[Plugin] SectionCutFace

toddbg · 31 Dec 2011, 01:33

@tig said:

If you have non-solids, with overlapping 'volumes' sometimes it can't decide which is solid and which is void, so no faces get made.
Repeat - this time 'keeping all edges' [option].
Then you can see what's the complexity you've generated...
and then manually face/color the required parts that you want as solids...

I'm still having no luck.

I've posted my model to my dropbox.

Dropbox - 404

(dl.dropbox.com)

The currently active scene is the one I am having a hard time with. The last scene is the one that seemed to work correctly.
NOTE: I've told the section plane to hide.

If you have any insights I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Todd

TIG · 31 Dec 2011, 15:14

Right!
One look at your SKP showed the issue.
It's tiny !
Sketchup/OpenGL have problems coping with tiny faces [<~1mm/0.001sq"] - and also enormous faces.
Sketchup is designed as a tool to model objects within a range of 'normal sizes' - doorhandles/doors/walls/buildings/blocks etc [but not tiny screws or giant cities].

Your SKP is at the level of something like the parts of a wristwatch !
There are some faces/edges <0.4mm across in the part that has the issues - the one that succeeded is just large enough to exist.
So all tools like this will fail to make the desired geometry, because Sketchup itself simply can't create it. I'm surprised you haven't had problems with the geometry before...

However, a workaround is to group the object, edit the group, select-all and scale your groups' entities by say x10 or x100, and then make the faces using this tool [or others like it] and then scale everything [including the section-cut-face] back down by 0.1 or 0.01 - the tiny faces can 'exist' it's just the 'making' of them that fails...

toddbg · 31 Dec 2011, 19:57

@tig said:

Right!
One look at your SKP showed the issue.
It's tiny !
Sketchup/OpenGL have problems coping with tiny faces [<~1mm/0.001sq"] - and also enormous faces.
Sketchup is designed as a tool to model objects within a range of 'normal sizes' - doorhandles/doors/walls/buildings/blocks etc [but not tiny screws or giant cities].

Your SKP is at the level of something like the parts of a wristwatch !
There are some faces/edges <0.4mm across in the part that has the issues - the one that succeeded is just large enough to exist.
So all tools like this will fail to make the desired geometry, because Sketchup itself simply can't create it. I'm surprised you haven't had problems with the geometry before...

However, a workaround is to group the object, edit the group, select-all and scale your groups' entities by say x10 or x100, and then make the faces using this tool [or others like it] and then scale everything [including the section-cut-face] back down by 0.1 or 0.01 - the tiny faces can 'exist' it's just the 'making' of them that fails...

That worked! Thanks TIG.
I'm still learning the limits of what Sketchup can do and find myself modeling what would be real world parts for projects I am working on.
Unfortunately these do tend to be screws that are 0-80 in size or in this case, walls that are ~1/16" thick. (model train and steam engine parts...)

I'll have to keep the scaling trick in mind and work at a larger scale and then back down to real size for production documents.

Thanks again!

TIG · 1 Jan 2012, 12:36

If you work in decimal inches why not switch Model Info > Units, displayed units = 'off', change to 'meters' and work as if you are in inches.
If you want to display units on dims etc later [at the end after small face modeling is done] - change the units back to inches etc as desired, and then draw a line typing in 1m+enter in the model-context [you add the 'm' so whatever the units it will be 1 'meter' long], use the Tapemeasure tool and pick the two ends of that 1m long line and type in 1"+enter, when prompted answer Yes to rescale the model. The model shrinks to be in inches, with dims etc now displaying in inches etc as set...

nickdk · 12 Jan 2012, 03:07

Thank you for this great tool!!
Sometimes when I use it it's very slow, it can take 10mins on a large model, is there any tips on speeding things up?
I have a current model with many round shapes and circles with 500 sides and so on, it takes forever.
I'm not trying to sound non-thankful, I just wondering if I can do something to make it go faster

Dave R · 12 Jan 2012, 03:14

I think the answer is in your question. Circles with 500 sides? Whatever for? Surely you don't need that many.

nickdk · 12 Jan 2012, 03:19

@dave r said:

I think the answer is in your question. Circles with 500 sides? Whatever for? Surely you don't need that many.

Hehe yeah 500 sides might be a lot, the reason for the many sides is that I just recently found out how to make smooth circles in SU and I didn't really think to much about the amount of sides I entered when model ling, I assumed that it would take a lot of sides to get a really smooth result? I need to import the SU model in 3Ds max when it's done and I wanted all circular shapes to be perfect. It might be overkill though, it is making my life hard with this complex geometry that's for sure!
thank you for the insight!

Dave R · 12 Jan 2012, 03:29

It's surely overkill and you've kind of shot yourself in the foot, metaphorically speaking. You can get smooth curves with far fewer sides and increase performance.

nickdk · 12 Jan 2012, 03:39

how many sides do you think I'll need? I have attached WIP to give an idea of the shapes involved and the detailing

I did a test with 100 sides and the polygons were visible so I guess it does require quite a lot :S

Dave R · 12 Jan 2012, 03:53

I don't know. It's kind of dark so it's hard to see.

Does this look like it is smooth enough?

That's 50 segments going around the long way.

nickdk · 12 Jan 2012, 03:57

yes it looks perfect:) My problem is that the circular shapes I'm using in my design are differently scaled - some of them are 20meters in diameter so the 'jagged' faces are much more visible.

Dave R · 12 Jan 2012, 04:09

That ring is drawn at a bit over 5 meters in diameter but I doubt it would look any different at 20m or 200m.

ayik37 · 7 Feb 2012, 20:56

thanks sir,that plugin working very well in my sketchup

petroulac · 26 Mar 2012, 11:47

Thanks!!!

ilaliberte · 28 Mar 2012, 11:36

Hello! I've downloaded this pluggin several times and just did again with this version, and it just won't work: I don't get the context menu option at all!

My friends at uni are using it on the same version of SketchUp Pro (7.1.6859) without a problem... Here are some screenshots to try to explain. The context menu screenshot is from when I clicked on the section cut plane - there isn' anything missing from that menu, I only cut the screenshot a bit too close.

Does it make a difference that I am still on the trial version of V-Ray?

many thanks.
Best wishes
Isabelle

Dave R · 28 Mar 2012, 12:31

Looks like you've got your plugins in the incorrect folder. Plugins for SketchUp should be in Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins.

If I had to guess, I'd say Zorro 2 doesn't work either.

ilaliberte · 28 Mar 2012, 15:00

Thank you so much for this, it works now! How embarrassing - but it's good that it was this easy to solve. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

(And yes, of course Zorro wasn't working either!)

chalky · 29 Mar 2012, 08:25

I'm sorry but am I the only one having problems..?
seems like everytime I run the plugin SU freezes, tried on various projects and simple cube..same thing
SU8 Pro Lion 10.7.3 latest version of plugin, any suggestions?

TIG · 29 Mar 2012, 09:14

@chalky said:

I'm sorry but am I the only one having problems..?
seems like everytime I run the plugin SU freezes, tried on various projects and simple cube..same thing
SU8 Pro Lion 10.7.3 latest version of plugin, any suggestions?

I know of no issues causing 'freezing'...
Open the Ruby Console.
Run the tool.
Any error messages in the Console or otherwise ?
Report back...

chalky · 30 Mar 2012, 10:45

Tried what you said but no messages in ruby console reported.