Coming from solid modeling (Pro/E, SolidWorks, Catia)
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Is anyone here familiar with any professional solid modeling software? I have a couple thousand hours of experience with Pro/E and so I suspect I am fairly engrained in their modeling mindset. I am hoping someone here can either get my terminology right or verify that SketchUP can't do what I want.
I am very used to capturing design intent such that I end up with the final result I was looking for rather than dragging stuff back and forth until it happens to be where I wanted it. Let's try a simple example. I have a block with a hole in the middle. I then want to make the block wider but keep it the same height and keep the hole in the middle (which means the hole has moved as the block got wider). Can this be done in SketchUP? Or will I have to manually move the hole if I ever resize the block?
A related question would be, can you setup dimensions so that they control the model rather than just monitoring it?
Regardless, I am a big fan of free (and especially open source...) software. But, SketchUP may just not be able to do what I want. Thanks for any pointers.
-kyle
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u can select the block and deselect the hole and the up and down face later pick up the scale tool press control and make it wider in x and z axys don t forget to resize it same in both axys
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Thanks for the reply, but I think I need to clarify my example. The idea is to be able to create the hole in such a way that it stays in the middle of the face regardless of how I resize the block in any dimension. And that the hole stays round. I don't actually need to do this particularly, but it is a basic use of the tools provided by solid modeling software.
-kyle
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Dear Kyle,
The simple answer is no. I use Inventor and know exactly what you mean. Sketchup doesn't offer parametric modelling, and neither does it have the functionality to produce standard, dimensioned drawings from the 3D model. I use Sketchup as a front-end design tool for working through design options, and find it it very useful when used in this way. In the case of Inventor, one can export models, via AutoCAD, into Sketchup and then use Sketchup's free-flow modelling to tweak designs before making changes to the Inventor model. Perhaps I could do all of this in Inventor if I were more skilled, but I am not and so I make use of the tools I have. I also find that my Inventor models are cleaner and have fewer steps because I pretty much know what the part looks like before I start, which is big bonus.
Kind regards,
Bb -
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G'Day Kyle, and folks
you could always try using the scale about center, using the scale tool hold ctrl and scale to size required hole will stay centered , but will increase in size as you scale the cube
just a thought
Robert
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Hi Jean,
I had about the same idea as you. One comment though; in your step 4 you need not even redraw the segments on the ellipse just delete it - the face will "heal" itself. Then just explode the cylinder and intersect it with the block.
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Whats all this about redrawing the circle? If you just select the 2 end faces you can scale them straight off, no need to bother redrawing anything.
Saying that, all this is kind of beside the point, SU cant do proper parametric modelling. True it has some very basic functionality in its auto stretching (or whatever they call it) but its not the same.
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Dear All,
Perhaps Oscarlok's dimensions plugin (still a work in progress I believe), might add a little more functionality to dimensioning.
Just to remind you:
Regards,
Bob -
Bob
Is that a ruby script ? It looks good
Andrew -
Smart (Interactive) Dimensioning was proposed quite a while ago by Rick Haws
See this:
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=1875//urland this
http://www.cadnomics.com/3D-movie.htm
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Initially, it looked very promising.
Hopefully, future development will finish this plug-in off.
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Howard L' -
Hi Remus, hi folks.
Good trick about selecting the two faces. Using symmetrical scaling do the trick and you can type an exact value in the VCB.
Thanks.
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