Need help Flattening a curved object!

No3man

Hello Guys,

I need help with a function that is driving me mad, I'm trying to flatten a curved object I'm working on in sketchup make, can't find a plugin to do it automatically and If I do it with manually with flattery which takes forever, I get split faces that can't be repaired automatically and the flatten object is not correct.
actually I got this down about a year ago but I forgot how I did it or maybe the new one isn't the samein every aspect.

If anyone can fix a solution for this I would very much appreciate it?

Thank you.

ps: I'm trying to flatten them to be cut in wood with a laser machine.

The part has already been separated to the pieces to be flattened.

Box

Is your shape symmetrical? It appears to be to me as I used the profile to create another and it fits.
If that is the case, think ahead.
You created 17 sections, but those sections don't match the segments of the shape.
You can see this when I turn on hidden geometry in the gif.

So use the profile you want with a path(circle) of the appropriate number of segments, in this case 34. Use follow me and you have the 34 segments of the correct shape, delete half of them.

Then use a flatten plugin on one segment of the shape. Since the shape is symmetrical you actually only need one flattened because they are all the same.

I have made two here and rotated one on top of the other to show they are the same.

Dave R

I think you'd find it easier to unwrap and flatten if you fixed the model. Since it appears you want 17 strips for this shape divide it up that way. Yours is in blue, mine is in white. I used a 34-segment circle with your profile and Follow Me to create my version of it. Notice how the sectors are not further divided like yours is.
Screenshot - 12_7_2019 , 9_37_20 AM.png

Edit: Box got in while I was typing.

No3man

@box said:

Is your shape symmetrical? It appears to be to me as I used the profile to create another and it fits.
If that is the case, think ahead.
You created 17 sections, but those sections don't match the segments of the shape.
You can see this when I turn on hidden geometry in the gif.

So use the profile you want with a path(circle) of the appropriate number of segments, in this case 34. Use follow me and you have the 34 segments of the correct shape, delete half of them.

Then use a flatten plugin on one segment of the shape. Since the shape is symmetrical you actually only need one flattened because they are all the same.

I have made two here and rotated one on top of the other to show they are the same.

I Did do that that's how I first made the shape but the problem was that the shape is not perfectly round as when I used the follow me tool the profile I followed is slightly flat on the top, also after making it round and deleting half of it, I used scale to reduce its' width to 36cm.
I don't know if when you created the profile based on one of mine and created my shape with it, it gave the exact shape as mine, If it did, that's great. then send me the modified version and how you created the new profile based on mine with one segment. and thank you so much.
IN case I needed to still flatten a similar shape but with wider end profiles on the bottom, how would I do that ?

No3man

@dave r said:

I think you'd find it easier to unwrap and flatten if you fixed the model. Since it appears you want 17 strips for this shape divide it up that way. Yours is in blue, mine is in white. I used a 34-segment circle with your profile and Follow Me to create my version of it. Notice how the sectors are not further divided like yours is.
[attachment=0:771cmv9h]Screenshot - 12_7_2019 , 9_37_20 AM.png[/attachment:771cmv9h]

Edit: Box got in while I was typing.

Hey man, can you send the modified file to me so I can measure it and see if it has the same dimensions as my shape?

thanks,

Box

The basic problem is you need to start with the right number of segments, then you can scale, flatten, stretch or do anything you want as long as the segments remain constructed from one segment. Then you can easily flatten all of them even if they are different without them splitting.

No3man

I know, but that is if you're using a perfect cirle to do a follow me of the profile which is not the case here, because my shape doesn't follow a perfect cirle.It has a small horizontal line with symmetrical arcs on the sides, and its' vertical radius is bigger than its' horizontal one.

Box

Like I said, use the right number of segments for the path and what every shape you want.

You even get to see me screw up in a recorded gif.

If you want flat spots in the path add them in with the correct segmentation.

Dave R

@no3man said:

can you send the modified file to me so I can measure it and see if it has the same dimensions as my shape?

Sorry. Didn't save it.

No3man

Ok I got what you're saying now.
my mistake was modifying the circle used for follow me with a line but from how you did it, I should've created the cirle with the correct number of segments and then scale to the desired shape, before using follow me, of course the resulting segments won't be identical, but I can use unwrap on them.

Thank you very much.

No3man

@dave r said:

@no3man said:

can you send the modified file to me so I can measure it and see if it has the same dimensions as my shape?

Sorry. Didn't save it.

I figured it out, Thanks.