Boring shapes and cutting legs

Ojimaru · 4 May 2009, 06:21

Hello,

I'm used to the horrid ol' ProDesktop and a little smattering of ProEngineer. Turned to SketchUp recently since those professional programs are a little out of my budget range. I've gone through the tutorials Google was so kind to provide and am now working on random projects as practice.

Right now I've have two remaining problems that I need help with:

The first involves modelling a cylinder block with a feature carved into the model. Say, for this example, a housing for the top end of a shaft and ball bearing ring. (I'd post a picture of what I intend if somebody could recommend a decent image sharing site.)

The second was when I tried to expand upon the chair modelling tutorial from Google. I wanted this model to have a cylindrical leg with a profile cut out. However, I soon found out that Sketchup wouldn't allow me to select the profile area that appeared inside the cylinder. Is the only proper way to do this by drawing out the profile before-hand and extrude it along a circle?

One last tip I'd also like: what's the best practice for dragging a Follow-me profile to and from a single point?

remus · 4 May 2009, 07:19

For the image hosting: http://www.imagehosting.com/

I cant really see what your describing, i'll wait for the image (and the early morning mind haze to clear.)
As you suggested the easiest way to do it is to draw your profile first then do the follow-me. Im sure you could do it on the existing cylinder if you mess around with section planes, but it would probably get quite messy.
Ive found the easiest way to move a profile is to select it->click the move tool->press ctrl once to make it a copy move->click your profile->click where you want to put it->delete the old profile. Its a bit long winded but it stops any issues with autofolding.

Jean Lemire · 4 May 2009, 15:54

Hi Ojimaru, hi folks.

See attached SU file for ideas.

Indenting cylider block.skp

Ojimaru · 5 May 2009, 02:48

Thanks for the replies.

Here's what I had in mind (for the first query):

B is one of the shaft that will be inserted into A. What I want is to bore a housing for said end.

I may have two possible workarounds; will update later in the day.

EDIT:
Went through some tutorials and had a moment of inspiration:

Copy the finished block,
Flip it around,
Move it to position and
Hide seams as needed.

I'd sincerely like any faster alternative methods or feedback.

Thanks again.

xrok1 · 5 May 2009, 03:37

try select all then right click >intersect selected

Ojimaru · 5 May 2009, 05:16

Further investigation led me to this tutorial . Hence splitting the cylinder in half is redundant in some cases.

xrok1 · 5 May 2009, 23:42

ahhh!

Ojimaru · 6 May 2009, 03:11

Okay, new hiccup >.>

Was following this tutorial by the SketchupShow to create a sphere. But every sphere I've made comes out like this:

What am I doing wrong?

Gaieus · 6 May 2009, 03:34

Hi Lim, Hi Bruce,

I think the problem is different. My suggestion is that your model is very tiny (in millimetres or farctions of inches) therefore the very small faces don't fill (this is a known issue in SU).

The general workaround is to model bigger and if you really need that small size, scale your model down when finished.

BTW there is a way easier way to make a sphere

Ojimaru · 6 May 2009, 03:55

@gaieus said:

Hi Lim, Hi Bruce,

I think the problem is different. My suggestion is that your model is very tiny (in millimetres or farctions of inches) therefore the very small faces don't fill (this is a known issue in SU).

The general workaround is to model bigger and if you really need that small size, scale your model down when finished.

BTW there is a way easier way to make a sphere

Ah, that makes a lot of sense! And further testing has revealed it to be true, too!

Ojimaru · 6 May 2009, 04:47

For the sphere, my original model had a radius of 8 mm. Apparently Sketchup has a minimal area size, thus disallowing it to draw the tiny segment areas at the top and bottom of the sphere.

Also, the "simplest" way I can think of drawing a sphere is with that plugin (found somewhere or other).

Jean Lemire · 6 May 2009, 14:14

Hi folks.

Beside loading an already made sphere from the component, I think it is difficult to use less steps than:

1 - Select the Circle Tool. One click

2 - Orbit to view a screen facing mostly in a Face View or use the icon for Face View. One click.

3 - Draw a circle on the vertical plane defined by the red and blue axes. Its diameter will be the diameter of the sphere. Two clicks

4 - Orbit to view a screen showing a 3D view or at least looking down somewhat or use the icon for Iso View. One click.

