Rounding Complicated Extrusions
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Hello, this is my first post. I'm trying to round both sides of all of the raised details on this piece. I've accomplished a few stretches, but I begin to get holes in the rounded bits or it just doesn't work. I extruded the whole thing, just the details a little further. I've been using the round plugin to do what is already rounded.
Thanks
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Welcome Ryan!
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Welcome Ryan! Try making a component of the whole thing. Then take a copy of that component and scale it up 100 times. Then edit that large component. This is small model by SU standards and formation of faces may not work on the resulting tiny segments you have in the piece. However your regular (small unscaled) version of the component will receive the faces created in the big version.
Also I notice that all the faces of the model are reversed. That is, the "back" face is facing outwards. You can change them all at once by selecting it all and using "Reverse Faces" in the contextual menu. The backwards orientation could cause problems with rendering and with some plugins.
If you look at your model with hidden geometry on you might consider that some of those small radii arcs have way more segments than needed. While others might need more to look smooth. Something to consider next time.
All in all a nice looking job!
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Awesome, thanks for the tips. I will try right now.
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Sorry for the delayed response, had internet trouble for a while. I've reversed the faces and scaled up by 1000, but when I try to use the round tool with 5' 2 1/2" offset, some faces disappear and I can see through the shape in some areas.
As far as reducing the number of faces on a curve, what would the best way to do that be?
The end goal for this piece is to print it on a 3D printer.
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I've made an imgur album showing the progression and the step that I'm currently on.
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You can reduce the segments of the arc or curve before extrusion. After offset and extrusion--I don't think there's a good way other than redraw. IDK if it is necessary on your model. Just generally good to consider the level of division you actually need as you model. You can reduce the number of segments on an arc that is not otherwise constrained by other elements in the model by changing the number in the "Entities" window. Other curves may be modified by some curve plugins like Curvizard,
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I haven't dropped the number of faces in the arcs yet, but I did clean up the initial drawing that I extruded from. The rounding seemed to have worked and then when I saved the surface seems to have stretched to one point. It's shown in the imgur album above.
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Ryan,
Since I seem to be the only one posting. I'll just say I don't know how to solve that problem you are having. Could be some errant geometry or could be just too much for the plugin to handle. I do know that round corner often fills in the top face and that can usually be deleted (you may have to set "Show hidden geometry" to delete it. The plugin is drawing new lines, and when they are coplanar SU wants to fill them with a face.
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Ok, thanks for your time and I will also try switching hidden lines on and see what I can do.
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Hi !
The curves you have created are too heavy, meaning there are too many segments. Do you have an untouched model? With no rounding done on it?
I too believe you are asking the plugin a bit too much, especially with so many segments.Not really the plugin, but when you give Sketchup that much to chew, things might get unstable. You could try to divide the surfaces where there are straight lines and run the plugin twice or more for each surface.
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