Flattening a curve
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Hey, im in the construction industry and am currently building some unusual objects. I've been thinking of using sketchup to help my plan some of the things im building. My issue is that when im modeling something curved in sketchup, i'd later like to flatten the curved object to a sheet, so this would then give me the flat dimensions so that i could cut this curve of of a sheet of ply in real life... confusing huh?
See attached file... Now if i wanted to convert that curve into a real world piece of ply i'd need to flatten that curve without loosing any of the correct curve dimensions. Can this be done easily? plugin maybe?
I hope someone understands what im trying to get at here, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Tom
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I think this will do what you need.
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For this kind of job I use Unfold.rb.
http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-unfoldrb.html
Make your shape without thickness and turn on hidden geometry. -
If you just need dimensions, another way would be to select the circular edge, right click, Entity Info and check length. And you can do this for all other edges. But the other ways offer more info.
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Like Gilles, I would use Unfold.rb. Keep in mind however that since your SketchUp model only approximates the circle so if you need higher precision from the plywood, you'll want to increase the number of sides you use for the circles or arcs you draw.
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Thanks for the responses guys... I will try your suggestions out when I get home this evening...
Gilles that's a good suggestion, however some of the curved walls I create are 3" think, with additional 1/4" ply clad on both sides. Ideally when in building a curved wall that is 3" think I'd like to be able to attain both true dimensions of the cladding on either side. I know both sides will be different lengths when flattened. When I get home I will model an example to explain better.
Also the reason I'm asking about this is that I eventually want to able to covert these plans into CNC router instructions... Does anyone know if there is a plugin for sketchup for CNC routing machines??
Again any help is greatly appreciated!!
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So to deal with the inside and outside thickness, you'll flatten both the inside and outside separately. Make them as separate skins so they can be handled independently.
As to the CNC instructions, there are converters out there. What file type do you need for your CNC router? You can search for 'skp to [file type]'
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@dave r said:
So to deal with the inside and outside thickness, you'll flatten both the inside and outside separately. Make them as separate skins so they can be handled independently.
As to the CNC instructions, there are converters out there. What file type do you need for your CNC router? You can search for 'skp to [file type]'
Good thinking... Thanks for the help!
With regards to the file type, I'm not sure yet as ive yet to go and look at the router, I was just wondering if it was possible. Im thinking about starting up my own business, so I'm just trying to get as much info as possible to see whether its a viable business plan.
Having said that, do you know if sketchup has capabilties for calculating weight? For example if I used a sheet of ply @ 6' by 10' and I knew that the ply im using is 'x' pounds per square foot, could it do calculations for multiple sheets providing they were labelled up as 'ply'?
Also same for price calculations, if I labelled up 3x1 timber in my models and knew the price per foot, is there a plugin that could calculate all 3x1 timber used and give me a price??
Sorry for all the questions guys
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As you have unfold the inner shape make a copy of it, find the outer curve length and scale the copy to fit this length.
NOTES:
as SU draw segments not real curves you may have to calculate the real length by hand.
as you want to make accurate product I would draw the shape flat then bend it. -
You can get the area of the face of the plywood piece from Entity Info and then multiply that by the square foot weight. You could do the same for price if you want. There is a cut list plugin that would tell you the number of square feet of material if the component name includes a sheet material word such as Plywood, ply etc. It calculates the dimensions by the dimensions of the bounding box of the component so the irregular edge you'd get from your example wouldn't be figured into the square foot calculation.
The cut list plugin will also calculate board foot numbers for timbers.
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