Compound angle Tool

slbaumgartner

I have just published a new Tool in the Plugin Store named rake_and_splay (after the chairmaker's convention for naming the front and side view angles of a compound tilted leg). This Tool is intended to facilitate working with compound angled geometry including typical Windsor chair legs and compound mitered joints. It both calculates the important derived angles for you and draws helper geometry in your model. You can use the geometry for drawing and aligning the parts, and also as a learning tool for visualizing the leg or joint.

Steve

davidheim1

For Mac users like me, who don't download a lot from the PlugIn Store, could you post some instructions on how to install your plug-in?
Many thanks,
dh

TIG

What makes you think a MAC user is so different ?

Download the RBZ archive from the PluginStore's red Download-button.
In v8 or newer... there is a Preferences > Extensions > Install... button
In the file-browser which opens select the RBZ and it's auto-installed for you.
Everything is extracted to the correct Plugins folder for you and usually is automatically loaded and activated...

If you get and install the SketchUcation Plugin Store toolset's RBZ from the Resources menu above, then install that as outlined above, thereafter you can use the toolset's menu items or toolbar to browse the PluginStore's contents in a dialog within SketchUp itself, and the red-button says 'AutoInstall', which means you don't even need to download the RBZ, instead it is got and automatically installed for you...
There are also many neat tools to check for Updates, sync Plugin Bundles and Manage Plugins and Extensions etc...

davidheim1

Ah, many thanks.
Now to try the new plug-in.

slbaumgartner

@davidheim1 said:

For Mac users like me, who don't download a lot from the PlugIn Store, could you post some instructions on how to install your plug-in?
Many thanks,
dh

If you install the Plugin Store Tool in your SketchUp, it will handle all the details for you automatically. There are instructions on sketchUcation on how to obtain the Plugin Store Tool. Then you just need to select the plugin (there is a search facility) and click "Autoinstall".

If you don't have or don't want to use the PS Tool, you can download directly from this link:

SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation

SketchUp Plugin and Extension Store by SketchUcation provides free downloads of hundreds of SketchUp extensions and plugins

(sketchucation.com)

Keep track of where the rake_and_splay.rbz file downloads to. Then run SketchUp and open SketchUp->Preferences->Extensions. At the bottom of the dialog there is button labeled "Install Extension...". Click this button and using the Finder-like UI, select the file you downloaded and click OK. The extension should be installed and available immediately.

Hope that helps

Steve

slbaumgartner

TIG beat me to the punch, and he is correct: so long as you don't try to install completely manually, there is nothing special about Mac vs Windows.

Steve

Dave R

Steve, this looks like a handy tool but I wonder if a modification could be made. The value entered for "Scale" gives the length of the splayed and raked line. The name of the value isn't very intuitive. Maybe it could be changed to height? In the case of things like table and chair legs, the height of the table top or seat is typically known and the length of the legs is made to suit. Would it be possible to enter the height to the bottom of the table top or seat and calculate the length of the splayed/raked line? Thanks.

slbaumgartner

Dave,

Thanks for the feedback! That should be an easy change. I'll look at it when I get home on Monday.

Steve

Dave R

Thank you. Have a great weekend. Hopefully you're away and relaxing at a lake or something.

slbaumgartner

Version 0.2 implementing Dave's suggestion is now available on the sketchUcation plugins store.

Steve

Dave R

Thanks Steve. I'll give it a whirl.

slbaumgartner

@dave r said:

Thanks Steve. I'll give it a whirl.

You're welcome. Please note that I didn't provide explicit output of the slanted leg length as it can easily be measured using the Tape Measure Tool.

Steve

Dave R

I saw that. For my work I don't really care what the length is until I'm ready for the cutlist. As with most parts in a piece of furniture, their length is what it takes to span distance.

Thank you for the changes.

slbaumgartner

Version 0.3 now available on the sketchUcation Plugin Store adds leg vs box type to allow planes to be located more usefully for compound miter joints vs legs.