Rounded boxes problem

Fatolbaldguy · 6 Dec 2008, 01:55

Very very new at this and I am sure you have probably been beating this dead horse for awhile but I have read every tutorial I can find! I make a rounded box in four parts rounding three sides duplicating and mirror imaging the pieces. I then put them together and intersect them to make one big box with rounded sides. Seems to work OK, but when I start trying to remove the un-needed lines on the box faces sometimes (Not always) the whole face disappears. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to it. What am I doing wrong. Is there a better way to create the rounded box?

Hazza · 6 Dec 2008, 03:00

@fatolbaldguy said:

Is there a better way to create the rounded box?

Yes, make a normal hard edge box then use the "Round edges" plugin that you can download from this thread.

Gaieus · 6 Dec 2008, 08:35

I have another guessing shot...

There seems to be a bug in SU (haven't tried with version 7 yet) that when you join two parts that have a fairly big number of faces each, you cannot delete the seam between them without unwantedly deleting the connecting faces as well despite the are definitely coplanar. Is that you are talking about?
If so, make a group of the half first then copy > mirror it then align the two copies of the group, explode and try to delete the seam now.

This trick or workaround seems to fix this bug but no-one knows why the bug is there and why this workaround fixes it.

If this is not the problem, sorry for talking too much.

Fatolbaldguy · 6 Dec 2008, 14:47

Exactly! I thought I was missing a step or just screwing up in general! Thanks for the work around. Now I need a couple of wife/kid/dog free hours I can rub together to really make things happen (I hope) Thanks again!

Fatolbaldguy · 7 Dec 2008, 16:39

OK long as I'm showing my ignorance anyway.
I can't get the plugin to load. Anyone have a tutorial for the criminally computer challenged on loading these things?

remus · 7 Dec 2008, 17:17

1)Download the plugin to an easily accessible location, like your desktop.

2)Open your plugins folder (my computer->c->program files->google->sketchup->plugins)

3)drag the .rb file from your desktop in to the plugins folder.

4)restart SU and hey presto! You should have the plugin in one of the menus (tools, plugins, right click menu etc.)

Fatolbaldguy · 8 Dec 2008, 16:36

Thank You. That did it. Big time saver! Now to learn to use it to best advantage.