AMAZING SHAPE TRANSFORMATIONS in SketchUp with S4U Transformer
In today’s video, we’re going to check out a SketchUp extension that allows you to create amazing shapes in SketchUp by transforming multiple different components in different ways.
S4U Transformer is a SketchUp extension designed to help apply transformations to objects in SketchUp. This powerful extension lets you apply transformations in linear, circular, and other formats to transform multiple different groups and components in SketchUp!
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Plugin Name –
S4U Transformer
Plugin Developer – Huyn Duong Phuong Vi (S4U)
Plugin Cost – $15
Where can you get it? You can download it from the SketchUp extension warehouse
S4U TRANSFORMER LINK
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/s4u-transformer
S4U Tool Functions
This extension contains a large number of options for editing multiple objects at once inside SketchUp, including moving, scaling, rotating, coloring, and more. When tied together, this combination creates a HUGE number of possibilities to create new shapes inside of SketchUp.
The way it works is pretty simple – you just select a number of different objects within SketchUp, then select one of the transformation tools in order to start transforming objects.
For example, let’s select this series of boxes – if we were to select the first option in here – the transformer scale option, we could set it to scale all of our boxes by a fixed amount by typing in a value. By right clicking on your selection, you’ll bring up a number of different options for things you can do to edit your transformation.
You can set the kind of transformation, as well as where the transformation starts (the origin, center, bottom, top, etc), and the axis along which the transformation occurs.
If you tap the tab key, you’re taking to a menu where you can more precisely set the functions of your transformation.
For example, if I wanted to double the size of all my selected objects, I could set the start point to the origin, the scale type to ratio, and the value to 2. This would double the size of all my boxes.
However, lets say that I wanted to set this so that it dynamically scales all the boxes so that the scale factor is stronger on one side than the other? You can do that as well by using the linear scale factor.
Linear scale means that the transformation gets stronger or weaker along a line that you dictate. To activate it, you would activate transformer, right click, go down and select the option you’d like, then select the option for linear transformation. Click to set your base point and draw a line across your selection, then click again. As you can see, this applies a transformation across your object, transforming all your objects in a linear fashion.
There’s also options for randomizing and placing along points, though I haven’t quite figured that one out yet.
The move option has a fascinating option for moving objects “to highest,” which allows you to move objects until they intersect with a face, letting you place objects along a complex surface really easily.
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.
