jonathanB
Additional for you and =>different approach http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=9df4585fbb0ebe4f427d16763a0ff49. The model was modified to align segs to avoid gaps, only bottom is show, primitive geo put back to layer zero, more use of components, Fredo's Curve Loft used to create bottom, no attempt to reduce model size , hand railing should be easy to model.
To see total you need to turn layers on

johathanb
Several other comments for your consideration that may help you down stream;
I notice you have some of the primitive geometry in your model drawn on layers other that 0. SU is different than CAD programs in that all primitive geometry should be drawn on layer zero, components and groups are assigned other layers strictly for visibility control. For example select one of the stair groups and double click to get in the edit mode, select a line in that group and the entity info drop down. It should show that line on layer 0 not on the xxx layer. That is easily corrected by selecting that layer on the layer drop down , deleting and select option to move "things" back to layer zero. You can then recreate that layer name and then assign that group to that layer leaving the prime geo on layer zero.
Hope I have not added confusion

Check this site http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/ They have a program that will audit your machine and tell you what version plus much more about open gl on your machine

As with most SU models there are more than one way to "skin a deer".
Lay out your platform & foot (4x4=> doing one will array copy the rest later) location in a plan view. Connect as many edges as you can without making coplanar edges, the location of the feet you can calculate based on the 20 'or make approximate to account for the end cut you will have to make then and movethe platform up to the height desired. You can the connect the bottom pole edges to the platform not connected before. Make the pole a component, measure one side width with the tape tool and scale to the design 4x4 ( Other wise it will be less than 4x4).This step must be done in context of the pole component or all the model will be scaled. Array copy around the rest of the platform and you are done => no intersections required and angle is automatic
Update: Make sure when you move the platform up you lock the move to the blue axis( hold shift). Otherwise it will try to autofold on you.

@razer said:

Hey guys

Im trying to find a plugin that will let me Snap my components together by edge face or vertex, Using shift+alt is a pain snapping to wrong faces and stuff.

Thanks

Don't forget the move tools capability to move to absolute or relative coordinates based on key board inputs. I use it most often for moving to origin by inputting [0,0,0]

@mozenator said:

Hi Everyone,

I've been a finish carpenter for 20 years and am now starting 3D design as part of my work. I've gone through the main tutorials, and browsed the case studies images. Some very exciting stuff in there. I've been remodeling our bathroom at home, and I might just draw it and post it, if anyone is interested. I custom built the vanity cabinet which needed to be extremely shallow (16") to accommodate the entry door location. Anyway, great to be here.

Mozenator

Some other links you may find helpful: http://www.finewoodworking.com/blog/design-click-build; http://www.srww.com/blog/?p=117 ( make sure to check the sketchup tab there is an 8 page tutorial that may help you get up to speed

@ryanty12 said:

How do I scale the model so that 3/16" will equal 1'0?

It is normal SOP to do all your model creation at a 1:1 scale and then to set a scale if you desire something different on the printed output. If you want to do that make sure your are in the parallel projection mode,select one of the standard views, select print preview ( I have PC so hope your mac is the same, if not check user manual). If you want to actully scale the drawing I would make a copy , draw a 12" line, then select / measure it with the tape tool and then input 3/16". That will scale your whole drawing by 1/64 ( 3/16 = 192/16)

@ben ritter said:

Thanks everyone for your input. I understand more of what's going on now. Unforturnately, I didn't draw this from scratch, imported CAD files and now trying to make faces where there aren't any. It's been frustrating to say the least.

I will try the tip to scale things up Wo3Dan. I do have the stray lines script and will try that again too.

Thanks mac1. No you didn't destroy my model. No worries.

Thanks to you all. Ben

FYI Ben
I tried TIG's tool flatten http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31895 against your model and it did a very nice job without breaking lines like the drape tool did.

It appears from your OP post you have the 3ds file. If so try importing to mesh lab and you can then reduce the number of vertices. Do it 1/2 at each step and take a look at the model to see if it is of the quality you'll accept
Select re-mesh simplification and reconstruction
Quadratic edge collapse decimiation
Select optimal position of simplified vertices, post simplification cleaning , quality to 1
Note you can input the number you want

Carlsen
See this link for concept of what I think you want but need to hear from you http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=24a74ef603a753e19f30f02514717f00.
The cone is like a stack of pancakes with decreasing dias. It was drawn using a story stick divided using the line tool divide option 1/10 the height for each step . Each face of the stack was created by staring a new face when the staring circle was extruded up to next step( hit ctrl), the edge at each step was scaled based on the radius at that level on the story stick ( used the entity info box for that to make the cone. The surface png in your original OP was the used to create the texture, see this link for that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYYdWYRqrg&feature=channel ( watch the video all the way the part you want occurs late).
This is just a concept and once you decided on a final geometry then it can be refined
Hope this maybe remotely close to what you are looking for

@carlsen said:

Divided the shape and rotated in 24 times, 15 deg. each time..

Would still like an automated solution, as it gets a bit more tedious if you bend it 48 times and find out the shape is a bit wrong.. Of course it could be divided into 2, 4 or more parts, but that would also require some extra work..

Any solutions?

