Hi,

I'm at the point of wanting to apply a shiny, metallic, aluminum-looking finish to an airplane I'm building. The metallic textures that come with SketchUp are very limited. I've found some nice-looking .igm and .pigm files that I could download from websites. Can they be used in SketchUp? If yes, how is that done? If no, where can I find shiny metal textures?

Thanks,
Bill

Thanks to everyone's kind assistance, I've been able to build a serviceable canopy for the '50s era F-80 jet fighter that I'm building. I wanted to share the results:

The framework is courtesy of the Extrude Edges by Face plugin.

I'm building the jet as a static-display model to export to X-Plane. I chose SketchUp over other CAD options because I am new to 3D modeling and was told SketchUp was easier to learn than programs like Blender. I was also told it isn't as powerful as some other CAD programs, but I have to say that the core program plus all the plugins plus the excellent support on these forums was more than I had expected.

After working with Adobe Illustrator for several years, moving from 2D to 3D is like going from Kansas to Oz.

Thanks again for all your help. This project, my first 3D effort--I've been at it all of a week--has been a remarkable adventure.

Bill

Update: So, I drew lines to divide the wedge into four zones. Then, I tried to apply the skinning feature to each zone individually. It worked great on the first three zones (see below). I turned on View Hidden Geometry to better show the shape:

But it wouldn't work on the fourth zone. Any thoughts as to why? Is the curve too extreme at that point? Is there a setting I need to change?

(Just for the fun of it, I tried adding another section onto the uncooperative zone, to see if that would help. It didn't.)

Further Update: P.S. to this post: I added another line, making another zone. The final segment still didn't work. So, I traced lines over the final segment, and that tracing did convert. So, I think I have something I can use. Still would like any thoughts on why that last segment kept refusing to convert.

Thanks,
Bill

Well, I successfully installed and opened Curviloft.

While trying various options in the Skinning mode (I assume that's the one I should be using), I did get it to apply a mesh once, although the mesh it applied misinterpeted what I was trying to do. More importantly, I haven't been able to replicate making the program work. That is, I go through the steps, described below, but nothing happens. (The one time it did work, I was trying all sorts of things, and I don't know exactly what made it work.)

So, I have a few newbie questions. The first general one: Is there a well-documented set of instructions or tutorial for the Skinning feature somewhere?

Then, more specific questions:

I tried to apply the brief author guidelines but generally without success. Working on the wedge shown in my initial post, I:

1. Clicked on the Skinning of Shapes icon.

2. Clicked on the <--> button.

3. Selected the three edges, one at a time. Each time, the edge turned to a yellowish color. After that, the mouseover popup said, "Click to validate contours." When I left-clicked, the edges turned from yellow to blue.

4. After the lines changed color, the mouseover popup message was "Transition." Next, following the author's direction--"Then click again in the empty space to generate the preview shape"--I did that, left-clicking. That action didn't appear to do anything. What does "Transition" mean.

Of course, right-clicking opens a contextual menu with many options (see below). I haven't seen these explained anywhere. Are they? If so, where?

Could someone suggest which of these options I should use?

And what am I doing wrong that is not generating the mesh?

I went through the same steps selecting the button that has arrows going four different ways, instead of the <--> one. Still nothing. I tried clicking on various options on the contextual menu. Nothing.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Bill

Thanks, Brookefox. The Must-Have thread, with its animations, is great.

I'll give some of them a try.

I'm a little nervous about Curviloft because of its beta status and warnings about potential crashes. But I suppose I can always uninstall it if problems occur.

Bill

Hi,
I'm in the process of building an airplane canopy, as shown in the picture below:

As shown, I've created a non-coplanar wedge that so far is just lines. It and a mirror copy on the other side are intended to fit between the canopy and the flat windshield piece.

My question is, what is the best (easiest) way to convert a non-coplanar set of lines like this into a surface that can be painted to simulate transparent glass?

I have the set of extrusion-tool plug-ins but haven't quite figured out how to use them for this application. Any other plugins that I would want for this?

Thanks,
Bill

Thanks for reminding me about all the videos. I had already watched the getting started series but forgot about the others.

Bill

"and watch more of the videos, far more useful than a dry list."

Yes and no. Having a background in education and training, I've been reminded more than once (from my readings and experience) of the concept of learning styles--what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. In fact, I'm revealing my learning style by asking for a list, as someone else might by asking for a video or chat group or whatever.

