Posts made by MAGICMAN

Thanks for the advice and examples etc. It really helped me. Thank you so much.

Hi Jeff, I can draw OK with sketchup but it is the complex curves and even wall thickness. In a previous topic (curviloft...) ypou can see the start off attempt but the I cant make it cutrve in the other direction on the face. I was just wondering the best way to go about it. Not ony do I want the face to curve east to west but also north to south.

I am trying to draw this in sketchup but having trouble working out the best way when an object has complex curves that goes in multiple planes.
Below is the object I want to recreate in sketchup. I was trying curiloft but the bottom or face also needs to be curved. It needs even wall thickness also.

Thanks Tig. I loaded the Solid Inspector plugin. It worked great. Thanks again.

Wow thanks Gilles, that really helped me. Thanks to all for your help. Much appreciated.

Thanks guys for your prompt help. What did you do to fix it Dave?

Thanks Pilou, Exploding the cube and expoloding the top face and then regrouping it fixed the cube. However the other shape I could not fix. . Thanks TIG, I have posted the SKP in the previous post.

Thanks TIG. I did reverse the face but it did not make any difference. As I said, just make a cube and group it and it is soild when you click info. Then remove the top face and then use curviloft on the 4 top edges and it makes the top face. Howver the infor does not see it as a solid.

My shape and a cube that has the top replaced using the curviloft shape skinning plugin. The cube is not solid according to Enity info.

V6 version

When I use curviloft, I can't make the group be recognised as a solid. I draw a cube and then delete one face and then use curviloft plugin to creat the face. It looks solid but when I group it, it is not a sold. I am trying to produce solids with curved surfaces that are quite organic and curviloft works well except the models are not recognised as solid. FIXSOLID or the other solidfix plugins destroy the model.
Any help is appreciated.

Thank you for your quick reply and solution. It works with bigger scale.

I am trying to create a sphere that is very smooth. I start out with a cirle that has 128 segments and a diameter of 23.5mm.
It will not create a whole sphere. it always leaves a hole at the top and bottom. I even tried a half sphere using an arc but the same problem.
Is this a sketchup limitation or I am just not doing it right. Works OK with 24 segments.

Thanks Barack for working on the model. Turns nicely. I wanted to know how to put three images on the prism faces easily and how to simulate a control panel knob in the model. Any ideas?

I want to simulate a Changable Message Sign (also known as a trivision or prism sign). The sign has triangular prisms/slats on which are sections of 3 different graphic images. I want to know how to easily put an image on the prisms.
I want to have a simulated control panel knob with A, B, C so that when the selector is rotated to A position the faces of the prism are rotated to show image 1. When B is selected, the prisms rotate to show image 2 etc.
What is the easiest way to copy the servos to all the prisms. I was using the physics copy but could not work out how to do multiples (like you can with the move tool.)
Hope someone wants to take up the challenge and create a working model.

cms.skp

Thanks for making the machine work. Great job! My question is more about if cables can be simulated and how to go about it...especially around pivots and pulleys.

Can SP simulate cables and strings? I want to simulate a simple linear drive but dont know how to make a cable/flexible line track from a rotating arm around a pivot and to a spring. The attached model is not functioning but gives you an idea of what I am trying to do. Any help is appreciated.

simple linear drive.skp

Hi Jaysax, thanks so much for taking the time to help me. Being new to this it is hard to know the limits and methods to avoid problems. I feel there is very few good tutorials for Sketchyphysics and good information is a bit sketchy. I think it needs a manual...especually for beginers. These forums are great and thanks to all the people that help make it so.

Hi JAYSAX, I have Sketckup 7 now so I can load reply models. Any ideas about the lock and cube other than size? I have other objects (groups) that are smaller that seem to work OK.

I have been playing with sketchyphysics to simulate a latch mechanism. I have been having various problems. I notice that sometimes when I put spheres etc and run SP, the objects dont fall. In the example there is also cube and a padlock and these dont fall to the floor and I dont know why. The properties seem OK. Also the latch melts into the tab and the top frame sinks into the bottom frame.
Also the file size seems quite large for such a simple mechanism. Any help is appreciated.

Problems with latch and objects not responding to physics

Thanks for the example. Works well, however I was trying to avoid making multiple segments and then group them. I was hoping for an easier solution.

Is it possible to make a chain (like a boat anchor chain with steel links (ovals) that acts like a chain and knows there are holes in the links? Like donuts linked together. How do you define this? Just linking the donuts without any joints just makes the joints fall apart.