Modeling objects made from standard steel structural section
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I'm relatively new to sketchup & the smart/efficient
ways to model, so would appreciate some pointers. I have dug
through the video tutorials,found the engineering toolbox plugin
and have started working. As a simple example, I would
like to model a fish tank made of steel angle/L profile where
the ends of each piece of steel angle are mitered at 45 degrees
both towards the other pieces in the same plane (eg the
base and top sections)as well as to the vertical sections
(just to make it hard enough to learn enough to move a
few steps forward
).I would like to do all this in such a way that I can scale
the fish tank without changing the size of profile of the
steel angle to see the proportions before
finalizing the model.Engineering toolbox generates a desired length of steel
angle. The next step I took was to use a square shape
angled via the rotate tool and intersecting the angle
to get the 45 degree miter / that's as far as I got- could someone briefly describe
the steps (and maybe thinking behind them) to model
the fish tank ?
- could someone briefly describe
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Hi Vjeko and welcome (first I thought you were a Google employee with that google.com email account)
Anyway, from your description, I think you are on the right track. I cannot fully visualize the whole model (more exactly where you are exactly at) so could you upload it as an attachment (below the text area you are typing your post).
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Check Freods scale tool here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17948 It has an option allowing you to stretch the model to a target point and allows one to select the ref plane where the stretch is done. Thus changing the tank can be done without the distortion you can get with the scale tool.
BTW you can do this manually by making a small cutting plane through say the "stiles", doing the intersect and you now have two pieces you can move / stretch.
Just a idea based on my understanding of question
BTW you could also make two components or even one for that matter with the miters pre-made and then us that to make any tank size you want by this stretching . You would have to morrow the opposite ends or miter would be the wrong direction -
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And another approach;
Make your tank first, use rectangle tool for the outside, use off set tool for " glass " thickness and then push pull down to set the out side depth and then pullback up hitting the cntrl key to create the bottom thickness. Use the L angle profile you want and the follow me tool to extrude it around the top where you will get the corners automatically. Group that top , copy down to bottom and mirror for the bottom frame. Install the sitle frames using buut joints=> no miters required.
BTW you could make one and then do the strecthing for other sizes. -
Thanks for the replies / your trouble - very much appreciated !
Here's a few more questions if you don't mind :Gaieus - must have been very tired that day - forgot it was a "gmail"
email address and not "google"- looks like it was accepted anyway
Jean Lemire - Aquarium frame scenes:
Scene 7 - (excuse a little diversion )
I believe I understand the difference between entity (point, line etc.), group (grouping of entities), object (I believe it is just some group of entities eg a chair, cube, car etc, and component - something which can be instantiated (special form of grouping).
My problem comes with intersections. I think I understand
-intersect with model (intersection of everything)
-intersect with selected (means of intersecting between only what is selected- but I don't understand when intersect with context is used and whether the three different types of interesects work for different combinations of component, group and set of entities - or is there something simple which I haven't absorbed which tells you when intersect with context is not applicable.
Scene 10
To join the two pieces I guess you select one component and move it by anchoring to a corner and moving it to its mating corner on the other piece , then exploded both components and erased the junction lines- correct ?Scene 17
Could you please explain how you did this? (I made one piece a component, used guide lines to get the center, rotated the component by 90 and entered 3x to get the 4 pieces)When you did the second method of creating the aquarium, I remembered the old days when the maths teacher used to mention what was the most elegant solution
– thanks – that was very interestingmac1 – will check the tool you mention, but could you explain a bit more what you meant – I'm afraid I'm too much of a newbie to have followed it.
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Hi Vjekobalas, hi folks.
@vjekobalas said:
Jean Lemire - Aquarium frame scenes:
Scene 7 - (excuse a little diversion )
I believe I understand the difference between entity (point, line etc.), group (grouping of entities), object (I believe it is just some group of entities eg a chair, cube, car etc, and component - something which can be instantiated (special form of grouping).
My problem comes with intersections. I think I understand
-intersect with model (intersection of everything)
-intersect with selected (means of intersecting between only what is selected- but I don't understand when intersect with context is used and whether the three different types of interesects work for different combinations of component, group and set of entities - or is there something simple which I haven't absorbed which tells you when intersect with context is not applicable.
Intersect with context works like Intersect with model but only inside the context of a group or a component.
@vjekobalas said:
Scene 10
To join the two pieces I guess you select one component and move it by anchoring to a corner and moving it to its mating corner on the other piece , then exploded both components and erased the junction lines- correct ?As I wrote in Scene 9, I stay inside the component definition. While inside this component, I moved a copy of the geometry, flipped it and joined it, using, as you wrote, matching corners. After that I deleted the junction lines between the two halves.
@vjekobalas said:
Scene 17
Could you please explain how you did this? (I made one piece a component, used guide lines to get the center, rotated the component by 90 and entered 3x to get the 4 pieces)The center of a square or rectangle can be infered using two successive inferences form adjacent edges or sides. The procedure is as follow:
1 - Hover the cursor on one edge, near its midpoint untill you get a "midpoint" inference, also shown with a blue dot. Don't click.
2 - Do the same for an edge that is adjacent to the first one. Again, don't click.
3 - Hover the cursor near where the center should be. You will get two small black squares at the two previously infered midpoints as well as two dotted lines that will link the cursor position to the two midpoints. This is the center.
@vjekobalas said:
When you did the second method of creating the aquarium, I remembered the old days when the maths teacher used to mention what was the most elegant solution
– thanks – that was very interestingMy Pleasure. But this version do not produce independent components for the frame elements.
Just ideas.
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Jean Lemire - thank you very much ! - I've got it now.
It seems to me that it takes a while to go from
making a rather mechanical usage of the tool to
creatively thinking how to do certain things - I'm not
by any means there, but I feel I've got a sense for
what is needed to be creative and efficient with the
tool - now back to practicing and asking more questions .
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