DC Pop-Up tent
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Hey everyone,
so I'm trying to create a Pop-Up tent with Dynamic Components. I'll try to explain the properties and options the component should have and the steps I have taken so far. I'm fairly new in the DC area so please bear that in mind! Also, I'm translating on the fly so I might not get the correct terms for some of the functions.
I attached my work file at the end of the post so you can have a look.
The Pop-Up tent consist of the following parts:
- footpad
- leg (two parts)
- different rods for stabilization
- different walls (closed/window/half-open/open)
- roof
I want to be able to use the following DC options:
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DC option height:
The user should be able to choose between three different height options for the tent (high/mid/low). The legs of the tent consist of two parts that fit into each other. The one at the bottom should remain in place and the rest of the tent should "drop down" to the specified value (so the tent doesn't float in the air). So I'm thinking the legcomponent doesn't change at all but rather the rest of the tent above it moves position. -
DC option width:
The user should be able to chosse between a number of predefined values for the width of the tent. The tent's position should stay fixed in one location and the rest should change accordingly. The tent legs should remain the same size, but the "truss" needs to adapt. Keep in mind, that the rods of the truss can't change their diameter -
DC option length:
The user should be able to choose the length of the tent from a set of predefined values (see above). -
DC option wall:
The user should be able to choose the design for each of the four different walls (front/back/left/right). The design should consist of a solid wall, a wall with windows in it, a wall with only about half the height (but a rod for fixation at the legs) and no wall. I think I got the DC part figured out.
Apart from the DC stuff I'm not quite sure how to organize my file. The walls of all four sides are basically the same (though I need to be able to apply different materials) and I could make a component for all of them that only gets rotated 90°. But I'm not sure what the best file structure should be so I can change the walls the way I want (e.g. 2 walls closed, 1 wall invisible, one wall half)and still use components and groups to keep it user friendly and low on ressources.
Well, there you have it... I attached the SketchUp file so can have a look at the mess I made and hopefully give me some suggestions as to how I should proceed.
Any help is appreciated, because I got this far by searching the web, tutorials and books, but now I am stuck!
Christian
SketchUp 2016SketchUp 2013
SketchUp Pro 2016 (16.0.19913), Mac OS X 10.11.3
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Okay, so I think my last post was a bit overkill - I will try to break my problems down!
I want to create a tent where the user can choose between predefined heights. The tent must not be resized, as the sizes of the subcomponents need to stay the same. But, as in the real life version, the upper part of the tent (roof and upper part of the tent legs) need to slide up or down on the lower part of the leg.
I can do this quite easily if I click on the subcomponent "tent_upper". There I can define the position of the subcomponent. BUT: in order to do so I need to click on the component "tent" and then click on the subcomponent "tent_upper". But this is not intuitiv.
I'm looking therefore for an option to click on the component and get to choose the different heights. I tried using LenZ on the tent and locking the subcomponent LenZ in the hope SketchUp would keep the height of the subcomponents as they are and just change their position.
tl;dr: How can I change the position of a subcomponent in a DC by just selecting its parent component?
I hope this clears things up a bit!
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