First post - can I do this?
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Hi -
I'm an apprentice woodworker with two kitchens and several bathrooms to build. It's a solution to unemployment - don't pay others to do things if you have the time and are foolish enough to volunteer.
Anyway, I've created models for everything in Sketchup, with all the components properly named. I'm using the awesome cutlist plug in made by Steve in NZ. So, I take my list down to the local building materials store (I'm in France, but I'm American, which leads to an ongoing metric/US measurements brain war inside my head...), and I find out that plywood doesn't come in 18mm thickness, it comes in 19mm, and it's not 6mm, it's 5, etc. etc. etc.
Now, I'm aware that nominal thickness isn't always exact, but I do know that with fully inset cabinet doors, the possibility of a 2mm gap won't work. So, I need get the materials, see what the real measurements are, and then go back into what has become a very complicated model and change the thickness of every single component. Rather than spend the next couple of days with the push/pull or scale tool, here's my question:
Is there any way to globally search for and change dimensions? In other words, find every instance where a component is 18mm thick and change it to 19mm?
I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but hopefully someone can help.
Many thanks!
Myles
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I tried this plugin, able also to resize boards. You create a board, a panel, whatever you like, you make it a component and then you resize it, if needed.
Check it here!
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=17076Luca
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Thanks, Luca, I'll give them a try.
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Keep in mind that changing the thickness of components won't affect the length of others. For example, if you change the side panel thickness to 19mm from 18mm, you'll still need to change the width of the door(s) and the length of the bottom, top and shelves to make them correct. If you don't, and just work with the existing length/width dimensions, the cabinet will just get wider and you'll still have the gaps.
It would be possible to deal with that if you were making dynamic components but that would require the pro version and some setup.
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Aboslutely, Dave, there will still be a lot of nudging to do. Just trying to automate as much of it as possible - you know, that thing computers were supposed to be so good at!
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tooold, I, too, work in the custom woodwork/mill work field and find plywood to be one of the least consistent (unless you expect it to be inconsistent, then it would be consistently inconsistent, but i digress) materials that you get to work with. I sympathize completely that gaps are undesirable but 2 mm (roughly 5/64ths?) is not the worst thing in the world. Obviously, strive for perfection but you have accept some of the limitations of the materials available.
Even if you are doing the finest of beaded face frames with inset cabinet doors, you are going to need a gap of 1/16th around your doors for them to function. Could you not account for that 2 mm difference in plywood in the fitting of your doors? Pilasters can cover gaps between cabinets if you follow a more modular format of construction (and are doing more traditional cabinets).
When fitting lengths of cabinets across an elevation, I've found that your plywood being what it is (3/4" or 11/16" or 23/32" or their metric equivalents) can be accommodated through your construction techniques. Maybe I'm stating the obvious, and please stop me from rambling, but, for example, if you want a 24" wide cabinet (let's assume Euro, frame-less construction), and you are milling rabbets / dados to assemble the boxes, instead of milling a 1/4" deep rabbet in the plywood (which would leave 7/16 in 11/16 plywood or 15/32 in 23/32 plywood) mill your dado so it leaves 1/2" of material left. This will leave your outside dimensions consistent and you can accommodate lengths/widths of other components in your shop drawings.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if I should elaborate further or just keep quiet
best,
cb -
Charles, I'm with you all the way. Just trying to control the variables I can control - it's nice to have a plan with no huge flaws at some point in the process (and the beginning is always a good spot for that), just so you can see how far away from it the final product comes out to be...
I'm also a rank beginner at both Sketchup and woodworking, so paranoia about pretty much everything seems to be the fallback position.
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