sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    Making Lines co-planar

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Newbie Forum
    sketchup
    18 Posts 8 Posters 9.8k Views 8 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • Dave RD Offline
      Dave R
      last edited by

      Well, if the problem is gaps, you'll still have to fix them to get faces. there's no way around that. You can do it manually (free) by zooming in and drawing in lines to close the gaps. It might be that there aren't very many gaps to fix...if you're lucky.

      I find these gaps in nearly every DXF or DWG file I import. AutoCAD doesn't care if lines actually meet. It's not creating faces. SketchUp requires them to do so in order to create the faces

      Etaoin Shrdlu

      %

      (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

      G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

      M30

      %

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • J Offline
        JPMays
        last edited by

        I downloaded and installed Stray Lines (from Smustard, to label, select, delete or show all the open-ended line segments in a drawing), but so far it is just crashing. I can't do it manually, this drawing is way too large and I don't have that kind of time or patience.

        Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Dave RD Offline
          Dave R
          last edited by

          Is it the plugin or SketchUp that is crashing?

          If it is gaps in the lines that is preventing the creation of faces, you have no alternative but to fix them somehow. You cannot have a face without a closed border.

          You could narrow down where the gaps are by drawing lines between contour lines. If you create a closed loop, SketchUp will ad a face. Keep adding lines until you can't get a face and then look closely in the area where the face is missing to find the gap. You could probably draw lines across a number of contours at once to narrow down the locations of the gaps.

          Etaoin Shrdlu

          %

          (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

          G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

          M30

          %

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • L Offline
            ledisnomad
            last edited by

            I'm quite familiar with this problem. My solution is certainly not unique or instantaneous, but it doesn't require a plugin and doesn't require zooming in and out madly:

            1. Make as many continuous, joined polylines. This assures minimum gaps. A few things I've found helpful: With nothing selected, enter pedit command, then "m" for multiple (personally, I didn't know about this option until recently), select everything, convert to a polyline, then choose join. Then you can check what joined and what didn't. Anything that should be joined, use fillet with 0 radius to join. The more time you spend in AutoCAD, the easier it is in SketchUp.

            2. After I import and use MakeFaces, I start connecting edges with diagonals. Anywhere that isn't a face that should be probably has a gap or there is a tiny extra line somewhere that SU has problems with. Connecting diagonals will often may a face on half of the problem area, the second diagonal will fill in half the remaining area, then you can keep narrowing it down to the problem spot. This is pretty quick, really.

            That's the best method sans plugin that I know. Hope it helps. And if I've been unclear about anything, feel free to ask for clarifications.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • L Offline
              ledisnomad
              last edited by

              Oh look at that... Dave R beat me to the punch. Always so quick here at SketchUcation.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • J Offline
                JPMays
                last edited by

                I think it was the plugin. I need to play around with that a little more. I did determine another problem, which I fixed and I think will help a lot. many of my lines, even thought they overlapped, did not intersect, and I think that was what was preventing Make Faces from recognizing a face.

                http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/4773/screen2hq.jpg

                I selected all and Intersected with Model, which fixed that. Now I'm running Make Faces again, and it is taking a long time which is a good sign (it's recognizing a lot more faces than previously). Hopefully this will solve the majority of problems. I'll update later.

                Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • J Offline
                  JPMays
                  last edited by

                  ledisnomad - I've used the same technique you described, and it usually works well. the problem is that my file is very large and I don't have the time or patience to do that for every single un-closed face. I have been hoping to find some kind of script to help me do this comprehensively. Make Faces seems to be the go-to one.

                  Update: after running Make Faces again (once I Intersected) I got a lot more faces. There are still some gaps, but a small enough amount to fix manually.

                  Thanks all for your help.

                  Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • mitcorbM Offline
                    mitcorb
                    last edited by

                    Look at ThomThom's Edge Tools, which he recently updated. This may have application for what you describe. See this link:
                    http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=24593

                    I take the slow, deliberate approach in my aimless wandering.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • M Offline
                      mac1
                      last edited by

                      Also ThomThoms clean up

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • J Offline
                        JPMays
                        last edited by

                        ThomThom's Edge Tools are awesome! This will help me out a lot. Thanks mitcorb for the link.

                        Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • B Offline
                          bluetobits
                          last edited by

                          Hi.

                          I use SU for 3D printing. I find that when working at small scale such as 1:87, some things that one would expect should work in SU, doesn't. if I enlarge everything at least 10 or 100 times, SU works a lot better. I then re shrink by the same factor before exporting to STL for printing. 1000x is a good value, as I can treat millimetres as metres.
                          It's nice to be able to suggest solutions than to be the one asking for them!
                          Steve

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Dave RD Offline
                            Dave R
                            last edited by

                            @bluetobits said:

                            if I enlarge everything at least 10 or 100 times, SU works a lot better. I then re shrink by the same factor before exporting to STL for printing. 1000x is a good value, as I can treat millimetres as metres.

                            That's a good way to work. Alternatively if you need the model to be at a certain small size you can start it at the small size, select the geometry and make a component. Then copy the component, scale it up by 100 or 1000 and do whatever needs doing. When you are finished, exit the edit mode for the component and delete the giant one. Zoom Extents to go back to the original one. I use this frequently when modeling detailed things like drawer pulls which have to be shown at the correct size. Working on the scaled up copy avoids the need to scale back down and the original is in place where it was originally started.

                            If you are going to export to STL for 3D printing, there's no need to scale down. Do your modeling with units set to Meters but think millimeters. Leave it at that size and export the STL. When you import the STL into your slicer program, tell it that the units are millimeters. STL files are unit-less so you have to tell it something.

                            Since you are modeling for HO scale, you could do your modeling in real world dimensions and work from there.

                            @bluetobits said:

                            It's nice to be able to suggest solutions than to be the one asking for them!
                            Steve

                            Please keep up the good work.

                            Etaoin Shrdlu

                            %

                            (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

                            G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

                            M30

                            %

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • T Offline
                              tmk40126
                              last edited by

                              Anssi... you are the GOD of non-coplanar fixes. Thank you my friend!

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • 1 / 1
                              • First post
                                Last post
                              Buy SketchPlus
                              Buy SUbD
                              Buy WrapR
                              Buy eBook
                              Buy Modelur
                              Buy Vertex Tools
                              Buy SketchCuisine
                              Buy FormFonts

                              Advertisement