My autistic son's windmill

angy · 7 Jun 2011, 11:14

Hi all

Greetings from New Zealand

My autistic son, Marcus, loves drawing cars on sketchup. All he draws are cars, cars and more cars. I introduced him to Sketchyphysics and now it is about cars crashing into cars. yes, more cars. I have attached a truck that he drew.

He is not very good academically, so i was thinking maybe, just maybe he can grow his skills in sketchup and make a living out of it.

I wanted him to draw more than just cars. So, one day, i give him challenge. Why not draw me a windmill? He did, however, the windmill failed to spin.

Can anyone of you help him out please? I have attached it below, his windmill that failed to spin. thanks in advance

windmill.skp

dump truck.skp

Krisidious · 7 Jun 2011, 22:31

good job SketchyKev...

angy · 8 Jun 2011, 01:45

SketchyKev,

you are a champion. Thanks for your help. I will print out your instructions and gave him the tutorial as well.

sketchyKev · 8 Jun 2011, 20:33

Hi Angy and son,

Well your son made a good attempt and got everything lined up properly. He was just fell foul of the less intuitive aspects of using SketchyPhysics. I have attached a simplified and fixed windmill (windmill3) and another file (windmill2) to act as a tutorial for your son to practice on.

First thing I should mention is that the everything seems to have been made into one big group. Everything in a group moves as one and nothing in a group moves independently of other parts of the group and this is the main reason the windmill does not work.

Using windmill2 as the tutorial:

Select the big block and the two hinges and make them a group.
Click on the "UI" button and with the big block selected, tick the "static" box.
Select the 3 parts of the handle and make them a group. (Handle assembly)
Select the 4 rectangular blades and 2 cylinders and make them a group. (Fan assembly)
Select the handle and the fan assemblies and make them one group. (this makes them move together so need for a connecting axle through the block)
Click on the "Joint Connector Tool" (next to the "UI" button) and click on the big block.
Now holding "ctrl" (on the right of the keyboard) and with the big block still selected, click on the two hinges.
Press the spacebar or select the arrow pointer tool and click on the handle or fan. In the UI it should say connected to hinge4102 and hinge2418 if everything has been done right. The model should now be ready to run.

Some general rules:

If connecting two objects with a joint, the joint should be grouped with one of the objects and connected (using the joint connector tool) with the other object.

Parts that move independently should not be grouped together.

Use as few joints as possible. The original had 6 when 1 or 2 is sufficient.

Always group joints last as they do not work if grouped in lower layers.

Do not superimpose solids or separate groups on each other so that they share the same space. For example in the original model there was an axle passing right through the main block. This will cause problems. If you must do this, set one of the objects such as the axle to "no-collision" and "ignore" in the UI.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

windmill3.skp

windmill2.skp

fransko · 8 Jun 2011, 21:23

little joke with the dump truck

dump truck1.skp

angy · 13 Jun 2011, 23:26

@fransko said:

little joke with the dump truck

Fransko

My son's jaw drop to the ground when he saw it.

He said he wants to "put" sand on it and see what happens.

My usual answer to him is "show me"

sketchyKev · 14 Jun 2011, 08:40

Hi angy,

I'm afraid 'sand' might be too much for most computers to handle, so I have attached a model with a load of bricks that can be offloaded instead. I hope your son finds it inspirational and it spurs him on to greater things. Perhaps he might like to have a go at animating the wheels?

dump truck2b.skp

angy · 14 Jun 2011, 11:41

@sketchykev said:

Hi angy,

I'm afraid 'sand' might be too much for most computers to handle, so I have attached a model with a load of bricks that can be offloaded instead. I hope your son finds it inspirational and it spurs him on to greater things. Perhaps he might like to have a go at animating the wheels?

LOL, i am impressed

thanks for that..I will show him what it can do, He was pissed off with me this today because somehow the sketchyphics joint windows disappeared from the screen. I have to uninstall and reinstall it for him. I truly appreciate what you and Frankso have done. I want him to move from static design to "motion" design. I believe then he has to think of the mechanics of how things work.

I also hope others will use my son's primitive truck design and share it with their children.

driven · 14 Jun 2011, 13:29

hi angy,

good luck with it all,

I'll show the truck my 7yr old daughter, she's obsessed with building houses... [not to be encouraged]

one thing that we pull apart, paint and modify together is 'KnightGame' http://www.sketchupdemos.com/knightgame.zip
there a thread in the forum somewhere as well.

it's not the greatest game in the world but she loves that you can interfere with it, and it's seems to have sunk in that computers need someone to tell them what to do, and what to look like. and that person can be her... or me when she's being apathetic.

john