Aligning 2 3d grouped objects

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1

I’m trying to use Umake to model cabinets. SketchUp is my preferred tool but I want something for iPad. Since this app can’t resist connecting adjacent objects I’ve tried grouping them. This keeps touching faces and lines from glueing themselves together. However, it seems to be impossible to snap them together. I’ve seen all the videos and read all the related posts. Nothing works. If someone can instruct, please include a video. If you need an example simply create two 3d boxes grouped separately. Now try to align an adjacent face, then a 2nd face

2

Hi @bnieco

You are correct we do connect adjacent objects if they are not in a group.
At the moment you cannot snap into objects in groups, however groups object do snap to curves and surfaces that are not in a group, the app behaves that way so that the snapping feature won’t slow down the app because groups might be big and snaps calculations can get heavy. However I am happy to let you know that we did some major infrastructure improvement so that from the coming release (3.5 that will be release in 1-2 weeks or so) snapping to groups will be possible.

In the meantime I suggests one of these workarounds:

  1. Group the objects the same as you do now but leave the objects you want to snap to as flat objects that are not in group.
  2. Use the cut paste feature - if you don’t want adjacent objects to move along with the object that you move/rotate/scale you can press on the scissors icon and they will be disconnected after the transformation.

I hope that helps.
Please let me know if I can further assist.

Yaniv,
Lead Developer,
uMake

3

Thank you Yaniv. I’ve been using method 1 by ungonping one of the two and regrouping again after alignment. I’ll play with method 2. Either is a bit cumbersome during builds of 30-100 parts so I’m very grateful for the coming update! After the update I may add thin to my youtube channel. This could become a powerful tool for the woodworking community- professional and amateur.

4

Happy to help @bnieco
Would love to see these videos when you’ll add them.

Yaniv

5

Is this actually true? I’m using 3.7.3 and can’t seem to figure out how to snap to items that are grouped. This makes it nearly impossible to create precise drawing in uMake.

6

Hi @fab1452,

Groups now support snapping. Here’s a quick video I made that can explain how you can use it in your designs.

The key here is to define the pivot point of the group (tap once on the pivot point, then drag it to define its location) then use it as your anchor point to snap the object to other groups.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks,
Evi

7

Cool! It’s pretty complicated, but I finally got it to work. I now notice the video in the 3.5 release notes, but it doesn’t mention/show the pivot point adjustment.

Is this pivot point described in any of your videos? I can’t find a demonstration of it, and had no idea it existed or could be moved.

8

You right. We need to add a special video about just the pivot point or to update our ‘Selection’ video. Wil add it as a task for us to do in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks!

Evi

9

Please list all videos about how to group objects:

10

Hi @Joseph , thanks for the question, here’s how to group objects:

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Evi