@ely862me said:

Learning never ends.

Whoo-whoo!

Great instructions. I done did it I did.

Curviloft is the bomb!

@unknownuser said:

@ JJ
Try Moment of Inspiration : It's a nurbs modeler but it's very good also in 2D !
And unic caracteristic: you can use it only with a graphic Pen tablet so cool for "artist"!

Pilou,

Thanks for the introduction to MOI. I am not familiar with this product. I do not use a graphic pen tablet (yet). I have my plate full learning SketchUp, QuadriSpace (for technical manual production), SolidWorks (to manipulate existing 3D geometry) and a myriad of other products. I'll take a better look at MOI as time and conditions permit.

JJ

@krisidious said:

it's always vector for me... dwg and for adobe that works well.

Krisidious,

I mostly export dwg as well. However, the quantity of entities KILLS me. The SketchUp drawing below has 49,595 entities. I believe this is because dwg does not support Bezier curves or ellipses. All arcs, ellipses, curves and many lines are broken into segments. That is, a simple circle (a single entity item in some vector drawing programs) breaks down to 24 entities in SketchUp. And, the quality of the dwg export is not really good - even for relatively simple objects. Many lines go missing, corners don't meet, etc. I've tested this in Corel Designer and Illustrator. If I have a choice, I bring 3D models into SolidWorks for export as dwg. The filters are fantastic and the results are nearly perfect. Other programs with similar results to what I get with SketchUp (high entity, bad quality vector export) include QuadriSpace, Right Hemisphere (Deep Exploration), and Adobe 3D.

JJ

@jim said:

Does the patent office accept 3d models? If not, wht not?

Jim, No. The patent office (USPTO) requirements are very traditional (archaic). I've been in the trade for more than 40 years. My tools have changed from pencil, pen, ink, templates, 2 ply Strathmore Bristol Board, etc. to 100% digital. The final deliverables continue to look old school. If you were to patent a battle ship, all the drawings would need to fit on 8 1/2 X 11 or A4 paper (many sheets of course). Reason? Tradition and consistency I suppose. Only in the past few years have I been able to use gray scale to any extent. For an attorney to submit color renderings is a whole separate rigmarole. For the most part, the attorneys quiver and yield when an examiner presents drawing complaints. You would not believe how difficult it is to respond to and comply with an examiner's complaint when they get focused on minutia. It's a great trade though. I am self-employed, work from my home/office/studio. The overhead is minimal and pulling down 6 figures is very realistic. For these conditions, I'd draw on a shovel blade with charcoal if that's all they'll accept.

I mention these examples (above) to help demonstrate how far off 3D models seem to be. No sense in arguing the sense of using 3D. The USPTO stores the images in TIFF format (go figure). To view patents online (a stride in technology), you need a TIFF viewer.

Seems like the USPTO is shooting for the lowest common denominator. This makes sense if a level playing field is the objective. After all, it is the government and must be equal to all.

My thoughts and observations,

JJ

@fuzzion said:

Industrial design without Fredoscale is like trying to ride a bike
without the wheels

Fuzzion,

I believe ShetchUp is currently primarily used for architectural projects. I can certainly see where it's a big plus for industrial designers. The styles must come in real handy for you. There are probably 100 architects for every 1 industrial designers. I am a technical illustrator specializing in patent drawings. I only use SketchUp in about 2% of my projects. I expect it to climb to around 6-8%. I also use other products such as Corel Designer X5, QuadriSpace, SolidWorks, Adobe Illustrator, etc. The more "mechanical" features (plugins and functions) available in SketchUp, the more illustrators and industrial designers will be attracted. These opinions (and knee-jerk statistics) are my own guestimations.

JJ

@unknownuser said:

@jicjac said:

Are the plugins exclusive to MAC?

ha.. no. that almost never happens.

you're missing the libFredo files.. get them here:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=17947

Woot! Thanks Jeff. I have the Scale and Round Corner plugins now working.

I'll get the hang of it yet.

Thanks for helping me solve this issue,

JJ

Are the plugins exclusive to MAC? ~ I'm running a PC.

I "think" I followed the instructions.....

but I get this error message:

Error Loading File ZLoader__
no such file to load -- LibFredo6.rb
Error Loading File ZLoader__FredoScale.rb
no such file to load -- LibFredo6.rb

It looks to me like a "Lib" file is needed?

I don't expect anyone to spend their time and talent troubleshooting for me. I suppose there is another forum section for these matters. But if I can help someone else down the line by pointing out a problem I'm experiencing, it's a good thing.

JJ

BTW, Thanks humpmetwice for your elegant contribution. I think this was a fun exercise for all.

@ely862me said:

Learning never ends.

Ah! Very clever. This looks like the type of solution I would come up with during my trial and error process. I understand (thanks to the great instructional presentation you prepared) the concept. When I have time, I'll give this a solution a try and let you know how it goes.

JJ

@ely862me said:

Hmm..didn't even knew that Fredo's scale has that ability..

Anyway,the transition between the twist and the straight bar it's a bit odd.

With a bit more work u can achieve this result.With some arcs and Curviloft it came out pretty well.

Amazing. Perfecto. It's a lot for me (noob/novice) to grasp. Now I have two plugins to learn. Will the learning never end?

Thank to all,

JJ

@solo said:

Fredoscale, pretty simple to use.

Wow!

*checks out Fredoscale....

*begins plugin download

From a quick glance at your presentation (graphic), it looks like Fredoscale uses the concept presented by Jim and automates it (the step-by-step process).

I believe you have offered the ultimate solution.

My hat is off,

JJ