New Member [Bob]
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New member here. Hoping that I've found the package I've been seeking.
I'm an old retired programmer. I am now into designing and producing professional pitching horseshoes. For the last two years I've developed my patterns using traditional woodworking equipment. My latest designs are more appropriately developed using 3D graphics. I've experimented with a variety of packages and seem to be able to do most of what I want using SketchUp. However, a common requirement for foundry work is the need to produce patterns with "draft", usually 3 degrees. It is necessary to add a little angle from bottom to top of any pattern to enable the removal of the pattern from the sand filled flask. I've begun the process of looking at the various plugins to see if one offers this capability. The main problem is when adding "draft" of 3 degrees to an extruded curve. I have been able to create some portions of the design using the "Follow Me" tool, however, there are some portions not easily created. Hoping there are some foundry types who have solved this problem. Looking forward to delving more deeply into this excellent product. Regards...Bob -
Welcome Bob
We are a friendly bunch here...
Ask away, there are no stupid questions - only stupid answers...
As an alternative to FollowMe - you could try the script 'FollowMe_and_Keep' [FAK]...
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Hi Bob
Foundry work? Sounds interesting! It would be nice if we could see some of your designs and finished products.Sometimes when using follow me on a small-scale model, Sketchup has to generate small faces...the problem is Sketchup doesn't work well with very small faces(less than ~1/16) -- if that is your problem, just scale up your model by 10 or 100x, perform the follow me, then scale back down.
Hope that helps
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You might find Fredo Scale works for you.
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=17948If you make your designs "straight" then use scale afterwards to add the draft.
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Welcome, Bob.
You pose a challenging problem. This is not simple, beginner-friendly sketching up. You might want to practice sketching up something easier, such as a house. Don't start with a carefully drawn, Arc-based horseshoe. Start with something like my horseshoe. That said, here goes.
I'll illustrate a technique with a "horseshoe" that won't win any prizes. Draw yours a bit too long as we'll cut it back. I've used a 10% slope (and suggest that you start that way, too) as 3% is a bit too subtle. First you PushPull your horseshoe up into 3D, with straight sides. With the Scale tool (Google for a video tutorial) you expand just the top, 10%.
Draw a line to close the horseshoe and PushPull up the inside. Use the Scale tool again, this time to shrink the top of the inside by 10%.
Ctrl+A to select all, right click and Group. Draw a rectangle a bit larger than the horseshoe. PushPull it up. Triple-click the new box. Move it into your horseshoe enough to cut off the excess length. Leaving the box selected, right-click your horseshoe and explode it. Then Edit/Intersect/Intersect with Model.
Now it's time to clean up. Delete all the lines that aren't part of the finished horseshoe. DO NOT use the Eraser. Click a line to select it, scratch your head to decide if you really don't want it. Press Delete if it's not a keeper.
Connect the outside lines to the inside lines to get the shape you want. Delete the lines you don't need.
When you get here, you're ready to go back and sketch up a horseshoe that might win a championship. Good luck!
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Thanks to everyone who passed on some suggestions on creating "draft". I discovered the perfect solutions to the problem. I found the plugin "Chamfer_Along_Path" allows me to cut the necessary angle not only on straight edges, but, curves as well. Using "smart extrude" maintains the chamfer as I extrude upward. I was able to ultimately create the entire horseshoe with SketchUp. It was converted to .stl format and submitted for 3D printing. I do have one issue that gives me problems of alignment which I'll post in the Newbie section...Bob
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