5 - Draw another circle on the horizontal plane defined by the red and green axes. Its diameter is of no importance since it will only act as a path for the "Follow me" Tool. Two clicks.

6 - Select the circle just drawn at step 5. One click.

7 - Select the "Follow me" Tool. One click.

8 - Click once on the vertical circle to create the sphere. One click.

It takes 10 clicks and a few mouse movements to do that. When you get the hang of it, it takes about 20 seconds to create a sphere.

Two things to keep in mind:

1 - In step 5, make sure that the center of the horizontal circle is aligned vertically with the center of the vertical circle.

2 - Make sure that no edge in the sphere will be smalle than about 1 millimeters or 1/16 of an inch. Otherwise, some faces will not close and the sphere will have holes in it. The workaround, as already explained, is to model larger and then scale down when done.

Just ideas.

Gaieus · 6 May 2009, 16:08

And this is Jean's way (simpler on the video than in his explanation):

[flash=600,400:2vxajcs3]http://www.youtube.com/v/4g5NQjNAYvI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0[/flash:2vxajcs3]

Seydell · 7 May 2009, 14:12

Hi Gaieus,

I was wondering how you are able to orient the circle so quickly on different planes. I noticed the slightly different circle cursor. Could you explain. It is a bit late now in OZ time, and I probably have missed the explanation you gave.
Thanks.

Seydell

Seydell · 7 May 2009, 15:12

Thanks for the explanation. I have not used the standard view icons so far, trying to do everything in iso/perspective. Can see the advantage now.

Jean Lemire · 7 May 2009, 19:22

Hi Seydell, hi folks.

Try this:

Select the Iso View.
Select the Circle Tool, the cursor will change to a small circle.
Hover the cursor in the lower half of the model window, the cursor is a blue circle.
Hover the cursor in the top half, near to the top and to the left of the blue axis, The cursor is a red circle.
Hover the cursor in the top half, near to the top and to the rigth of the blue axis, The cursor is a green circle.

These colors means that the circle will be drawn on a plane that is perpendicular to a line that is parallel to the axis having the same color as the circle. For example, if the circle is red, the circle will be drawn on the blue green plane that is perpendicular to the red axis.

You will notice that the circles are seen as ellipses since the planes are skewed in regard to the observer since we are in Iso view. Try using different view by orbitting to find how this behavior with the cursor works.

Now try this:

Once you have a circle of the color of your choice, red for example, press and hold the SHIFT key to lock this direction.
While still pressing the SHIFT key, move the cursor toward the lower half of the window, you will ses that it keeps its red color. If you were to let go of the SHIFT key, the cursor would immediately revert to a blue color, meaning that it would be drawn on the horizontal or red-green plane.
Click to set the circle center. Now you may let go of the SHIFT key.
Draw and click to finish the circle. You now have a vertical circle.

Just ideas.

Gaieus · 8 May 2009, 10:32

Hi Shahid,

The alignment of some of the tools is kind of "automatic" as you noticed. They tend to be aligned on planes which occupy the biggest area of the screen, i.e. if you are looking downwards, it's the red/green plane (which is generally indicated with a blue circle for instance).

If you carefully align your view - just as I did in that tut - you can get a viewport where both a blue and a green circle "inference" can be achieved depending on how high you move your cursor. Here is a totally empty file with such a viewport saved. Try to hover over the origin: here you get a blue circle and if you move the cursor upwards, it will, at some point, turn into green.

That's how I made it.

Also note that this is the "famous, Jean (Johnny) Lemire way of making a circle" as I duly gave the credits to Jean in the description of the YouTube video (he had frustrations with it in BaseCamp anyway - remember Jean? )

AlignTemplate.skp

Jean Lemire · 8 May 2009, 13:28

Hi Gaieus, hi folks.

Yes I remember

I had to use the computer after everyone and some of them must have spoiled the machine

I am just joking

Gaieus · 9 May 2009, 09:55

@jean lemire said:

I had to use the computer after everyone and some of them must have spoiled the machine

Yes, I also remember. Before the session, I set up all the windows and everything I was going to use and Chris started with closing everything saying*"we won't need this, we won't need that..."*

Seydell · 13 May 2009, 13:26

Hi modelhead, Johnny, Gaieus:

Thanks for sharing your insights to my question on the SUF, which I just now accessed after a few days.

Very interesting -- and very unlikely for me to have stumbled upon on my own.

Much appreciated.

.. ss