Problems combining objects together....Help

Mike5401

Hi,

My name is Mike, I am a newbie to this forum and Sketchup. I am using Sketchup 8 on iMac OS Lion.

I am trying to draw a part for a 1/6th scale figure. This is the 1:1 item I am trying to make:

I have the basic side profile, top/bottom profile done, cap with battery attached done and the tube that will be inserted into the Lite that will house the cap/battery, plus the little side logo.

My biggest problem right now is, I know I must some how combine the top/bottom piece with the side profile to get my basic 3d design, but when I go to lay the 2 pieces into each other and erase away the unwanted areas it starts leaving me with these sharp flat sapphires shooting out from all angles and can't figure why it's doing this.

Is there something I must do to avoid this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is where I'm at now before the combine.

Thanks
Mike

solo

Three ways..

SU 8 pro has 'Solid tools' this is the best way.
there is a commercial plugin called 'Booltools' found here: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=15134&hilit=bool+tools
the last and hard way is to intersect them and remove excess mesh manually.

TIG

Another tip: the object looks quite small, Sketchup/OpenGL has problems creating small facets <1mm or 0.01sq". To avoid issues with small objects you can scale everything up say x10 or x100 and do the small facet making stuff, then scale back down at the end. Tiny facets can exist, it's just the creation of them that's the problem...

Mike5401

Thanks guy's for the help much appreciate it!!

Tig,
I tried your suggestion first, I blew it up huge, tried that and that solved my problem. Thanks a lot, I didn't know about drawing things already to there size could cause problems like I had, being that it was such a small item.

Now I just gotta figure how to get my tubbing in there and get that drop off/slope on each side of that tubing and I'm done.

Thanks again!
Mike