Sketchup is Inacurrate???
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Let's keep in mind that it is called SKETCHup Not GoogleCAD.
SU was originally designed for architectural concepts, not as an engineering CAD.
Accuracy and precision in those fields take on totally different definitions.Yes, I use SU as a Pseudo-CAD because I cannot afford nor justify SOLIDWORKS for what I am doing.
It does the job real fine, but I wished it could do more, especially in the area of solids animation.I have to keep reminding myself constantly when defining my airplane parts that I an NOT making shop drawings; I DON'T have to concern myself with parts micro-fitting and dimensional precision beyond making it look right.
If it came to really making that airplane, I would be using SOLIDWORKS or more likely; CATIA, using my SU model as a CONCEPTUAL MODEL.
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@genma saotome said:
I do have a problem with the Followme tool not being able extrude a face that is actually congruent to that collection.
In the "DUH" thread this problem with Follow-me came up. Here is my (copied) reply.......
Re: The "Duh!" thread (aka the Doh! thread)
Postby jgb on Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:03 pm
Another thing with Follow-Me I discovered a while back (and reported) is when you are defining a path that has curves, place the template face somewhere on a straight portion of any line segment, NOT at an endpoint.
If follow-me starts on an endpoint, the face template follows one of the subtended angles and royally screws up at the end, with an end face out of alignment. This is especially a major factor with closed loops.
However, if started on a straight section, it will end perpendicular to the last line of the path, and if the path is a closed loop, it will join properly.
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This is a good piece of advice. But would placing the profile on the segment rather than the vertex on a specified radius change the radius of the extruded figure somewhat, and thereby possibly creating a misalignment somewhere else?
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@jgb said:
Let's keep in mind that it is called SKETCHup Not GoogleCAD.
so going off that train of thought, I should just buy AutoCad then all my drawings will be done automatically.
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@mitcorb said:
This is a good piece of advice. But would placing the profile on the segment rather than the vertex on a specified radius change the radius of the extruded figure somewhat, and thereby possibly creating a misalignment somewhere else?
correct.
follow me simply doesn't recognize an arc if it's part of a path.. align the profile properly at one point on the arc will cause an error elsewhere.. and vice versa.. and there's no simple fix to or (other than using a plugin) -
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@genma saotome said:
@wo3dan said:
@genma saotome said:
...I think it is perpendicular Alan. ...
Both sides of the path are at an angle of 89.5 degrees (not perpendicular) to the connected faces. So the follow me starts and ends incorrectly.
Am curious how you determine that. Could you explain please?
Use the 'Protractor' tool constrained to blue (R/G plane) on the beginning endpoint of the path. Begin measuring the angle somewhere on/along the profile. End measuring the angle somewhere on the first arc segment. It measures 89.5 degrees.
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@mitcorb said:
This is a good piece of advice. But would placing the profile on the segment rather than the vertex on a specified radius change the radius of the extruded figure somewhat, and thereby possibly creating a misalignment somewhere else?
Yes, but that is a subjective "accuracy" syndrome.
SU creates arcs, curves and circles whose defined dimensions are at the endpoints of the segments, so anything dimensioned at the segments centerpoint will be not quite "accurate".
And until SU draws analog arc, curves and circles, rather than with digital segments, you can never get away without some inaccuracy of the extruded form.
The only way to avoid (minimize actually) this; is to create arcs, curves and circles with way more segments, which then creates a practicality problem.
Alternatively, create the extrusion face at a vertex/endpoint and then copy it to some position on the adjacent segment, keeping its origin point on the line.
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@unknownuser said:
@jgb said:
Let's keep in mind that it is called SKETCHup Not GoogleCAD.
so going off that train of thought, I should just buy AutoCad then all my drawings will be done automatically.
But only for drawing cars........
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Going back to the FollowMe around Arcs...
There's no 'inaccuracy'.
Sketchup takes a profile Face and Extrudes it around path of Edges.
The orientation of that Face to the first Edge in the path [at its start] determines the extruded form.
If the Face is perpendicular to the first Edge in the path it's perpendicular to the last Edge in the path too.An Arc consists of several Edges as 'Segments'.
Let's say the Arc is a semi-circle'
If the Face is perpendicular to the first Segment it will end perpendicular to the last one,
The extruded form won't therefore be a half circle of extrusion.
If you draw the Face at a Vertex it will be auto-adjusted to be projected so it is square to the first path Edge...
If you want a full half-circle there are tools like EEbyLathe [use 180 degrees], OR simply start the FollowMe at a mid-point on a Segment and end on the equivalent mid-point 180 degrees around the circle; it will then be the full half-circle form.
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@tig said:
Going back to the FollowMe around Arcs...
There's no 'inaccuracy'.
Sketchup takes a profile Face and Extrudes it around path of Edges.the thing is, as you roundabout just said in the above three sentence, is that you can't use follow me on an arced path. (well you can, it just won't be accurate).. in the exact same way that you can't accurately offset an arc in sketchup..
sketchup ignores the 'arc' part and just treats it as a series of segments which results in an error..
this post on pg2 has an example file attached which shows the error:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=394122#p394122here's another way to see the error:
dunno.. maybe i'm using the wrong word here but this is definitely inaccurate in my book..
