Line Tool

Use the Line Tool to draw edges or Line entities. Line entities can be joined to form a face. The Line Tool can also be used to divide faces or heal deleted faces. Activate the Line Tool from either the Drawing Toolbar or the Draw menu.

Keyboard Shortcut: L

Drawing a Line

Lines can be placed on existing faces or separate from existing geometry. To draw a Line:

1. Select the Line Tool. The cursor changes to a pencil.
2. Click to set the starting point of your line.

Note - Press the Esc key at any point during the operation to start over.

3. Move the cursor to the ending point of your line. As you draw a line, the length is displayed dynamically in the Value Control Box (VCB).

4. Click to draw your line. This ending point can also be the starting point of another line.

The line length can be specified precisely using the VCB either before clicking the second point or immediately after the line has been drawn. See Specifying Precise Line Values for further information on using the VCB with Line entities.

Tip - Alternately, you can click and hold the mouse button to set the starting point of the line, and drag outward without releasing the button to set the length. Release the mouse button to complete the line. See the Drawing panel of the Preferences dialog box for further information on setting drawing behavior.

Creating a Face

The Line Tool will remain at the ending point of every line you create. This end point is automatically treated as a starting point for another line. You can create another line by moving the cursor and clicking again from this new starting point. These two lines are said to be coplanar, intersecting lines (intersecting at starting and ending points).

Three or more coplanar lines, intersecting at their ending and starting points (forming a loop), generate a Face entity. Ensure that the Endpoint inferencetooltip is visible whenever you close a Face entity to ensure that any lines you draw are continuous. The Line Tool is released but is still active after a face has been created.

Tip - Set the display settings (Window > Display Settings ) to the Shaded rendering style to clearly show new faces as they are created.

Splitting a Face

Draw a line with starting and ending points on the face's edges to split a face. The following image shows a rectangle being split when a line is drawn from one edge of a face to another opposite edge.

Integrating Lines

Occasionally, overlapping lines will not be split or integrate with a face. Any lines that are not part of a face perimeter will be displayed with a thicker line (left-most image below) . The Profile Edge rendering style must be enabled in the Display Settings dialog box to see this behavior.

Use the Line Tool to trace along an existing line to attempt to split overlapping lines. SketchUp will re-analyze your geometry and attempt to reintegrate the line. The following images show a bold line that did not effectively split a face (left-most image). The line was traced (middle-image) and the line became thin indicating that the line was reintegrated.

Splitting a Line

SketchUp automatically splits line segments when new lines are drawn perpendicular to a line. For example, draw a new line to the midpoint (identified by a cyan square) of another line to split a line in half. The following example shows one line being intersected at the midpoint, resulting in two lines.

Select the original line to verify that the line has been split into two equal segments.

Dividing a Line into Equal Segments

Line segments can be divided into any number of equal line segments. To divide a line into equal segments:

1. Context-click on a line.
2. Select Divide from the context menu. SketchUp will place points on the line to show where the line will be divided.
3. Move the cursor toward the center of the line to reduce the number of segments. Move cursor toward either end of the line to increase the number of segments.
4. Click on the line when the number of segments you would like is shown. The line will be divided into an equal number of joined line segments.

Specifying Precise Line Values

The VCB displays the length of your line while you are drawing lines. You can also specify a line length value using the VCB.

Entering a Length Value

The VCB label indicates "Length" after you place the starting point of a line. The following image shows the length value in the VCB.

Type the length into the VCB, after placing the starting point of the line, and press the Enter or Return key. SketchUp will use the current document units setting if you only type in a numerical value. You can also specify either Imperial (1'6”) or Metric (3.652m) units at any time, regardless the model units setting.

Note - The Line Tool will snap to any previously entered length within the VCB.

Entering a 3D Coordinate

The VCB can also be used to place the end of the line at an exact coordinate in space.

Entering an Absolute Coordinate: Type in the coordinates of a point in 3D space enclosed by brackets, such as [x, y, z], to get absolute coordinates relative to the current axes.

Entering a Relative Coordinate: Type the coordinate points enclosed by angle brackets, in the format <x, y, z>, where x, y, and z values are relative distances from the starting point of your line.

Note - The exact format for VCB entries will vary depending on your computer's Regional Settings. For European users, the list separator symbol may be a semi-colon instead of a comma, so the format would be
[x; y; z].

Drawing Lines by Inference

The Line Tool uses SketchUp's sophisticated geometric inference engine to help you place your lines in 3D space. The inference decisions, made by the inference engine, are displayed in the drawing area as inference lines and inference points. These lines and points show precise alignment between the line you are drawing and the geometry of your model. Refer to the inference engine topic for additional information.

Locking a Line to the Current Inference Direction

Press and hold the Shift key, while the line you are drawing is the specific color of an axis, to lock drawing operation to that axis.

Locking a Line to a Specific Inference Direction

Press and hold either the up arrow, left arrow, or right arrow keys, where the up arrow equals blue, left arrow equals green, right arrow equals red, while drawing a line to lock the line to a specific axis.