Mortise and Tenon
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Pierce1954,
I do a lot mortise/tenons drawing for my projects and DaveR's method I have found to be the most accurate and fastest. If you have copied your leg or style components when you Xray draw the mortise on one of them it will also put one on the copied style or leg. It took me a while go get used to doing it, but now it is second nature. Just be sure that you are zoomed in close and watch the "surface" callout as you draw the rectangle or line. You want to be drawing 'on' the component that gets the mortise. Oh,,,, don't forget to select "edit component" for the component that gets the mortise before you start.... I must be dense 'cause I get half way through something and discover that I have not in "edit Component" mode. That makes laugh at myself.
None of the above will make much sense 'cause I don't know all the correct terminology to explain the steps correctly. Just keep trying..... that is what I did and viola,,, it becomes clear.
mike
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Mike,
Thanks for your input. I’ve since done quite a few mortises and tenons and have found Dave R.’s method the easiest and most effective. However, there have been occasions where Intersect seemed to work better. My earlier confusion with X-Ray has diminished somewhat, but I still sometimes find it disconcerting, viewing everything at once. In spite of that, I set up a shortcut to X-Ray. It’s surprising how often I use it. For instance, selecting a component to edit is easier with X-Ray turned off, then doing the editing with it turned on. As you suggested, I do Copy each one, then Flip Along whichever axis will mirror the original, although this only seems necessary if the mortise or tenon is offset.
Pierce
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Pierce, you might want to play around with the transparency sliders under Window>Model Info>Components. You may find it a little easier to decipher what you're seeing if you either fade other components more or less. The other thing that may help is changing the back face color to something else. I use an obnoxious green on mine so that when back faces are exposed I catch it right away and fix the problem.
Yes, Intersect can be useful but for things like mortises and tenons, you can see that it doesn't generate any geometry in the empty space inside the member that gets the mortise. It's good to have a number of different approaches available because sometimes one is easier or faster or more accurate or... than another.
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Thank you.
I don’t know what the policy is regarding matters unrelated to the topic, but I’ve got another question and I’m not sure what I’d name it. I’m currently working on a table with legs that are tapered on the inside, but run at right angles on the outside. Usually in a situation like this, I’ll work on something else and return later, only to find the answer was something obvious. That hasn’t happened, although I won’t be surprised to learn that the answer was something obvious. If the tapers were straight, I wouldn’t have a problem. However, the piece requires a graceful curve along the taper. I’m going to attempt to attach a model of the leg to this message. I haven’t tried this before. We’ll see…
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I've always used the intercept with model to create mortises but now I tried the method suggested by Dave and I think that it's faster and cleaner. Thanks!
What's your approach in creating pins for dovetails? I still use the intercept model for that.
Dave, how do you change the default color for the reversed faces?
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Pierce, I'll have the answer for you in a moment. I'll make it in the form of an SKP based on your file.
Brandy, the back face color is modified under the Edit tab in Window>Styles. Click on the Edit tab then on the cube immediately to the right of the little wireframe cube in the row below the Edit tab. Next click on the colored square to the right of Back color and modify the color there. If you want the cololr to stick, you should do this in a new SketchUp session and then use File>Save as Template to save this as your template. Check the Use as Default option and give it a name to save it. The next time you open SketchUp, this color will be present as the back color. There are other changes you can make to the template as well such as Precision, background colors, etc.
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Pierce, This one is straightforward because the curve profile is the same on both faces. Use Follow Me for this. See the SKP. Hopefully this makes sense.
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I used to do all of the mortises by measuring them out with the rule tool. Generally ok, but add in arithmetic when there is a reveal, and that becomes more than my small brain can handle. Going X-Ray was a bit confusing at first, but with some practice, it becomes second nature.
I sorta get a warm fuzzy feeling scrolling from scene to scene, too, unless the scenes are too far apart in the display. Then I get motion sickness.
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Dave R.,
Yep. I’m not surprised that the answer is something obvious. This worked great. Thank you. The Follow Me tool never ceases to confuse me. If I use this 4 times in a row to perform exactly the same operation, I’ll get 4 different results. Occasionally, one of these results is intended, more often, none are. I’ve tried video tutorials, the Help Center, magic incantations, and even reading directions. I’ll keep plugging away.
Thanks again,
Kevin
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Kevin,
I find it's a bit like crossword puzzles. Once in awhile you have a vague clue for a word and you get stuck thinking down the wrong path. You struggle to find a word that will fit and it doesn't come. The next day you read the clue differently and get the answer right away. After awhile you discover they keep using the same words over and over. The next time you run into the clue, there's no struggle at all.
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Dave,
Exactly. You pegged it.
Kevin
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Glad you posted this problem for Dave, Kevin. I would have spent three times as long doing the first profile on the leg, copying and rotating it, mating the two and then intersecting and erasing all of the extraneous stuff.
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FWIW, I did a quick little video of the curved tapering.
I tried to embed it but for whatever reason it didn't work.
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