Issues with rotation
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I've recently started using sketchup to help me with fabrication in the shop. I found a plugin that unwraps and flatten faces which is fantastic. I'm able to get the profile of all of the rolled pieces so I can cut templates out for when I am assembling.
The problem that I have is with rotation. When the plugin is finished, the faces end up cockeyed. I have a hard time orienting them so that I can create my dxf. Sometimes I can fumble around with them and get them oriented correctly, but it is far from efficient.
I've attached an example. If someone could please point me in the right direction, I sure would be grateful.
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While it is possible to rotate the unfolded segment of your apply around and you should learn to use the Rotate tool so you can do that, it would be easier to set up your model to make it easier when you get to that stage.
First, fix the axes. You've got them balled up. Right click on the origin and choose Reset.
I then moved your apple to be centered over the origin and rotated the hole thing about the center (origin) so a side crosses the green axis and another crosses the red.
Then I selected one segment of the apple and copied it to the right. Notice I copied the segment that crosses the green axis. For this example I made another copy to unfold although I wouldn't do that for myself. That unfolded version is sloped up at an angle matching the top inside face (next to the core)
For the third, rotated copy, I selected all of the flattened geometry, got the Rotate Tool and rotated it down to parallel with the green axis. To get the orientation of the Rotate Tool to be correct, I positioned the cursor on the horizontal edge at the near end of the shape, clicked and held the left mouse button and dragged the cursor along the edge a bit. Then I released and ran the Rotate tool as normal.
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