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Dave, I'm afraid Gerrit (Wo3dan) is correct, the start of the arc is not perpendicular. You don't even need to use a protractor to confirm this. If you go into the Styles dialog and change the edge colouring from All The Same to By Axis, then explode the arc, you will see that it isn't. If the first segment was perpendicular it would show up as green...because it ought to be running along the green axis. It doesn't, 'cos it's not.
TIG is absolutely right about SU...there is no inaccuracy when extruding around curves, just incorrect implementation. There have been other posts about SU being innacurate because of this slight adjustment when starting an extrusion along a path that is not exactly perpendicular. Some people seem to think that SU should just perform the extrusion and leave the original face where it is. However this really would be inaccurate...because it would mean that the face was being extruded obliquely along the path. This in turn would mean that at no point along the entire extrusion would the cross section be be the same as the original template.
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It's not an error, it's not inaccurate.
As you say, Sketchup extrudes along the segment path.
There are no real Arcs in Sketchup, jut edges.
So as long as you bear that in mind, and ensure your extrusion starts on a segment and not a vertex, you can get a 'correct' extrusion around an 'Arc'
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I got it dah thanks TIG
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@tig said:
It's not an error, it's not inaccurate.
As you say, Sketchup extrudes along the segment path.
There are no real Arcs in Sketchup, jut edges.
So as long as you bear that in mind, and ensure your extrusion starts on a segment and not a vertex, you can get a 'correct' extrusion around an 'Arc'seriously, i understand that there are no 'real' arcs in sketchup.. that said, if you have a sketchup arc, all the vertices will be true distances from the centerpoint.. when using follow me, an arc's vertices and what happens at the vertices is inaccurate..
for simplifying the point i'm trying to make, let's forget about followme and look at the error in 2D using the offset tool…
so you're saying this arc has been properly and accurately offset?
my whole point is that if sketchup recognizes the arc (as evident in entity info / gives proper arc length as opposed to sum of it's segments / etc.) then it should also be able to offset the arc properly.. it's an error that could (and should) be prevented through proper programming.
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Your Arc Offset example is executed perfectly logically.
The ends are always offset at 90 degrees, making the last 'segment' longer than the rest.
This is the corollary of what you complain about with FollowMe, where the extrusion starts at 90 degrees to the path rather than being skewed.You want the offset to be more like a Scaled down version of the parent Arc, about a common center...
However, drawing two temporary lines from the Arc center to it's ends and erasing off the offset Arc's ends and the temp-lines does the job easily enough. If you wanted a square offset then how might you do it? This way you have to do a quick trim to get a non-square end to the offset facet...
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@unknownuser said:
Drawing in lines from arc's ends to center and trimming Offset version is the same as a scaled copy
no. it's not.. we're talking about accuracy here.. not 'well, i guess it looks similar'.. do some measuring and see if they are actually the same..
@tig said:
Your Arc Offset example is executed perfectly logically.
i can't fathom how you're not seeing this, as smart as you are
if i offset an arc (say one bent to 90º), i expect it to perform exactly as what happens to offsetting 1/4 of a circle.. the newly offset arc should also be bent to 90º.. that is the logical execution.. (fwiw, you can't offset a circle accurately in sketchup either.. draw a 10'r circle then inwardly offset it by 1'.. logic tells you (well, it tells me) that the resulting circle will have a 9'r ..but it doesn't.) EDIT- sketchup should be moving the vertices here since it's a circle.. instead, it moves the segments.. if you have a circle/arc, it's only the vertices that matter..
@unknownuser said:
The ends are always offset at 90 degrees, making the last 'segment' longer than the rest.
This is the corollary of what you complain about with FollowMe, where the extrusion starts at 90 degrees to the path rather than being skewed.You want the offset to be more like a Scaled down version of the parent Arc, about a common center...
However, drawing two temporary lines from the Arc center to it's ends and erasing off the offset Arc's ends and the temp-lines does the job easily enough. If you wanted a square offset then how might you do it? This way you have to do a quick trim to get a non-square end to the offset facet...if i want to offset an arc in sketchup, i definitely don't use the offset tool.. i have to draw the two arcs separately.. if i want to offset an arc in a more accurate app, i use the offset tool
there's no ifs,ands,buts about it.. you simply can not offset (or follow me) arcs in sketchup.. i've tried it a zillion times and a zillion different ways.. you can accurately offset/followme a collection of line segments but the two aren't the same thing.. there is different maths for the two situation.. if you're inwardly offsetting an arc by 1' then all of the new vertices should be exactly 1' closer to the original arc's centerpoint.. and the degree of the arc's bend should remain the same.. this doesn't happen in sketchup and you end up with an inaccurate drawing..
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That's interesting Jeff. Even with closed shapes, SU still offsets the vertices perpendicular to the last 'arc' line segment. I was thinking maybe with a closed shape, it knows to keep the vertices correctly oriented.
Yeah, I have to agree, that's inaccurate as hell. Logical, sure, since the offset of the lines is always perpendicular, but there is no way to maintain accuracy of an arc with an offset. -
The verticies are not acurate but the midpoints of the segment are. The vertices are not the point to be measured to. It is just the a "filler" if you will to complete the geometry. If computers drew the circle to infinity I guess you could measure from any point along the radius. As far as the entity dialogue box it shows an aproximate number which is kinda goofy to me. I think both you guys are right in some way:)
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@lapx said:
The verticies are not acurate but the midpoints of the segment are. The vertices are not the point to be measured to. It is just the a "filler" if you will to complete the geometry.
OK, but an arc doesn't end at a midpoint...
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