sketchUcation

We can certainly read a lot about what the basic difference between texturing a component or group "from outside" (its editing context) or by editing it and applying the materials directly to the faces. Here is a basic intro about the differences in the SketchUp Help Center.

This tutorial is not about these trivia but about a common mistake when sometimes even experienced users are stumped (especially with models made by others). The "symptom" usually is that people are trying to pull their hair because they simply cannot position the material and do not know why.

For new users, it is often extremely frustrating that they cannot seem to align the Rotate or Protractor tools in any, arbitrary direction / angle. Below are some basic tips on how to do this easily. Some of what is written here can be applied for the Circle, Polygon or Rectangle tools as well.

To practice any of the methods below, best is to create a simple model which has some edges/faces that are not aligned to any of the world axes and major planes defined by them. Group your geometry first and pre-select it before starting the Rotate (or in other cases the Move) operation. Of course, for the Protractor tool, you need not pre-select anything.

Today you will learn how to make a spiralling stairs when you have no CAD files only an image. In this image you can see that we have key dimensions to work from like the stairs width and the inner and outer radii.

This method uses no plugins and requires only a basic understanding of SketchUp. So regardless of your user level you are sure to find some useful tips in this tutorial.