Lock certain dimensions/sizes while resizing
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Can anyone please tell me how I can scale a joinery door to an exact dimension while maintaining the section sizes of the individual parts of the door (groups) and the size of the rebate running around the inside of the door. ie the 30 60 stiles should always remain 3060, but can change in length, and the rails must remain at 30*90. note that the ends of the rails are checked out to fit the rebate in the stiles (or they could alternatively be tennoned) so this check out (or tennon) must remain the same size also. (Just like a real door....) If SU8 can not do this , is there a plugin that would give this functionality? I suspect that FredoScale may do this, but I have not yet worked out how I could do it.
Door Frame.skp -
FredoScale or - http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/36283/resizing-a-model
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Make the parts as components assembled into a 'unit'.
Resize the stiles by selecting just the 'end parts' [use a left>right dragged fence to select only what falls wholly within the fence] and moving them, move the rails etc to suit.
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Excellent info so far as always.
I see you've made groups instead of components in your model. Make components instead and make sure the opposing parts a flipped, not rotated. Flipping is a mirroring operation. That way, when you change the height of the stiles, Moving the top of one stile moves the top of the other as shown in TIG's illustration. If you rotate one copy of the stile end for end to get the opposite side, you'll move the top of one and the bottom of the other.
Thanks Dedmin for the link. There's a video here which demonstrates the same sort of thing. It is also discussed in this blog post.
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Thanks guys for the responses. I am learning heaps from this. There appears to be different ways to scale individual components (groups or components) but I feel that there should be a way to scale a collection of "groups" (component) dynamically as a whole(ie the whole door at one time), but retain the integrity of selected individual parts.
In the first videos of the workings of SU there is an item on locking the dimensions while using the move tool. But to me it appears that only the numbers of the dimension are locked, but the actual item stretches....I guess that my wish (list) is that by locking the number(dimension) (by double clicking it), that the referred to dimension is actually locked.
I hope I am being clear....sometimes writing the right question is the hardest part. -
You can do this with dynamic components - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVW5X-tb8s
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I understand exactly what you are saying and it would be nice but...
Dynamic Components are a way to make that sort of thing work you can create door components which contain the rails, stiles and panel components that can be scaled in a number of ways. The draw back of DCs, at least for my use, is that resizing is done with scaling. So a DC rail would get resized in exactly the same way as if you simply used the Scale tool. Of course this results in scaling of the tenons on the ends. TO avoid that problem in a DC, you must divide it into three smaller components; the rail and a tenon on each end. then the set up for the DC would involve scaling the rail and moving a tenon. You leave the other tenon component where it sits. If there are any details at the ends of the stiles such as a miter in the bead on the inisde, you have to split it into three separate components. And, if you want to create a dynamic raised panel for the door that can be resized in both directions, you'll need to split into 9 components.
That can all be made to look fine for presentation purposes and you could generate a report telling you how many doors you need and their sizes but, if you need a report or cutlist of the individual parts, you'll have problems because your panel will be listed as nine small parts and not the one larger one as you would actually make it. Depends on what you need, though.
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well I am a cabinet maker. I really need to know the exact size of the piece of timber that I need to mill. ie a cut list. But to have a data base of pre drawn template doors (for example) that can be resized at will would be great.
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If you make components as I described in my blog post about kitchens, it really isn't that difficult to make the parts to whatever size you want and get an accurate cutlist.
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what is the link to that post?
Sorry.. missed it the first time
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That's great Dave, many thanks. I have heaps of homework to do....Loads of techniques to learn, and setting up libraries of components is definitely the way to go
Since my last post, I have been playing around a bit more with FredoScale and have found that by using the "Box Stretching" tool, I can achieve what I was originally trying to do. When clicking on either the horizontal or the vertical handles, then the tab button, I can enter the size of the door I want without altering the section size of the rail, stile or rebate.
By the way, this is only week 1 of me using SU. it is very exciting. Please be patient with my many questions.
Thanks again -
One thing you'll want to check with FredoScale is does the component definition get updated. If it doesn't, the sub-components won't report as the correct size in a cut list. Generally, if you aren't opening a component for editing, scaling it will not change its definition. It does appear in a simple test that FredoScale deals with that, though.
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