CTS Wall Groove Pro
The retained Wall Groove tool is now a separate extension. Surface, line, curve and closed-path operations use the same cutting engine and settings as the combined CTS Smart Opening Pro toolbar.
Install or update
- Open Extensions → Extension Manager → Install Extension and select CTS_Wall_Groove_Pro_V1.0.1.rbz.
- Fully restart SketchUp after updating.
- Show View → Toolbars → CTS Wall Groove Pro.
Connected planar patterns are planned vertical first, then the remaining directions. Later strips are trimmed at the earlier strips before one joined cut is applied. Loose, grouped and nested targets use the same editing workflow.
Requires SketchUp Desktop 2021 or newer. Closed-solid Through subtraction requires the native Solid Tools Ruby operations. The separate CTS Smart Opening Pro extension can be installed alongside it; neither extension requires the other.
Create grooves
- Click Wall Groove. Select the required surface or connected curved surface. Nested group/component picking remains available.
- Use the original direction, spacing/count, width and depth settings. Selected Line mode follows selected lines, curves or closed paths.
- Choose entered depth or Through Surface. The picked surface controls the intended material side.
- Click Create Grooves. Use Create Another to pick a new target.
Horizontal, vertical and inclined surfaces retain their existing planning. Curved surface division is distributed across the selected connected surface; hard adjacent faces stay outside the selected scope. Through uses world depth and reaches the back of the selected target.
Closed coplanar paths create a hollow ribbon groove and retain their centre island. Through on a zero-thickness planar sheet removes the ribbon region without inventing thickness. Open/nonplanar paths retain the original Follow Me cutting route.
Wall Groove
The Wall Groove toolbar command retains the supplied groove engine and its native workflows, including its Through-surface depth choice.
Click the face you want to groove. Selection stops at hard edges, including coplanar partitions and shallow wall corners. Only facets joined by softened edges select together as a curved surface. Shift-click selects one facet; click another face explicitly to include it. Selected-line grooves use the picked guide's own surface; a guide drawn on the wall can use the two coplanar faces directly bordering that guide.
Copied groups/components are isolated automatically before grooving, including shared enclosing groups. Only picked copies receive new grooves. Isolation and cutting belong to one Undo operation. After Undo/Redo, use Create Another and pick the current faces; an older preview cannot reuse replaced geometry.
Pick Groove Start Point optionally sets the exact first groove centre using the Snapping checkbox and native inference markers. Top / Right extends the layout backward; Bottom / Left extends it forward. Spacing remains the same, while selected surface limits may reduce the groove count. Clear Start Point returns to automatic placement. Selected-line grooves follow their existing drawn guide paths.
The groove dialog also provides Continue surface material on cut walls. Enable it to use the selected surface finish on new groove walls and bottoms, or disable it for the normal result. Unpainted surfaces receive no override.
Through Surface uses automatic target depth and forces Inside output; the output and numeric depth controls are disabled in this mode. Its computed distance includes the target's nested world scale. It has no ten-inch thickness limit. Face-picked Through grooves use closed solid targets. Selected-line Through grooves also work on flat sheets without thickness.
For a closed four-corner guide, select all connected edges of the loop. The selected-line tool makes a continuous hollow ribbon around the path and retains the central region. Closed loops keep their closure even with Extend to Wall Edges; the extra length applies to open path ends. Through removes the ribbon from a flat sheet without adding thickness.
Thin patterns from selected lines
- Use Use Existing / Selected Lines and click one interior guide. Its connected pattern highlights together; wall perimeter edges are left out. Click another disconnected pattern to add it. Shift-click adjusts one segment. Preselected interior guides also expand to their connected pattern. Press Enter.
- For straight groove sides, keep Outside Width and Inside Width equal. Choose a depth or Through Surface. Selected Portion keeps the drawn ends; Extend to Wall Edges extends only free ends and retains all internal junctions.
- Click Create Grooves. Planar branches share one cut region, with trimmed elbow, T, X and closed-loop joints. Through cuts use the same joined outline on solids and flat sheets. Existing openings and panel islands remain outside the cut.
