# Google SketchUp: Aligning Holes



## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

As much as I've learned about SU, alignment of holes has seemed to elude me until now. Imagine trying to place these two parts on one another while aligning these two different size holes.










I came up with a technique to aid me with this problem. Maybe others have used this technique, but I've not seen it in any SU tutorials I've seen. For purposes of this example, I've hidden the top face of these two parts. Before I draw the holes, I first place a line that is located along the centerline where each hole will be drawn.










I can then place the starting circle on either tip of the line and then push/pull it to the proper depth. This is completed for the holes on each part. Now I'm ready to align the two parts.










Before starting the Move operation, it helps to Hide the floor of the upper part so the upper snap point of the lower part can be seen while placing the upper part in place. I've also hidden the side walls of the holes for this step.










Once the upper part is precisely aligned, then all of the Hidden faces can be Unhidden.










You can see how the holes are nicely aligned. One more side benefit of having these lines in your drawing is that it makes it easy for me to rotate a part around the center of a hole.










One last step I do is place this alignment line on a separate 'Alignment' layer so all these alignment aids may be easilly hidden from view in one swale foop.

If you have other methods that make this easier for you, I'd be interested in seeing your approach to this problem.


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## rep (Nov 20, 2009)

Very timely.

I have been working the last week on a PVC frame project, and was having a difficult time getting the fittings and pipes aligned. I ended up adding an intersecting plane on the inside of the pipes and fittings so I could align and rotate correctly.

I like your method better. (gotta remember to place the lines first - not sure about how to go back and add a line down the center)


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Maybe crosshair on the end of the tube, then draw the line.


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

Uhh, not to under complicate things, but did you try to just use the center snap point of the circles to align them?


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

Brad, I like undercomplicated.  I've used that for filled circles(disks), but for holes, it doesn't work for me. For holes that are the same size, I can sometime use the peak of one edge, but I sometimes have difficulty with that method. And then sometimes I need to align holes of different sizes.

Edit: Brad, I just tried that out on a hole with a huge example. It seemed to work. I'll have to try it on something smaller like a screw hole. The only problem I might have would be when there are items in the background that Moves like to 'snap' to.


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

Sometimes you have to hover the move cursor over the quadrants of the circle you want to move and then you will see the center snap marker pop up…..


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