Paste in Place between Models

I was recently doing a small SketchUp consulting project for a friend who’s a landscape architect. She wanted my help with generating topographical surfaces, while she was going to concentrate on finding the right vegetation components. Because we weren’t working with any kind of fancy file-checkout system, we agreed that we’d work on the same model independently: she worked on plants and trees, I worked on topo.

Two Separate Models

On her model, she added her entourage: plants, trees, a person, a car.SketchUp paste in place 01

 

On my version, I worked on smoothing the surfaces and adding the four vertical walls on the sides of the terrain. No entourage here.sketchUp paste in place 02

 

Note that in both models, everything is in the same geo-location. The axes go off in the same directions; the origin is behind the house on the left. This is important.

Combining the Models

This part was easy: SketchUp’s little-known Paste in Place tool. Most people use this tool for moving objects in and out of components within a file. But you can also use it to copy from one file to another.

So in my friend’s model with all of the entourage, I selected all of the entourage objects she added. (Easy to do when all of these objects are on the same layer).sketchUp paste in place 03

 

I pressed Ctrl + C to copy; you can also find Copy on the Edit menu.

Then in the topography model I worked on, I chose Edit / Paste in Place. It took SketchUp a few minutes to make the transfer, but everything came in at the same exact location as in the other model.sketchUp paste in place 04

 

I wouldn’t recommend working this way on a multi-person, large project – it’s too easy to confuse versions. But for something small when two people can easily agree on their own specific tasks, Paste in Place is a great tool to have in your arsenal.

 

About Bonnie Roskes

Bonnie Roskes has been writing tutorial-style projects on 3D modeling software, primarily SketchUp, since 2001. Her website, www.3dvinci.net offers a wide variety of learning materials for all ages, from kids in grade school through design professionals. Her materials cover general 3D design, 3D printing, geometry, interior design, geo-modeling, and more, and future books are in the works. Read more about Bonnie.

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