Select the whole connected pattern once. The tool identifies vertical in the surface's own plane, keeps that strip continuous, then trims the remaining directions against it. Only the final outer cut boundary is drawn. T-Patti caps and stems use the same direction order at their own widths. Tapered profiles and curved paths retain their established cutting routes.
Inspect & Repair Pattern
Inspection is optional for normal groove and T-Patti creation. For troubleshooting, open About & Support > Inspect & Repair Pattern. Pick the complete pattern, press Enter and set the groove and optional T-Patti dimensions. Click Inspect Native Cut. It runs the actual groove operation, including native face creation, final size restoration, materials and T-Patti placement, then cancels that temporary test and restores the original surface. A numerical mesh check alone does not count as a pass.
If the test fails, click Repair & Retest. Repair tries alternate diagonals inside adjacent coplanar generated faces. It preserves the patch boundary, corner coordinates and source/material regions. It does not bridge real gaps or flatten curved patches. Create stays disabled if the native test still fails. Changing the model or parameters requires another inspection. Repair cannot guarantee a solution for every native geometry failure; save the error report when repair remains unsuccessful.
A passed repaired test carries the same repair option into Create and saved groove updates. The test does not leave a cut or a temporary group on the wall and does not add a permanent Undo step. Existing face and guide references are recovered after its cancelled operation.
Optional T-Patti inserts
- At the top of either groove window, find T-Patti Inlay and enable T-Patti. It follows your selected guide-line pattern or the surface groove layout.
- Set T-Patti Size · Face Width. The default visible width is 10 mm; explicit SketchUp length units are accepted.
- Create or update the grooves. The tool uses an automatic 1.2 mm slot and 5.5 mm recess, with a modeled 0.65 mm cap/stem and 5 mm inserted stem. The slot parameters are shown and locked while T-Patti is enabled.
The insert is actual T-section geometry in a separate gold material group, centered over the slot. Wall and trim remain separate so the wall's solid leaf stays available for later cutting. Corners, T/cross junctions and facet joins use shared trimmed geometry instead of overlapping bars; existing face boundaries and openings clip the insert.
Use Edit Groove to change the latest insert's width or disable it. Update replaces that operation's previous trim together with its groove in one Undo operation; earlier groove applications stay in the saved base. Disabling T-Patti restores the prior plain-groove parameters. Native material tools can repaint the named CTS T-Patti Gold material.
The linked T-Patti product reference informed the modeled section. Automatic slot width and clearance are tool defaults, not supplier installation specifications.
Snapping and materials
Use Pick Start Point to place the first groove centre with native endpoints, midpoints, centres and intersections. Toggle Snapping in the original controls. Continue surface material uses each modeled local material region on new cut walls; existing exterior finishes retain their identities.
Undo and Redo
Native Undo/Redo remains available. Model history refresh clears stale picks after Undo, Redo, copies and changed editing contexts; pick the target again when requested. A failed cut aborts its model operation and displays the actual error.
About & Support
The toolbar contains Wall Groove, Edit Groove and About & Support. The orange information button opens version information, updates, help, optional Inspect & Repair Pattern and bug-report links at CAD Tools Studio.
Verification
Geometry and UI-boundary automated checks run outside SketchUp. Native viewport, Boolean, edit/Undo and saved-model behavior must also be checked in SketchUp Desktop. Performance depends on model complexity; a universal 0.01-second result cannot be guaranteed.
Edit Groove
Click Edit Groove, then pick a saved grooved target, or select it and choose CTS · Edit Latest Grooves… on right-click. The original surface or Lines & Curves window opens with saved parameters. Change the values, then click Update Grooves. The latest saved groove operation is rebuilt from its immutable uncut base in one Undo operation; earlier openings and grooves stay as they were before that operation.
New grooves retain edit data in the SKP. Copied targets can be updated independently, including translated copies; changing rotation, scale or mirroring after creation requires returning to the saved orientation before updating. A later manual geometry, face-material assignment or target-content change blocks an update so it cannot be overwritten. Earlier versions did not save an uncut base and cannot be reconstructed automatically. Targets containing active Smart Opening saved links, or used as linked 2D profile sources, are guarded against independent groove editing so their entity references are not broken. Ordinary geometric openings remain part of the saved base. For loose surfaces, only the selected connected raw geometry is isolated into a CTS Groove Surface group within the creation operation.