Creating Copies with the Move and Rotate Tools

Creating Copies with the Move and Rotate Tools in SketchUp

One of the things that you’ll find yourself doing a lot of in SketchUp is creating copies of objects. Most things that you model in SketchUp contain repeating geometry (table legs, window panes, fence pickets, etc). If you can learn to utilize SketchUp’s tools to help you make these copies quickly and to put them where you want them, you can save yourself hours of modeling time in the future. This tutorial will teach you to use the move and rotate tools in SketchUp to create copies of objects.

The most basic way to create those copies is to simply select the object that you want to copy, then use the copy and paste tools in the edit toolbar. However, not only is this a very slow process, it’s very imprecise.

We’ll use the simple box below as an example.

Let’s say that I wanted to make 5 copies of this box component and place the copies spaced exactly ten feet apart along the green axis from where the original box sat. This would be a very time consuming task using the copy and paste options in the edit toolbar. I’d have to copy/paste my box, place it somewhere in the model, then draw a line from the origin point to where I wanted my box to sit, then move my box to the end of that line so I’d know my box was in the right place, then I’d have to erase the guide line that I drew, then repeat the process 3 more times. Yuck, right? This is far too many steps and is WAY too time consuming.

What I would do instead is use the “move” tool to create the copy of my box. The nice thing about the “move” tool in SketchUp is that not only does it allow you to move objects around, it allows you to make multiple copies of objects.

Go ahead and draw a box in your model (more info on drawing a 3D box can be found in my 3D doghouse tutorial). It can have any dimensions you want (mine is 4” long x 4” wide x 3” high). After you’ve drawn your box, select it, right click and select the “make component” option, labeling it “3D box.” You can find more information on the benefits of creating components in my “Basics of Groups and Components” tutorial here.

Select the box by clicking on it once. Then, select the move tool using the keyboard shortcut “M.” Then, press the “Control” key on your keyboard. This will activate copy mode.

Now, click once on the corner of your box. This will activate the move tool. When the move tool is active, you’ll be able to move anything you have selected around in your model. Since you’re in copy mode, SketchUp will create a copy of your box and move it around in your model instead of the original. If you just wanted to create a single copy and don’t care about being ultra-precise with the location of your copy, you can just click where you want your new copy to go.

However, remember that we want to make multiple copies of this box at a spacing of ten feet. The move tool allows us to do this very easily. It’s a two-step process. First, we want to set our distance. To do this, start off like you did before. Activate the move tool using the “m” key on your keyboard. Press the control key to activate copy mode. Click once on the corner of your box. However, this time, instead of clicking to place your copy, simply move your mouse in the direction you would like your copy to be created and type in a distance. In this case, type in 10’0” and hit enter. This will create a copy of your box exactly ten feet in the direction of your cursor.

However, we’re still not done. Remember, we wanted to create 5 copies of our box, right? This is simple with the move tool. Once you’ve placed the copy of your box, type in the letter “x” and the number of copies you would like to make. SketchUp will automatically create this number of copies, all spaced the same amount apart as your original and your first copy in the same direction as your first copy. If you decide you want more or fewer copies, as long as you don’t click out of the tool, you can type in “x” and a new number and hit enter, and SketchUp will automatically add to or subtract from the number of copies it creates.

In addition to being able to create multiple copies in a direction, SketchUp can also create multiple copies equally spaced between an original and an end point. For example, let’s say that instead of creating 5 copies of an object in a line spaced 10’ apart from each other, we wanted to place 8 copies of an object equally spaced within a 20’ distance. To do this, we’d follow the steps above (activate copy mode, make a copy of an object, specify a distance of 20’ for our copy), but instead of typing in “x7”, we would type in “/” and the number of copies we’d like to make. In this case, I’d type in “/7” and hit enter. This will create 7 copies of my object equally spaced between my original and my end object (and it would leave my original, giving me a total of 8 objects).

There is one more copy tool that SketchUp has that is a HUGE timesaver. What if you wanted to create copies in a circular direction instead of in a straight line? This would take FOREVER without a specialized tool. Lucky for us, SketchUp has a specialized tool that does this – the rotate tool. Now the base usage of the rotate tool is very simple – it’s a tool that rotates objects in your model. However, just like the move tool, if you press the control key while the rotate tool is active, it will create copies of your object along a circular arc using an angle you specify.

I’ll use the boxes we just created as an example. Drag a selection box around these objects to select them all. Now, select the rotate tool using the “q” key on your keyboard. Press the control key on your keyboard to activate copy mode. Just like the move tool, you need to set a base point. Click on the box where the axes intersect. Make sure that the protractor cursor is blue, indicating that you’re rotating your objects around the blue axis (Find a place on the screen where your protractor is blue, then hold down the “shift” key to lock it in. This will guarantee that you don’t accidentally change axes in the middle of this process.). Once you’ve set your base point, you’ll need to set the first point of your rotation. Click somewhere along the green axis line beyond your last box. Then, set how far you would like to rotate your copies, either by clicking on the screen or by typing in the number of degrees you would like and hitting the enter key.

Just like with the move tool, after you’ve created your initial copy, you can type in “x” and the number of copies you’d like to make to create multiple copies, or use “/” and the number of copies you’d like to make to create an equally spaced number of copies in an arc between your original and your first copy.

Try to integrate these tools into your workflow when working in SketchUp. If you can utilize the strategies above when you create copies of objects, you can save yourself a lot of extra modeling time down the road. If you’re looking for more tips to help you save time when modeling, enter your email address below to download a free copy of my guide “10 Timesaving Tips in SketchUp.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________