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    Newbie Tutorial - How to close any face in Sketchup

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    • M Offline
      MercurialArts
      last edited by

      Why yes, this is frustrating! So, I am an artist making images in photoshop, using magic tracer 2.0 to convert from raster to dxf. Once I import into SU, I can't get a face on the outline, which seems to act as a component. The end result of this process would be dxf files a water jetter or laser cutter could use to cut metal and glass shapes, and the SU drawing being my working drawings. Stray lines finds nothing. But I still can't fill or extrude this shape. Where do I get the projection tools? I tried drape, it only takes the outline, and I have internal stuff as well. I have watched the video several times.... I don't have the bucks to buy more plugins, the software I have cost me my flex funding..

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      • urgenU Offline
        urgen
        last edited by

        ....and WELD 😉
        weld.rar

        ....and very simple-SUNDBOX+SKIN 😆
        sundbox.rar

        --pupil forever...------

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        • M Offline
          MercurialArts
          last edited by

          So, when I try weld, its says pick at least 2 edges, when I try the sandbox contour method, it says I must choose contours. When I select even one line of my imported dxf the whole thing is selected with a box around it. Every line is blue. What does this mean? It would seem that all the lines are connected... but again, not a solid, no extrusion... Wha?

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          • M Offline
            MercurialArts
            last edited by

            Ah, what a dork, yes, its a component, edit component, check for stray lines brought up 13 items, I am solid and extruded. Thanks for the tips, I just needed to figure out how to apply all those neeto tricks to my object! dxf gets imported as a component.
            I had to
            select component,
            edit menu, component, edit component
            then go through and use stray line tool and weld tool to fix it up. Tiny little problems that are super hard to see, but between repeated uses of both tools, wazambo!

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            • GaieusG Offline
              Gaieus
              last edited by

              You can also edit a component/group from the context ("right click") menu - or even better; just double click on it. If you triple click, you will end up "inside" its editing context PLUS all the geometry inside selected already.

              Gai...

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              • broomstickB Offline
                broomstick
                last edited by

                awesome video, man. You taught me something i did' nt know about stray lines, and you introduced me to projection tools 😄

                My I have your permission to do a similar video for my blog in Italian?

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                • EarthMoverE Offline
                  EarthMover
                  last edited by

                  No problem Broomstick! Glad it was helpful. Feel free to use it as you wish.

                  Here is also a quick follow up video on Closing a face with the Drape Tool.

                  http://www.screencast.com/users/EarthMover/folders/Jing/media/3e2420f2-b79e-40eb-8083-720632e204b7

                  3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
                  Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
                  Content Creator at Skapeup

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                  • broomstickB Offline
                    broomstick
                    last edited by

                    thanks you are very kind. I'll aknowledge you in the video, and post the link as soon as it is up 😄

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                    • M Offline
                      mpkarch
                      last edited by

                      Earthmover,

                      I am curious to know where you got all the icons in your tutorial.

                      MPKArch

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                      • brookefoxB Offline
                        brookefox
                        last edited by

                        I posted a link to this, Adam, and send along my thanks as well. Duh... 'stray lines' was sitting lonely in my PI folder unnoticed and forgotten by me...

                        ~ Brooke

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                        • EarthMoverE Offline
                          EarthMover
                          last edited by

                          No problem. Some new plugins have been released since this tutorial that change the technique a bit.

                          Particularly "Edge Tools" from ThomThom - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=24593 has the feature Close Gaps. This is much easier than "label stray lines" as it does the work of solving the gaps as well.

                          Also another one I find helpful with a stubborn face is "Flatten & Extrude" from ThomThom. -http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=23491. Once the gaps are closed you can group the edges and run the Flatten script and it will move all the verts to the same Z and close all the faces. (TIG's "Drop Verticies" will do similar on ungrouped edges but will not close the face automatically - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=39251)

                          Hope this helps.

                          3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
                          Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
                          Content Creator at Skapeup

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                          • brookefoxB Offline
                            brookefox
                            last edited by

                            Great... but given the omnipresence of the issue your tut is good enough to warrant updating and sticking somewhere! (G man 🤓)

                            ~ Brooke

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                            • P Offline
                              pisosse
                              last edited by

                              @brookefox said:

                              Great... but given the omnipresence of the issue your tut is good enough to warrant updating and sticking somewhere! (G man 🤓)

                              CONCUR...!

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                              • S Offline
                                ScrubBrush
                                last edited by

                                @xrok1 said:

                                you forgot freedo scale. scale to 0 in the z axis to make edges coplanar 😉

                                I know this is way behind the curve, but could someone put this into english for us nubs?

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                                • GaieusG Offline
                                  Gaieus
                                  last edited by

                                  Fredo scale is a plugin (a very complex and powerful one actually) that takes a lot of SketchUp's native tools to a next level.

                                  I have been reading (and approving) your posts this morning as I got up and suggest to "learn how to walk before you start running" though but of course, learning how to install and use plugins should also be in your "curriculum".

                                  In short, here is Fredo scale: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17948

                                  And what xrok meant here is that you can scale any loop of edges that is not co-planar to "Zero" which makes it co-planar then.

                                  Here are some screenshots.


                                  coplanar-1.png


                                  coplanar-2.png


                                  coplanar-3.png

                                  Gai...

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                                  • mitcorbM Offline
                                    mitcorb
                                    last edited by

                                    And this is a DUH moment for me regarding the scale to zero trick.

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

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                                    • GaieusG Offline
                                      Gaieus
                                      last edited by

                                      It was for me, too. Just checked it out after the question made me curious. 😉

                                      Gai...

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                                      • S Offline
                                        ScrubBrush
                                        last edited by

                                        that cleared it up for me too. and looks useful, I'll add that one to my plugins.

                                        I'm past the walk stage for the most part. just can't get past the jogging stage.

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                                        • A Offline
                                          AcesHigh
                                          last edited by

                                          What when you ALREADY have the faces, but you have closed shapes inside that however won´t close (profiles won´t turn to edges), so the two surfaces will become different surfaces?

                                          I have one here that I already projected onto a face, run stray lines, etc.

                                          There are no stray lines. It was projected on a surface, I also did drape it onto another surface. Retraced everything. Nothing works!

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                                          • cottyC Offline
                                            cotty
                                            last edited by

                                            You can try to select the edges and the face and make an intersection (context menu).

                                            my SketchUp gallery

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