One problem I've found with YouTube SketchUp videos is that some are really good, some so-so, and some simply awful, where the author rapidly goes through a hundred steps in one or two minutes with no narration, explanation, or even text.

Personally, I wouldn't find a concise, well-written list dry. It would be a useful tool, along with good videos and all the rest.

Whew, that's more than I've written in three days. Must be that third cup of coffee.

Cheers, all
Bill

Yes, the triple-click is a good example of something that newbies (like me) should know about right away, that could be on a list. I came across that trick by happenstance while watching a YouTube SketchUp tutorial someone had created.

Bill

Following up on my previous post, it dawned on me that a sticky list of 20 or so things every newbie should keep in mind would be helpful, with reasons why. Using groups is a good example--not just that it's a good idea, but why, such as the reason explained in this thread. Another suggestion I came across recently is using X-Ray to better see what's going on and to be able to grab hidden Scale handles.

I know there's a thread titled "What's Your Beginners Tip," and that's great, but it doesn't summarize in one, easy-to-read list many of the most important things to keep in mind when starting to use SketchUp.

Would one of the resident gurus be interested in tackling this, or maybe a few could collaborate?

Or does the list already exist somewhere? If so, please let me know.

Thanks for all your super support.
Bill

Thanks, Dave. That is very helpful. Yes, I have been making the "newbie" mistake of exploding a group to edit it. I'll remember that piece of advice in the future.

My other newbie mistake was that the reason I thought a group couldn't be made from a single element was that when I made a rectangle, for example, I didn't double click on it to select both the line and face. Duh!

Gradually, it's starting to come together. Very exciting.

Bill

I see.

Since a single piece cannot be grouped, does that mean that the only time the fusing occurs is when you have two pieces each of which is made up of parts that could be grouped together? And that single pieces--which cannot be grouped--will never fuse together?

Bill

Hi,

I've been working with SketchUp for about a week now and am starting to get the hang of it. I do have one question, however, the answer to which will remove a lot of headaches.

Sometimes, when I have abutted one element up next to another, I am able to work on each one independently for a while. But then, all of the sudden, the two elements become, for lack of a better word, fused together and start acting as a single unit.

When that happens, I can no longer reshape each element independently, without affecting the other one. My only recourse, not being familiar with all of SketchUp's ins and outs, is to keep clicking Undo until I reach the point where the two elements are again independent of each other. And then I start over.

One workaround has been to keep the elements from touching while I work on them, but that solution is less than perfect.

Is there a more elegant way to detach two elements from each other when they become "glued" together that way? Or to avoid it happening in the first place?

Thanks,
Bill

Great! Thanks.
Bill

Hi,

Suppose I have an object that measures 5 feet long by the tape measure, and I want to change the length to 3 feet 4 inches, retaining the proportions of the object.

I could do that by trial and error using the Scale tool. I see that as you rescale an object, the box at the bottom of the screen shows the percentage difference as you drag the scale handle.

To make the adjustment from 5 feet to 3 feet 4 inches in one scale movement, do I use a formula to figure out what the percentage change needs to be? If so, what is that formula? Or is there another, easier way to do it?

Thanks,
Bill

The solution that worked pretty well for me was to fill in the jaggies with little triangles and then hide the lines where they joined the main element.

Bill

Thanks, Mitcorb. Yes, the problem was that I wasn't drawing the curves in a single plane. Once I used a rectangle as a drawing board, that solved the problem. Is there another way to keep the lines in one plane?

I'm not in Kansas any more--where programs like Adobe Illustrator only required thinking in two dimensions. Having great fun though, playing with this program. A lot to learn, but a lot of fun.

Thanks again for everyone's patience.

Bill

Hi,

I installed the Bezier Curves plug-in. It works fine, except that only once was the final shape a face that I could then use Push/Pull to extrude. The other times, the final shape was lines only. I don't know what I did differently the time I got a face instead of only an outline. In each case, I made sure the shape was completely closed, as far as I could tell.

Being new to SketchUp, I'm not sure where the problem is--the way I'm drawing the curves, the settings in my SketchUp program, or something else.

Thanks,
Bill

Hello,

In SketchUp 8, Windows XP, I was constructing a somewhat complex object. Part of the process was to intersect a cylinder with a sphere and then use Intersect Faces to delete the cutout made by the sphere.

Unfortunately the edge of the cylinder that remained after deleting the sphere is jagged. Is there a way to smooth out a jagged line of that type?

Thanks,
Bill

Yes, the X-Ray tool seems to have done the trick.

Thanks for the quick help.

Bill