A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members
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Welcome, from someone slightly older. It's never too late
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Hello,
I am a new user to both SU and this forum. I am a landscape contractor/designer, I design using Dynascape Design and I design for others in the US and Canada. I have come to use SU from Dynascape Design, which launched their 3D verison this year. As luck would have it, my first project happens to be a large and complicated commercial design. I have spent over 20 hrs so far and started over once and I probably will need another 8+ hrs to finish, big learning curve.
I look forward to learning SU and to use it as another way to present my landscape designs. I also look forward to viewing some of the posts (when I have time), so in advance, thank you for this forum.
Tom Lacey
Virginia -
@dmorrill22 said:
Hi, my name is Doug Morrill.
I would like to know if there is a plugin available that will change the texture or color of an object (such as a group or component) with timing. I want to create a strobe light setup for a pickup truck model, and be able to vary the flash patterns. Is this possible, or would it be fairly simple to program? I have never done any programming before, so learning Ruby or something would take quite a while.
Thanks for the help,
Doug
There's nothing available that I can think of...
However by using instances on various layers and switching them ON/OFF you could mimic the effect using the Animation or Timer API methods...
Perhaps post a more detailed request in the Developers'/Plugins[Req] forums... with some images etc to attract attention... -
Welcome tjl:
I think your post got lost in the shuffle. I think you will enjoy your experience here. Feel free to ask any questions. There are a lot of very talented, friendly, and experienced individuals here willing to help. -
My name is Scott Kahn (scottkahn3d) and a big hello to everyone! Iām not new to SketchUp, itās been 3 years now. But I am new to the forum thing. Iām looking to network and know all the latest developments within the Google SketchUp family and beyond!...(-;
Not sure how much I should say/share on this first go-around?
Ok, here's some...Recently about me: I spent all of 2009 in school honing my 3D cad skills, and the last two years working professionally in the trade-show/exhibit industry. I live in California, and freelance out of a home based office.
Specialties, but not limited to: 3D modeling of trade-show exhibits, booth design, photo renderings, and fly thru's.Using Google-Sketchup and Kerkythea software. The computer models are built from AutoCad files (dwg), blueprints, verbally, or actual measurements. Then photo-rendered with lights and backgrounds.
Scott Kahn with 3D CAD designs.
818-540-8101
scottkahn3d@aol.com
http://www.3d4d.webs.com
Thank you! -
Hi folks,
I'm new to the forum and new to SU but not new to 3d modeling, been creating models in CAD and MAX but I'm no pro. I have a degree in Interior Design and Interior Design is where I'd like to apply SU. I just installed SU 7 since I received it from a friend as well as needing to import .dwg files into SU. I'm here trying to learn a new tool to help create quick 3d models vs. spending hours on CAD and MAX.
Here's a small example of my work, a quick mock up of a kitchen showroom that I modeled.
You can find more about me at http://about.me/john.perez
I look forward in interacting with this great community
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Hi,
I'm a new member on SU: Ralph from Amsterdam.
I'm very interested in designing for 3D-printing. I'm using sketchup pro now for six months and i'm doing allright. In the next month(s) i want to learn how i can export textured models in .wrl that are printable. And i like to find some plugins for fast texturing . I've just searched, but i couldn't find a topic about designing for 3d-printing, is that right?Anyway, nice to meet you all and i hope we can learn a lot about each other.
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Hi Ralph and welcome!
There are a couple of topics about 3D printing here, I am sure you will find some useful info (I do not do it - yet - so cannot suggest myself)
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Hi,
I just joined today! I am a fine artist (using Windows 7) working on a sculpture commission, and my client and I are using Sketchup to plan to piece.
In the attached image, you can see an endpoint (indicated with an arrow) floating next to a plane that is not perpendicular to the horizontal or a vertical axis. I would like to be able to draw a line from this endpoint that connects with the tilted plane at a 90 degree angle. The line tool naturally wants to connect at an angle parallel to the horizon, which would give me an inaccurate measurement of how far the endpoint projects from the plane. I hope you guys can help! I really appreciate it.
best, Clement
clementyeh.com
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Hi Clement and welcome!
You know that you can always align the axes to any arbitrary position thus being able to work in oblique angles?
In your case, some little tricks could be used:
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draw a rectangle on that slanting face. It can be of any shape
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Now use the two sides of this rectangle to align the axes to (activate the axis tool from the Tools menu)
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click on one corner of the rectangle to set the origin
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click on another corner to set the direction of the red axis
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click on another corner to set the direction of the green axis
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Now go to your endpoint and start drawing a line then press either the up or down arrow on your keyboard to force it on the blue axis.
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draw the line until you see the "On face" inference on your oblique face.
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Now you can delete the rectangle (or could have deleted before step 3 too)
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Finally right click on any of the three axes (in open space) and "Reset" them to their original position
There is also some plugin that can draw a perpendicular line to any arbitrary face from a given point but I forget which is that.
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Hello,
I am completely novel to Google Sketchup and I know that I won't even begin to scathe the vast possibilities it offers, so please bare with me for these following questions.I am intending on using Sketchup to create multiple 3-dimensional figures for a Cognitive Psychological experiment examining how manipulation (via a mouse) or no manipulation effects the recognition/memory of novel visual objects.
