Is There a Better Way to Round Corners?

BSquared18 · 16 Jul 2012, 16:24

Hi,
As we all know, with a program like SketchUp, there are a lot of things you can do if you are willing to take the time, and often there are easier ways you may not be aware of.

I needed a thin triangle with rounded corners. I tried Fredo's Round Tool, but the result was fat shapes that didn't come close to what I wanted. Maybe that result was because I didn't understand how to adjust the various settings.

Anyhow, I settled on using a Pac-Man-type setup, shown in the image below. I created a die, intersected it with the triangle, and used the Intersect with Model feature to round the corners.

The result will work for my purposes, but it was very difficult to get all three corners to have exactly the same radius, or at least close to the same.

Is there a more precise, and perhaps less time-consuming, way to accomplish my goal?

If not, would it be helpful to others to post this model in the Warehouse, somewhat crude as it is?

Thanks,
Bill

IMAGE BELOW

Dave R · 16 Jul 2012, 16:36

I think you're working too hard for that. You could use the Arc tool to draw the radius at the corners. If you do it before making the triangle 3D, you can delete the points prior to using Push/Pull. If you wait to put the arcs on the corners until after making it 3D, draw the arcs and use Push/Pull on the waste side. No plugins or any special gymnastics required.

If you really must use a plugin, use the Fillet tool in TIG's 2D Tools set.

The corners in this illustration were rounded with the Arc tool. Erased the points and extruded as described above.

BSquared18 · 16 Jul 2012, 17:33

Thanks, Dave.

The project I'm working on involves creating a SketchUp model of an airplane and then using the SU2XPlane plug in to export it to X-Plane as an X-Plane object.

While I was working on the triangle, I had recalled something I read in the plug in instructions: "Create your model in SketchUp out of Rectangles and Circles (any Arcs will be ignored)." That is why I was avoiding the arc tool.

After reading your suggestion, I decided to see if arcs are, indeed, ignored. I created a simple model made with an arc and, for good measure, another one made with a bezier-curve plug in I have.

When I opened the resulting object in X-Plane, both models seemed to have come through fine. So, perhaps the instruction was out-of-date.

By the way, the bezier-curve tool seemed to make a smoother curve than did the arc tool that is included with SketchUp. So, I may try working with that.

Thanks for the help.
Bill

Dave R · 16 Jul 2012, 17:49

Perhaps the instruction refers to arcs by themselves or as you say, maybe it's out of date.

I don't know why you would find the Arc tool to not give smooth enough curves. It works fine for me. By smooth are you referring to the facets created when you extrude the arc? If so, the number of facets can be increased to create nicer curves but beware that this also increases file size and may cause your model to bog down. The curve may look smoother but the added "weight" of the model might not be a worthwhile investments depending on the size of the arc.

The Bezier tools are great when you want non-circular curves.

BSquared18 · 16 Jul 2012, 19:06

The size issue is good to keep in mind.

Bill