Sorry I am the dense one but have some questions:

1. The OP says 2d surface to circle but given a circle has zero height this is not possible ;
2. I see a shape which is a truncated right cone but also a shape which is a cylinder with a sinusoidal modulated height. Is this latter intended to show an applied surface material on the cone having this type of variation. If so what type of variation is wanted in terms spacing and does the period of the modulation change as it goes up the slope of the cone or stay the same.It must change What is the spacing Or is the intended variation radial of the cone surface like groves etc? ;
3. What if any limitations are applied to the cone in terms of base vs frustum dia and its height. IE can the frustrum dia go to nearly zero ?
   Sorry, as you can tell dense here Is this even close to your concept http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=259f036e12f9eea59f30f02514717f00

@jfguedes said:

The Flatten to Plane plugin was the one with which I had the best results, although some of the lines are still not flattened (even when I select everything before activating the plugin).

The Drape tool didn't do anything for me.

I'm not sure, but I think that my problem is that not only I have lines in a diferent "Z-level" (lets say, still in the same plane as the plane made with the red and green axys, but some meters above 0), but some lines are in completely diferent planes... Those lines seems not to be affected by this plugin.

Still looking for a complete solution.

Thanks for the help so far.

Jose

Couple of suggestions /questions: 1) Go to TIG's post for the flatten plugin and read his usage write up and the other post to make sure you are applying correctly; 2) I cleaned up the model I was working with as much as I could such as deleting stray lines , correcting off axis lines etc as much as I could " reasonably do". . Have you done that?; 3) Can you post your model so we can take a look at it? The difference plane issue above has me confused. A line at a different z level is not in the red / green plane ( x,y)

@gaieus said:

How about this one then?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31895

Joy in mudville! Batter struck out first time. Think I did not have work plane .rb loaded and probably not paying attention to error message No added stray lines
Thanks for second look!!

@gaieus said:

Hi Jose,

Yes, there is a Flatten plugin ($10):
http://www.smustard.com/script/Flatten

You could however draw a big rectangle at Z=0 and use the Drape tool to srape yur geometry on it.

Maybe best would be to drape different groups (if there are) separately, on different aces and also group these separately so that you can manage your model easier.
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95045
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95046

SU 7.1+ free
Have tried the latter approach of drape but I go from zero stray lines in the original to hundreds in the drape version. Have tried to find reasons but no joy yet.FYI the model http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=972cfaaf7b8a6af9f30f02514717f00
Flatten will be worth the money if it avoids that type of problem

@ben ritter said:

@mac1 said:

@mac1 said:

@ben ritter said:

TIG, yes, I wound up erasing those hidden edges and it all works now. Thanks for the help.

Ben

Ben Some other suggestion.
Get out of the low resolution architecture units so you can see what is going on. Some of the vertices are off the ground plane by ~ 0.0000007 inches. Once you get that corrected you will have less problems!!

Flatten model will behave much better for you http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e1c834d5c372a69e9f30f02514717f00

mac1, thanks for your tips. I went through the "flattening" process twice, I thought. Anyway, how did you find out that the vertices are off by that amount?

To measure set the units to decimal and the accuracy to the max and the use the text tool. Note I added an extra zero in the above it should be six places
Getting the layout flat is a real head ache. I first went to your original OP skp file and corrected all the stray lines, this plugin helps with that http://www.smustard.com/script/StrayLines, and some lines off axis. To see that go to window styles and select the little left house and the select color by axis. Then the sand box tool was used to drape unto the ground plane ( make a rect. for that). when I repeated the check for stray lines and it went from zero to around 140 and had to fix manually , could not find out what was causing that. The number sounds big but the fixes go quickly.
I think another problem you are having is you are not using the magenta ( tangent) inference when making ARC's and then you try to extent a line between two and then snap to a point that pulls you off axis. Make sure you keep the axis inference for that(all) ops.
Good Luck hope I did not break your model too bad.I think when you have an out of plane line then drape it will foreshorten because it is not a normal projection but have not checked that. The errors if any will be really small

@mac1 said:

@ben ritter said:

TIG, yes, I wound up erasing those hidden edges and it all works now. Thanks for the help.

Ben

Ben Some other suggestion.
Get out of the low resolution architecture units so you can see what is going on. Some of the vertices are off the ground plane by ~ 0.0000007 inches. Once you get that corrected you will have less problems!!

Flatten model will behave much better for you http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e1c834d5c372a69e9f30f02514717f00

@ben ritter said:

TIG, yes, I wound up erasing those hidden edges and it all works now. Thanks for the help.

Ben

Ben Some other suggestion.
Get out of the low resolution architecture units so you can see what is going on. Some of the vertices are off the ground plane by ~ 0.0000007 inches. Once you get that corrected you will have less problems!!

Is this a another soap, skin and bubble??

Chad
Think your priority is out of whack. Any good engineering company will have their way of doing business and using one program vs another is not a career path. Ones I have dealt with will quite often put there new hire grads through training programs including the use of their design software. Programs come in and out of vogue over time frames so hanging your hat on one is not good job security. If you are targeting one particular company find out what they use, get up to speed on that so it sets you apart from other applicants. If that does not fit in with various persons thoughts all I can say is get real

Jim has answered your questions but there are some things you need to understand: 1) The free version SU8 and probably up does not have the capability to import /export cad type models. If you can find a download for SU7 there is a plugin that will allow you to do that and there are some free programs that will accept SU models and allow you to export dfx etc. Google does allow you to download the PRO ( paid version) and use for a short time for evaluation. They also will allow pro users to download older version so maybe you can get 7 that way ; 2) As stated it is a sketch type of program but the level of detail of models can be amazing. However it is not to the level of allowing you to do FEMA although I have seem some discussions of organization using it for theremal analysis but have not checked the level of detail.
With that said I think it would be quite useful for your use.
Good Luck