In order to do this, I am planning on making many of these objects that are very similar yet subtly different at the same time. All objects will be composed of a base (cube, triangular prism, or a pentagonal prism) and three parts extending off of that base which can either be a cylinder or rectangular prism.
At this point, I believe I understand the program sufficiently to create these objects, but i've run into a confound. I am hoping to be able to bend some of these parts that extend of off the base. How would I go about bending such shapes? I've looked around and found the script, "shape bender" but I am uncertain as to whether this would work for me.
Thank you all for any help you can lend; It is truly appreciated.
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jborders12
Welcome...
'ShapeBender' will almost certainly do what you want.
The geometry needs to be a group or component-instance.
Ensure you have all of the required files/folders installed as the instructions, and that progressbar.rb is also installed. Also note that the 'red' line and 'curve' cannot touch each other or other 'raw' geometry... Also the original geometry should not be exceptionally small or the radii of bends too tight...
If you have queries about a tool please post in the tool's thread... -
Thank you for the quick response.
One last set of questions and again, sorry for being so clueless.
How do I go about utilizing the plugin? I am running free Sketchup ver:8 on a mac running OSX Lion. I downloaded the shape bender plugin but I am unsure how to open the program on Sketchup. Do I need to download another file and/or copy the file(s) in different folders?Thanks for all the help
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Hello. I'm Henry. Got the SketchUp bug a few days ago. In the past I had considerable seat time with NX, was called Unigraphics. I'm working on modeling custom race car parts for a Bonneville team. I like to design mechanical systems, e.g. now looking at chain drives, belt drives/etc. I found, downloaded and got working PipeAlongPath and it worked great. Need for chassis layout. I can't find where to download it now to put on my home computer, I'll eventually figure it out. I also am using the k_tools for putting a filet between two lines. I hope I posted this in the right spot.
Thanks,
-Henry -
Hi,
Henry again here.
I'm new and having trouble getting plugins to work.
I have Vista and SU8.
How do I find the correct forum location to post questions for e.g. 2DTools or k_tools_50.rb ?
For k_tools_50.rb I'm using the right click to setup the function, so I think I'm doing that correctly.Re: 2DTools
I downloaded 2Dtools_4.9(1).zip and installed per the instructions.
I can get the pull downs to work/etc.
Select intersecting lines and can't get the fillet to happen. Tried a number of different sequences of inputting the radius/etc. with 1" or 1' and other radius values, after checking that the radius was reasonable considering the length of the lines.Re: k_tools_50.rb
I downloaded k_tools_50.rb and got it to work a few times and now can't get it to work.
The function I want is to put a fillet between two lines..Sorry for the newbee questions.
Thx,
-Henry -
Henry
It quite easy to draw two lines that do not intersect.
If they don't 'cross' at some point you can't 'fillet/trim/extend' them.
Try drawing a rectangle that's around 5'x10'.
Now use the 2dFillet tool, typing in 6" as the fillet radius.
Pick two of the lines that meet at a corner.
They should fillet.
Now highlight one of those lines and use Move+Ctrl and copy that line up say 2' vertically above the original.
Now try the 2dFillet tool again [the radius should be remembered as 6"?], but this time pick one line in the original rectangle's set and the copied line that not coplanar - and no fillet can be made.
Now change the radius to say 2' [24"] and re-fillet the two rectangle-edges that are already filleted at 6" - you will see those edges trim back and a new arc added. Now change the radius to 0 and pick those two edges again, this time they'll extend to a right angled corner [zero fillet]...
Edges to be filleted/chamfered need not meet at a right-angle BUT they need to be coplanar and non-parallel - otherwise they can never be 'filleted'
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Long term lurker, coming out of the shadows.
I've been using SketchUp for product design. Finally getting somewhere. Here's a sample of something I was working on recently..
So, hi everyone!
jh
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Hi, there, hirschma:
Is this like a junction box for low voltage lines? The model is nice and well done judging by the mesh lines. -
@hirschma said:
Long term lurker, coming out of the shadows.
I've been using SketchUp for product design. Finally getting somewhere. Here's a sample of something I was working on recently..
So, hi everyone!
jh
Hi, looks quite well worked out...
What is it exactly ?
A couple of tips.
[I realize its a 'wip'
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You have some 'blue' [back] faces showing in the view - reverse them so all of the visible faces are the right way round - it can cause problems later with many 3rd party renderers...
If the object is a proper manifold solid [without internal 'partitions' etc you can orient all faces quickly by selecting one and all others will flip to match it - however, non-solids will give unexpected results!
The 'object' looks quite small - remember that if you try to make facets with side <~1mm or 0.01sq" with say FollowMe or some similar scripts it can fail and leave small 'holes' or even rare Bugsplats! - it's a known limitation of Sketchup/OpenGL - which is designed to model typical building-elements, through building themselves up to building-groups... but not microbes, wristwatches or at the other extreme cities or counties - BUT if you are making 'small objects' you can scale them up temporarily - say x10 - and then when the small facets etc are created you can scale back to their original size - say x0.1 - the new small geometry can exist but it's its creation that's problematic...
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Hello! Im new here in this forum.
I want to share my problem. My VRay does not respond every time I render such a big file. Any suggestions? My SU version is Pro 8 in Win7.
Thanks!
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