Solar system
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I was building this solar system to scale (not full scale) but I am having some trouble. The further out the planets get the more unstable their joint connection to the sun becomes. I also noted the bonding boxes on some of the more distant planets was considerably larger than the planet and joint they are bounding. I am wondering if the extents of the model are just too broad or maybe the distance between the planets and their joints is too far.
Thanks,
Sean
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ok. your model is definitely to big / the planets too far apart for SketchUp. I ran into massive clipping problems that occur precisely in this situation - a too large model (I think it is OpenGL related though).
does it really have to be that accurate? you are not able to see the planets like that anyway...
I would suggest you dramatically decrease the distance between the planets. -
Maybe it would work to scale down everything by 100? I don't know what the limit in SketchUp is, but using a scale would still be accurate.
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The problem with a solar system "to scale" is that when you reduce the overall size to a scale compatible with SU (a kilometer or two across might work) the planet models will be too small for SU to work with (some faces will be smaller than 1 mm). In the city of Helsinki there is a scale model of the solar system that spans several klometers across, with Saturn quite near to where I work. It is smaller than a golf ball, if I remember right, so even in that scale some planets will be about pea size...
Anssi
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I appreciate your responses. I am preparing some models to show some teachers how SU might be used in the classroom to teach and engage students. I agree with the comments about the size of the model and how it is hard to view anyway. I think notations that relate the size of the solar system to things students can relate to would probably be more effective.
Sean
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