Hi to all the Sketchup experts out there!
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I thought I should just post something as a real 'newbie'. I have only used sketchup for VERY basic drawing to date but I now wish to create some 'organic' 3D shapes that I can convert to machine on my cnc. Namely 'stick bait' surface fishing lures shapes.
I'm excited about using the lofting plugins for this purpose, so if there's any well known pitfalls to avoid please sing out! Thanks, Colin. -
Probably the biggest thing is plan to draw your models scaled up by a factor of 100 or so. SketchUp doesn't fill in tiny faces and you'll likely generate a lot of them. Scale down after getting the shape and you should be fine. Also, if the shape is symmetrical, draw only half and copy it. Check validity of your model once in awhile under Model Info>Statistics and fix things as you go. Also stay on top of face orientation. Correct reversed faces as you go along.
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Thanks for that Dave, much appreciated!
It looks as though I've got more to learn than I thought because I'm struggling to even get the plugins installed at the moment.
I can see them in my plugins folder but they are not showing under tools in Sketchup?
I have downloaded the curviloft in this instance? Any ideas?
I'm in New Zealand so we tend to see everything upside down
Cheers,
Colin. -
Which Plugins folder did you put them in? Have you gone to SketchUp>Preferences>Extensions (to the left of the File menu in SketchUp) and ticked the various boxes you find there?
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Hi Dave,
Yes, did those things first, never mind - at the third attempt to install, all now appears to be well and working. I can't wait to get started now!
Thanks for the help!
Colin. -
Colin, it's good that you have it working now. Make sure you remember what you did for the next plugin you install.
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