[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

mariocha · 17 Sept 2010, 02:16

Great ! Good idea.
I will try it in v7.
thx a lot.
I guess a small update of the plugin will be needed.

jim smith · 17 Sept 2010, 02:44

I haven't run through all the thread since 8 came on the scene, but it doen't work on my laptop with 8. V7.1, it works just fine. Attached is a screen shot of a simple bend, it seems to start and then stalls at 5%. On my V7.1, it bends in a few seconds. I don't get any error message box on startup or when I start the shape bender.

Chris Fullmer · 17 Sept 2010, 04:38

Looks like I need to poke aroud in this plugin again to get it v8 compatible. I'll see what I can do.

Chris

gullfo · 17 Sept 2010, 13:10

it's working OK for me on SU8 (on fairly complex shapes), but previously on SU7 i had a similar problem and i cleaned things up and removed a number of older plugins and then everything worked OK. i suggest checking to see if you can identify a plugin which may be problematic.

mariocha · 17 Sept 2010, 16:27

Hum... I will check.
In fact yes, on other shapes it worked ok in 8.
Won't be easy to find a non-constant problem.

cheriyan · 20 Sept 2010, 07:55

Thanks for this plugins

gullfo · 26 Sept 2010, 00:17

@jasper.middelberg said:

yet I discovered that bending will stretch the boards...
does anybody know how this can be solved digitally?

i usually pre-calculate the length of the target shape. e.g. if i have a 4' length and need to bend it in a arc, i figure out the length of the arc so the bent object is the correct length.

it might be simpler to use extrude tools to make the outline of the shape and extrude it. or maybe vertex tools could manipulate the grid correctly...

Chris Fullmer · 26 Sept 2010, 05:19

@gullfo said:

i usually pre-calculate the length of the target shape. e.g. if i have a 4' length and need to bend it in a arc, i figure out the length of the arc so the bent object is the correct length.

+1 Measure the line you are bending to first, and make you straight line the exact same length. (this is all funcionality I have planned to add to the next version of this tool if I ever get around to making it). Then make your board the exactly same length also. Then there should be no stretching.

jasper.middelberg · 26 Sept 2010, 19:42

Hello,

perhaps a shot in the dark, hopefully a suggestion or otherwise a cue for anybody that can point me in a good direction to work with this:

An experiment, using standard plywood boards, bolted together.
the idea is that if bending plywood, the structural capacity of the plywood becomes higher,
thus, being able to make a light weight skin roof that can support itself.

Now, my quest is how to bolt a bunch of plywood boards together to form a sort of
conics tipi roof.

I hoped Shapebender would get me there,

draw up a grid of plywood boards and being able to bend them in a desired shape,
in order to find out:

optimum plywood pattern
where to make the bolt holes
where the cutlines would be for top and bottom of the roof

possible workflow:

to bend the plywood boards around a surface,
then to be able to make markings on the different boards,
then to unbend
and have straight boards again for scaled drawings for:
cut patterns and bolting positions

yet I discovered that Shapebender will stretch the boards...
does anybody know how this can be solved?

the idea of bending plywood I found at
http://conicshelter.com/

thank you,

Jasper

below image
left back: started testing bending boards,
front: a preferred conic shape:

jasper.middelberg · 30 Sept 2010, 15:05

Thank you Chris and Gullfo,

yet, starting point is the standard size of the plywood
and not having to make cuts before hand.

Making use of standard sized plywood,
bend it onto a desired shape,
with an overlap, to be able to determine the boltpositions
and finally know the cutpatterns for top & bottom

I really don't know how this can be modeled in a way it is easy to experiment.
in Sketchup or any 3d software.

yet I guess this workflow might be a bit too much to ask from your plugin,
anyway, I really appreciate your work,

thanks again,

Jasper

Dave R · 30 Sept 2010, 15:19

Jasper, I've been having a think about how to draw a curve of known length to make the path for Shape Bender. It occurred to me that one could draw a straight line of known length and then use the Radial Bend function of Fredo's FredoScale extension to bend it as desired. You can make irregular curves with it, too. If the line you are bending is a copy of one that you leave straight, you then end up with both of the lines required for Shape Bender.

