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    [Plugin] SectionCutFace

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    • T Offline
      toddbg
      last edited by

      @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...
      πŸ€“

      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!

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      • TIGT Offline
        TIG Moderator
        last edited by

        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...

        TIG

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        • N Offline
          nickdk
          last edited by

          Thank you for this great tool!! πŸ˜„
          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 πŸ˜„

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          • Dave RD Offline
            Dave R
            last edited by

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

            Etaoin Shrdlu

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            • N Offline
              nickdk
              last edited by

              @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 πŸ˜„ 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! πŸ˜•
              thank you for the insight!

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              • Dave RD Offline
                Dave R
                last edited by

                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.

                Etaoin Shrdlu

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                • N Offline
                  nickdk
                  last edited by

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

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


                  top073.jpg

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                  • Dave RD Offline
                    Dave R
                    last edited by

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

                    Does this look like it is smooth enough?


                    http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6223/6318648290_530026a3b2_z.jpg

                    That's 50 segments going around the long way.

                    Etaoin Shrdlu

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                    • N Offline
                      nickdk
                      last edited by

                      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.

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                      • Dave RD Offline
                        Dave R
                        last edited by

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

                        Etaoin Shrdlu

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                        • A Offline
                          ayik37
                          last edited by

                          thanks sir,that plugin working very well in my sketchup πŸ‘

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                          • P Offline
                            petroulac
                            last edited by

                            Thanks!!!

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                            • I Offline
                              ilaliberte
                              last edited by

                              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


                              Screen Shot 2012-03-28 at 12.31.27.png


                              Screen Shot 2012-03-28 at 11.57.39.png

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                              • Dave RD Offline
                                Dave R
                                last edited by

                                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.

                                Etaoin Shrdlu

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                                • I Offline
                                  ilaliberte
                                  last edited by

                                  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!)

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                                  • C Offline
                                    chalky
                                    last edited by

                                    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?

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                                    • TIGT Offline
                                      TIG Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      @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...
                                      πŸ˜•

                                      TIG

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                                      • C Offline
                                        chalky
                                        last edited by

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

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                                        • TIGT Offline
                                          TIG Moderator
                                          last edited by

                                          I see you are on v7 with Lion.
                                          I know there were some fixes with v8M2 to address problems with Lion, perhaps that's the issue πŸ˜•
                                          So... any Lion users out there [with v7/v8] who are getting error free use from this tool ??

                                          I'm also now wondering if you have one of the problem scripts loading that can affect core class/methods ill-advisedly - these include SketchyPhysics, DrivingDimensions, MatchBox and some 'Solar' tool I cant bring to mind... Although some of these are PC only I think... This tool should workaround potential pitfalls made in its legitimate code by these files, but there might still be a trip-up somewhere. If you have any of these other scripts try to disable them and restart [move the .rb/.rbs files out of the Plugins folder temporarily].
                                          Does this do anything better ?

                                          TIG

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                                          • C Offline
                                            chalky
                                            last edited by

                                            Sorry wrong info in profile i'm running v8
                                            double checked if had those plugs and I don't

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