The Push/Pull tool is one of the fundamental tools in SketchUp. It is probably the most commonly used tool for making your models 3D and for modifying them. The Push/Pull tool has a couple of limitations, though. It can only extrude a face along the face’s normal; in other words, perpendicular to the face. And it can only extrude a single face at a time.

There is a plugin set which has been around for a long time which overcomes these limitations. It is called Joint Push/Pull (JPP for short). It actually consists of three tools: Joint Push/Pull, Vector Push/Pull and Normal Push/Pull. The first is useful for working on curved surfaces and the last is just like the native tool. Vector Push/Pull is what we’ll use for the dovetails on this sea chest. It will allow us to push away the waste in the dovetail joints at an angle to the faces.

This chest is based one from the early 1930s and it looks like an interesting project for hand cut dovetail practice even if you aren’t going to put to sea.

-Dave