Of course you could also use Radial Bend to bend the 'plywood' panel. In some cases, though, it might be easier to work on a single line and get it bent as desired and use shape Bender to do the final bend.

oscarfalcon · 1 Oct 2010, 15:30

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I've been using SU for over two years now and really like how it works, specially with all the plug-ins and scripts there are for making things awesome with it.

I have one problem though, I downloaded the shape bender script and the progressbar.rb file but SU7 doesn't seem to recognize them, any help here would be great. I'm using a mac as of today, I placed the files in the plug-ins folder and can't seem to find them in sketch up.

Cheers, wonderful SU community.

OFL

Dave R · 1 Oct 2010, 15:57

Oscar, go to Window>Preferences>Extensions and tick the box for Shape Bender. Then go to View>Toolbars and select Shape Bender.

mac1 · 1 Oct 2010, 21:00

@jasper.middelberg said:

Thank you Chris and Gullfo,

yet, starting point is the standard size of the plywood
and not having to make cuts before hand.

Making use of standard sized plywood,
bend it onto a desired shape,
with an overlap, to be able to determine the boltpositions
and finally know the cutpatterns for top & bottom

I really don't know how this can be modeled in a way it is easy to experiment.
in Sketchup or any 3d software.

yet I guess this workflow might be a bit too much to ask from your plugin,
anyway, I really appreciate your work,

thanks again,

Jasper

Reality vs Virtual Reality?
Having dealt with some issues with graphic epoxy structures some questions come to mind:

What is the max thickness can you bend;
What plans are in work to establish knock down factors for bolt holes and when / how will structural allowables be establish and how. (Building and say it does not fall down is not acceptable);
Plywood by spec has voids so what plans are in place to insure stress risers can be mitigated. Ultra sound is used some times and since the strength is so much processed controlled vs metal what would be done to insure each panel meets some type of spec. I would guess some plywood that is made from radial sheared layers would be very different. Some same questions about the adhesive interface stress, heat and cold flow.
How does one handle the changes in allowables with moisture content;
You have a big hill to climb to get this concept accepted for general use. And then comes the question of analysis capability especially for stress. Have not done any search for plywood to see if any has well established allowables but with its use would hope so.
10/1 23:57 update Note: Did a quick search for plywood allowable stress. One of the returns was a APA plywood spec. One item would have immediate application to your effort. That is the min bend radius for various thickness and they have differnt for the cross grain ( 4 ft) and with grain ( 8 ft) evn for small thickness like 5/32 the numbers are big. ~ 3ft for cross and 8 ft with

bowlr · 3 Oct 2010, 05:56

I have dl the Shape Bender, but have an error
"Error Loading File clf_shape_bender_loader.rb
No such file to load -- progressbar.rb"

when I open SU.

Chris Fullmer · 3 Oct 2010, 06:01

Hi Barry, shape bender also requires a script called "progressbar" to work. You can download it from here:

(www.smustard.com)

Install that and hopefully that will do the trick!

Chris

charly2008 · 10 Oct 2010, 20:31

Hello Chris,

thank you for your wonderful plugin. It works fine except for the edge in the picture. With the previous version, there was no problem with such edges.

Charly

SahmElshamal · 24 Oct 2010, 09:43

can you help me please < it doesnt work with me < it always says ( Error Loading File clf_shape_bender_loader.rb
No such file to load -- progressbar.rb)
whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Gaieus · 24 Oct 2010, 10:04

Hi Salma,

Please, go back to page 1 in this topic and there is Progressbar.rb linked somewhere at the top. You also need to download/install that plugin so that this can work.

SahmElshamal · 24 Oct 2010, 15:27

Hi Gaieus
thanx 4 ur reply

i will try what u said