I thought Algodoo was the paid version of Phun, I'll take a look.

It's several years since SP has been created and several months since it has been last updated...
I think it's very uncomfortable to build "complex" models, where "complex", in SP, just means "a slice rotating around a rod" or "two gears rotating".
Is there any simpler alternative to SP to build and simulate working mechanisms?

Creating a complex model using just "one finger" (i.e. the mouse pointer) is very complex, does anybody of you use "advanced methods" to manipulate objects in sketchup? 3d mouses or similar devices? Multitouch screens? (does it exist SU for Android?)
Also, using 2d viewing to inspect a 3d object is very difficult, does Sketchup support support any 3d mode? Anaglyph or others?

@box said:

The geometry in the model you attached is quite small, scaling up would certainly help with fixing problems caused by tiny faces.

I already read about this, but I don't unserstand why SU cares about dimensions; but I just discovered the option to set precision down to 1/1000th mm, maybe it depends on this?

Anyway I found another weird behaviour: i was trying to copy&paste a part of my model, because it has a lot of multiple faces which both Solid Inspector and CleanUp can't manage, to post it to the forum.... but once I pasted the part to a new file, multiple faces disappeared!!
And that's not all: CleanUp actually works, but it's not aware of it! I mean, if i select the area containing the multiple faces and I start CleanUp, it ends with the statistics dialog which says that nothing has been fixed, but that's not true: multiple faces have actually been removed!

Finally, I am not even able to paint each face in different color to better show them to you, as they don't get any color, they just remain white.

Maybe it's better if I upload the full model...
I had to remove most part of the model because I have upload limits from office: to prevent "mysterious auto-fix" I deleted useless parts rather than copy&pasting useful parts into a new model.

multifaces-fullmodel.skp

I played with field of view, but it is disabled in parallel view although I still see clipping.
I'll do other tests.
Thanks.

Yes, the cylinder has already been widely reworked.

@dave r said:

Especially turn off Length Snapping and set Precision to something higher than you would work in the shop. For woodworking you'll probably want to set the Units to millimeters, too.

Do this in a fresh, blank SketchUp file and then go to File>Save as template and save the file making sure you have ticked the box for Use as default. That way, in the future, when you open SketchUp, these settings will already have been made for you.

Amazing tip, looked for it for a long time!
Is this a nw featyre in SU8 or did I just miss it in previous versions?

I started with a standard 24-edges circle to create a cylinder and the a cone which I used inside a complex model; is there a way to increase edges numbers now to get a better 3d printing?

Did it ever happen to you that while using Sketchup, suddenly the model is cut by a section plan.... which you DIDN'T create?!?
The only solution I found is moving the model away from the spurious section plan, but why does it appear? It happened in SU6, but it also happens in SU8! Is this supposed to be a feature rather than a bug?!?

Thsi plugin looks interesting, but is there a method to stop processing if it takes too long?

The suggested plugin works quite well, but it does not detect all defects detected by netfabb (it misses some holes).

I only posted a small part of my model, just to let you see the multifaces issue.
I know how to fix them by hand, but after fixing the 100th face I'm a bit tired... and every time I make a little change to the model, faces mess up and get duplicated!
I'm now experimenting with the suggested plugin.

Jaxcoffee, Sketchup Free is perfectly suitable to create printable models, I already created and printed a dozen of models; most printing services require STL format, so you need an STL export plugin,but Sculpteo accepts .skp files.

See attached file.
I higlighted faces with different colors, but they are usually all same color and then invisible until you delete them.

Multiple faces

I don't understand if this plugin can help me.

I have a non-planar surface close to a cylindrical surface; I want to extrude a region of the non-planar surface up to the cylinder to create a solid 3d joint between cylinder and the non-planar surface.

Can I use this plugin, or do I need another one?

@solo said:

Sadly a true story.

[attachment=0:16hz7reg]<!-- ia0 -->551261_10151892423894255_323682469_n.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:16hz7reg]

Actually it would go down, as you subtract energy from the atmosphere and put it into batteries.

Can the plugin also triangulate already triangular faces, i.e. split it into smaller faces? It would be useful if you need to usce the sculpt plugin.

What about the "opposite" of this plugin? De-triangulate faces would be very useful after importing an STL file!

I noticed that sometimes, in complex models, if I join two points by a segment ending in creating a triangle, automatically the triangle is filled... but rather than by one face, it's filled with multilple faces: more often "just" 3 or 4 faces, but in a specific situation I kept deleting and deleting and deleting the face until I counted 10 of them!

They are totally invisible in normal view, but they are barely visible in X-Ray view as they appear in different color (lighter or darker, depending on.. who knows?).

Is there any plugin capable of automatically removing all of these spurious faces?
They are also visible by importing the STL into Netfabb, but it's quite uncomfortable if you have dozens of multiple faces...

This plugin looks interesting, but my english is poor and terms used to describe how a bolt is built are hard to understand...
An animated GIF like above one, but showing how to PROPERLY use the plugin, inserted into first post, would be very good.
Additionally, I read in first posts about reversed faces in the bolt: I don't know if this bug has been fixed as it is not important in virtual world... but 3 years after creation of this plugin we have now 3d printers, which complain about inverted faces! A bolt with inverted faces cannot be printed, because it appears as a hole not surrounded by any material (i.e., impossible object).

I don't understand how to use the plugin.
I installed it,I get the new context menu.
I create a cylynder/sphere, then... what? I create a wall close to it, apply a texture to the wall and use the UV right menu on it?
Nothing happens.

Ok, now it's working for me.
But I can't figure out how to get slices as thick as their distance: using same number as input does not work, I always can see some empty space between slices.