, all FlexTools objects get switched to planview mode, which means that your objects get optimized for use with the section plane tool to create plans in Layout.
Overall, I like the simplicity of this extension. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spend hours and hours in the past modeling doors and windows,and having the ability to simply drop doors and windows into your models is very valuable.
About Justin Geis
Hi, I'm Justin Geis, and I'm the founder of The SketchUp Essentials. I started using SketchUp as part of my work as a general contractor in 2008. I quickly realized the power of the software and started using it for personal projects. I started The SketchUp Essentials as a place to share easy to follow SketchUp tutorials and tips to help everyone harness the power of 3D Modeling in their lives. When not working with SketchUp, I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my wife and our two dogs.
