Cutting Panel lines in an object?

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 21:22

Right so I have been working on this model for the past 13 months, those of you who frequent the gallery section may have seen it coming to shape over that time.
I have finished the basic shapes at last and now its time for the details. I want to cut panel lines in the main body (see attached reference image) instead of just adding them via a texture.

Now its pretty tricky I can do it already using intersection tools but it is incredibly painstaking and such a slow way. I wondered if any of you sketchup geniuses have a way or can figure one out how to cut panel lines into the mesh. They dont have to very deep of course just a tiny gap between two welded plates.

I have included part of the model for anybody to try with so good luck and hopefully somebody can figure out a most rtime effective method!

sketchup mesh file

jason_maranto · 26 Jan 2011, 21:27

I would also be very interested in this for a project I'm working on.

Best,
Jason.

Rich O Brien · 26 Jan 2011, 21:30

Whaat's Zorro Tool and Fredo's offset on surface come to mind.

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 21:40

I have offset on surface, I understand on principal how this would work but I cant do it with that tool, ill look into whatts zorro tool is it free, what does it do?

Rich O Brien · 26 Jan 2011, 21:41

slices lines , it's also in SDS if you have that?

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 21:50

Yeah I cant get it to cut in a nice neat line however it just gets a but messy on the geometry I think I need a lot more practice. I think maybe if the geo was sub divided again but its already pretty heavy as it is I would rather not? Ill keep trying with sub D see what I can come up with

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 22:11

@unknownuser said:

Hi Liam
I know Jacques did it this way with Black Hawk, by lining the image up with the model drawing over the various panel sections, and then push pulling and then intersecting and erase unecessary geometry. Time consuming but pretty accurate. Just ideas as Jean would say Black Hawk/

Thanks James but yeah its the method I already use and it takes forever! but I was wondering if there was a better way?

Rich O Brien · 26 Jan 2011, 22:20

I'd break that fuselage up into chunks. That way you focus on one area at a time and pay more attention.

jason_maranto · 26 Jan 2011, 22:28

If I was more savvy with Ruby I'd be trying to find a way to automate this from the lines... there's a bunch of scripts that are halfway there but none that I know of that get the job done.

Maybe we should create a request thread in the Plugin forum?

Best,
Jason.

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 22:36

I think there would be easy ways with Fredo's plugins. Here I used Offset on surface then Joint PushPull to make a quick groove.

Untitled.skp

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 22:46

Yeah I think this method is the winner so far! And yes Rich I do break the model up into many many different parts just to concentrate on each one I just put a basic mesh of the aircraft hull up for people to experiment with if they wanted.

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 22:51

Certainly you'll have scale issues with tiny edges but I guess that won't cause a real problem.

Rich O Brien · 26 Jan 2011, 22:53

i thought so but mentioned anyway. My pay more attention wasn't a remark more that segmenting geometry prevents me from drifting around tweaking here and there but eventfully achieving little.

It's a great looking mesh. One suggestion, download Tgi3d 30 trial and run 'upsample' on it. I did it and it rocked! Smooth and silky

liam887 · 26 Jan 2011, 23:04

@unknownuser said:

i thought so but mentioned anyway. My pay more attention wasn't a remark more that segmenting geometry prevents me from drifting around tweaking here and there but eventfully achieving little.

It's a great looking mesh. One suggestion, download Tgi3d 30 trial and run 'upsample' on it. I did it and it rocked! Smooth and silky

Oh yeah I know you wernt, haah if you could see the folder for this model your eyes would pop I probably have about 30-40 files each a different part of the helicopter, some are just small window wipers while others will be the optics package at the front etc, they only ever really come together when I need to do a render or get a general look. I also have two 'MASTER files' with all the components in different layers but my computer doesn't like that very much!

Ill look at Tgi3D in abit, does it come for MAC as im PC'less for the foreseeable future, I was devastated I went to get the trial of Luminon last night and its PC only it seems

What is the purpose of un-sample is that just smoothing it out? what format does it use to go between SU and Tgi?

Rich O Brien · 26 Jan 2011, 23:08

you know when you smooth geometry with SDS and the size of your mesh scales down slighly? Tgi's 'up-sample' uses a fancy algorithm to smooth but keep things to size. There are other features that are pretty good but that's another time...