Need a little help to get started...

gascat · 3 Mar 2013, 04:44

Hi everyone.

Well today is the day I decided I really need to learn to basics of DC's as I am helping a mate with his kitchen and he wants me to give him DXF files with cabinet parts (shapes of panels with drill marks on them)

So I thought......What an easy way to introduce myself to DC's......FAIL !!

As an example of what I set out to do....
I created a small panel.
I then created a 3mm crosshair to place on the panel. I want these marks to remail 25mm in from each end and one in the centre. I also want them to be 8mm up from the bottom.
I set up two input boxes to set the size of the panel.
Before I tried to add a formula to parametrically position these marks, I found that when I resized the panel the marks were squashing or stretching.

Now I don't think I could have chosen a more simple thing to start learning DC's but I am stumped already and not being one for thinking like a programmer I will probably remain stumped!

Can anyone help start me off with this as I have lots of drill mark options I need to explore but I just need to get through this first hurdle.

cheers...Wayne

Jim · 3 Mar 2013, 05:54

Hi Wayne,

To keep the crosshairs from becoming distorted, you need to constrain their length and width. Do this by setting their LenX and LenY attributes to =3mm. (Assume you are working on the Red-Green plane.)

If you change the origin of the crosshairs to be at their centers, this will make the position formulas simpler. (Assume you wll use 3 unique crosshair components.)

With the origin at center, the middle crosshair can have a position of panelWidth / 2

The left crosshair would have a position of =25mm, and the right a position of panelWidth - 25

I've attached an example file - open it in SketchUp (rather than Import it in SketchUp.)

I've shown a different technique for the crosshairs in the file. Instead of using 3 unique crosshar components, I use the Copies attribute to create the 2 extra copies (so there a 3 total crosshair components.) Then use some nested IF statements to set the crosshair position based on their Copy number.

dc-panel.skp

gascat · 3 Mar 2013, 08:34

Thanks so much Jim. That gives me a simple insight and a kick start!

I don't think I'll get into the if statements just yet but I will work toward it for sure.

cheers...Wayne