Best way to stretch (not scale) and cut a profile

troypiggo

Hi there. Couple of newbie questions. I'm starting to find my feet around SU, but couple of things that I assume are pretty common, I'm finding quite tedious and I'm sure there must be a quicker/better way of doing it.

Say I'm modelling a structural steel beam, and it has cleats coming off the side of it. I have been making the beam itself a component, the cleats also a component, then highlighting both so they both become one big component (nested?). If I want to stretch the beam, I was using "scale", but that wasn't giving the results I wanted. The cleat thickness was increasing too because of the scale. Then I realised I could use "move" and just highlight the end of the beam profile and the beam would stretch but not affect the cleat position, if that's what I was after.

Now say I do want to stretch the beam and want the cleat to move with it, ie keep the position of the end of the beam and cleat relative to each other the same. Now I assume I need to select the end of the beam profile and the cleat as well and use move. But I can't select the end of the beam and the cleat at same time as they're different components. I can select one or the other, but not both same time, even using the shift key. If I explode the components, all good.

Am I missing something?

Say I have 2 intersecting members, and I want to stop and start one of them each side of the other one, so one continues through. They're not simple rectangles, they're "I" beams or something. I could use "intersect faces", but I think the result would be a bit of a mess. I'd like the beam that needs the cut out of it to have square cuts, not profiled around the other "I" beam shape. One way, I think, would be to draw a rectangle and use it to intersect and cut the beam. But is there a better way, tool, plugin?

Sorry the above is wordy. Hope it makes sense.

Gaieus

Hi Troy,

Regarding # 1 - no, you are not missing anything. If you are in the editing context of a component, you cannot ("normally" at least) access anything outside of it. The solution is to do it in two steps: Stretch the beam (that's exactly the normal way you would do it: with the move tool) then move the cleat, too.

OR you could even place the cleat component inside the beam component but in that case, I guess you would end up with too many, different component types.

For stretching components, you may also be interested in this plugin: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17948

2: that rectangle method is definitely the way to go. Any other boolean operation would end you up with a profile of the other beam.

SU Pro has solid tools for these boolean operations but there are also free/inexpensive alternatives like this one: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=14773

mitcorb

Let me just suggest that you look at Fredo6's FredoScale plugin. It is a suite of tools with Scale, Taper, Stretch "3 flavors", Twist, Rotate "2 flavors" and Bend. Otherwise, you may need to consider using Dynamic Components available in Pro version sk8.
EDIT: Well, I see the Roman Warrior has beat me to the punch.
We are going to change his name to "Greased Lightning".

TIG

Assuming you want to avoid guidelines and double editing...
Select the cleat components.
Edit>Cut
Edit the beam component and
Edit>PasteInPlace
The cleat-components are now inside the beam.
So now you can Move the preselected ends of the I-beam etc with [or without] the cleat components as desired, because they are in the same context.
Tip: use 'make-unique' on the beam[s] before doing this if there are several variations, so you only get the cleats in the one[s] you want.

Using a grouped face to intersect and thereby 'cut' objects is a very common method.
Tip: group the rectangle so that it stops sticking to other geometry as you Move or Rotate it, you can also Scale it easily if you find it's too small to intersect the whole beam etc.
Again use 'make-unique' on the beam[s] so you only cut the one[s] you want to...
Make the rectangle-group inside the beam's context [i.e. first you edit it], place it as desired...
Edit the rectangle-group, Select its geometry and use Intersect with context.
Now the 'cut' lines are inside the rectangle-group, showing the profile of the intersecting I-beam etc.
Erase the unwanted edges of the rectangle to leave the profile face only.
Tip:View>ComponentEdit>HideRest of Model toggles ON/OFF and can be useful to temporarily hide the beam as you tidy up the grouped profile...
Exit the rectangle-group edit.
Select the rectangle-group and Explode it.
The profile face now merges with the I-beam's geometry.
Erase the unwanted part of the I-beam to expose the cut-profile's face.
If the cut-face is 'reversed' you just need to Select it and use Reverse, so that it's oriented to match the rest of the beam's faces - i.e. all blue-gray back-faces should not be seen [because they always go inside], and the off-white front-faces should be visible - use Monochrome View mode to check this, as it might not be obvious if some things have materials... incorrectly oriented faces can cause issues with unexpected results in many 3rd-party renderers etc which render the front-faces only - and these might be inside sloppily modeled objects !

Gaieus

@mitcorb said:

...EDIT: Well, I see the Roman Warrior has beat me to the punch.
We are going to change his name to "Greased Lightning".

Anything you wish but please, no "lubed" lightening...

troypiggo

Thanks guys. Will have a play with each suggestion and see how I go. Much appreciated.