Ok, I know this isn't an advanced model - and to Sketchup veterans I apologise...

I initially wished to make a Steampunk ray gun design for the WETA 'Ray Gun Shootout' design competition - BUT, they do not allow SketchUp submissions, only Blender (and my noob model just didn't import into Blender well at all). SO I ended up just doing the model for fun.

Here's a 2D bit of silliness I did with the model...

If anyone is interested in the model I have uploaded it to the 3D Warehouse - and if you find out a way to get a Blender version out of it, please let me know!

3D Warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3820e57b803a310e8406a662593eab65&prevstart=0

Well...I hope you find the model entertaining.

Steve

@mitcorb said:

electricdoodle:

Based on what your other respondents have stated, I want to apologize if any comments I offered misled you. I made an assumption based on your illustration, and gave my opinion. It looked to be within my realm of experience.
I am glad that some of the more experienced folks here were able to shed some light and hopefully help you with your issue.
And, my apologies to this forum and anyone else who may have been misled by my comments.
I wish you good fortune in your future modeling.
Sincerely,
mitcorb

mitcob, no need to apologize - because of my inexperience my question was undoubtedly ambiguous. You reaised some useful points which I have added to my 'tool set' for the future...

One thing I am beginning to understand about SketchUp is there isn't just one way to do anything, or solve a particular problem, but several options from which you can choose (or even use combinations) depending on your specific model.

I've appreciated all the suggestions I have recived.

ED

Hello all - and thank you to everyone for joining in on this post...

In a funny way it is a relief that I am not teh only one to suffer this problem, so thank you to those that replied saying they have come across this - as a novice it is good when you know that it's not just you!

There have been a few suggestions as well on how I might try and solve these issues and I will be trying them out in due course. Should I solve this I will of course post back up with an example of my corrected work.

Finally, it's very comforting that there has been such a good response to my question, and so quickly, nice to know that there is such good support from fellow SketchUp users available.

Thanks.

EB

@mitcorb said:

Looks like your starting cylinder had 24 defining segments in the base circle.
You would have had to increase the segment count to something higher to minimize this facet effect. But this all depends on how far away you will set the camera view. That is, a six segment cylinder will look just fine as a background element in a more crowded scene.

If you are not already doing this, you should scale your model up probably 100x while in progress and at the end scale it down to the correct proportions.

Oh Mitcorb - thank you. That makes absolute sense. I am afraid I am still useing SketchUp 'out the box' without tinkering with some of the settings like increasing the number of segments (for example)...

But the scale trick is so nifty - and why it didn't strike me before I don't know as I already do this for my 2D work in Illustrator (to make fine editing easier).

Thak you so much.

ED

Sorry about my vague title for this post but this is hard to explain.

If you look at this picture it explains my problem better...

I made the cylinder of this revolver by starting - obviously - with a cylinder primitive. BUT to achive the cut-out ports for the percussion caps I intercected the cylinder with a series of smaller cylinders.

Unfortunately, while this works it produces nasty 'flattening' effects where my cut-outs seem to conflict with the natural polygons of the cylinder (does that make sense?)...

If you look at the top of the cylander you can see where the rounded cylinder has 'flattened' causing nasty edges spoiling the smooth shape.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for that very useful tutorial - I am now on my way to making nice regulary spaced tracks around a path!

One additional question I have though, it's about making the individual segments of the tracks all neatly spaced at regular intervals...

I am not much of a mathematician, so getting the track segments to space evenly around the arc - to match the spacing on 'the straight' - seems to alude me. Is this simply a case of trial and error to get the spacing on the arc and straight to match?

Any hints at how best to match the spacing both through the arc and the straight would be gratefully recived.

Sorry is the answer to this is obvious - unfortunately it isn't obvious to me!

I came across this - and aside from going 'WOW!' - I though, this might be where SketchUp could be going in the future...

"ILOVESKETCH is a 3D curve sketching system that captures some of the affordances of pen and paper for professional designers, allowing them to iterate directly on concept 3D curve models" (Er, translated this means you can sketch in 3D using a tablet and pen system.)

Take a look at this movie and see what you think:-

The technology used can be read about on their own website: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~shbae/ilovesketch.htm

I believe it's all in development as yet - but I'll be saving up for this!

My interest in SketchUp is - long term - animated maps with 3D landmarks...

So I was very interested when I came across an application called 'Kinemac':

"Kinemac is a 3D Real Time Animation & Presentation Software for Mac OS X. It allows you to create your own professional 3D Animations with the simplicity of a 2D presentation tool."

(www.kinemac.com)

There is a trial - I downloaded it and was pleasantly surprised that I actually made a small test animation using a building I created in Sketchup (exported as a 3DS). The demo movies give you a good idea what you can do: http://www.kinemac.com/gallery/index.html

Be interesting to hear comments (anyone foresee problems or pitfalls?)...

S

I've come to the - slightly tongue in cheek - conclusion that Sketchup is kind of it's own worst enemy!

The reason I say this is because Sketchup is so easy to get into and fun to use that it's tempting to just jump in and start sketching a model without any real preparatory planning.

I've done this, and inevitably, further down the design creation you find that you hit a problem that could have been avoided if only you had taken some time to plan your model before you began.

Would more experienced users care to share with novice users how they plan a model please?

For example:-

Do you examine the original which you are going to model for 'difficult geometry' and then plan your model around those tricky bits?

Do you decide how complex and detailed your model will be depending on how you intend to render the model?

Do you make a concious decision to 'fudge' certain tricky bits - the whole model being more important than one or two individual parts?

How do you know when to stop the detailing? Do you make a decision at the start that your model will be a certain level of complexity or detail or accuracy (depending on it's intended use)?

Anyone think of any other questions to ask an experienced Sketchup user about planning a model?

Thanks all.

Hi all...

Many thanks for the encouragement. Starting again from scratch is difficult - I am finding - and encouragement is a big help.

Boofredlay, I see what you mean about the mesh - looking at Crazy Eye's Glock, I am finding it very helpful to see the mesh as it shows me how another designer solved some of the puzzles of creating geometry. So here's mine...

I inversed the colours out to black, as I thought it helped (tell me what you think about doing this).

Again, cheers for the kind comments. I'm looking forward to my next model.

Oh! PS - my model is based on the Glock 18C version, but with various tactical accessories to be added - hence the snub nose (these are the parts which are incomplete). Here is one of my early attempts at rendering using the free version of IDX Renditioner.

I used to be quite into Sketchup, not a experienced modeller by OK. But then I had a very bad experience which turned me off - I lost all my original Sketchup models due to a hard drive failure. So I kinda lost heart.

Well, enough time has gone by for me to try again, so here is my first practise model (I say first, because I have found that I am so rusty and have forgotten a lot of the 'tricks').

This is my - incomplete - interpretation of something fairly geometric and simple to get into - a Glock 18C:

I'm finding certain things very frustrating, as I have forgotten how to do some things I used to be able to do easily. (Yes, there has been a bit of cursing and minor tantrums!)

Sorry about the cheesy choice of my first practice model, I hope to move on to do some more interesting things.

Nice to be back, btw - Sketchup is fun! (And this time I am backing up! LOL)