Hi there,

I'm essentially trying to create a 3D jigsaw puzzle, which i'd like to cut with CNC machine.

I'm using the Fredo 6 Joint push pull interactive to thicken connected planes. However when I thicken the surface the back face breaks into triangles as you can see. Any idea how to stop this happening?

Best case would be if I could thicken the surfaces and each connected plane thickens as individual groups, however I can't find a tool which does that with mitred joints. You can see in the attached image that when I extrude the individual groups they neither extrude along the same path nor keep the correct angle between the joints. Any help would be much appreciated.

That absolutely ideal solution would be:

• Tool which thickens the surfaces making each plane an individual group, keeping joints flush between planes.
• Then a tool which creates a net of the shape so it can be cut on CNC machine.

Cheers,

Michelle

Hi, thanks so much for the replies. Iv'e had a go with making components and I think this is a good way to do it. Also good tip with hidden lines - that's caught me out before.

I have a couple more questions regarding this topic if that's OK..

Sometimes it seems unavoidable for faces to split. For example if I extrude and scale part of an object in a component one face can split.

There seem to be plenty of ways in sketch up to split faces but is there a way to do the opposite and force a split face back to coplaner? Like a snap tool? Or like soften but without just creating hidden lines? The split face in the image is a pain to make back to coplaner manually.

You can see in the image that fixing the split face means extending and cutting the faces where they intersect. If there is a good plug in to do this automatically please let me know. I'm using planes at the moment to make the surface but in reality the plywood is 18 - 21mm thick so I could use solid tools and boolean perhaps? I'm not sure what will be easier, whether to use planes or solid shapes?. Some sort of trim/extend tool if planes?

You can see as well sometimes I need shapes like this one below but with no hidden lines or split triangles? What's the best way to make shapes like this without the surface split?

Sorry it's a lot of questions.

Thank you so much for your help.

Michelle

Does anyone know how to adjust a surface made up of shapes with 4-5 sides without the surface breaking into triangles?

I'm looking for a tutorial or some tips to help with modelling rock climbing walls (these are the angular plywood surfaces you find in climbing gyms andI am modelling the plywood surface).

The issue I have is that triangle shapes really need to be kept to a minimum, as where the points of the triangles meet you can't put any climbing holds and it's harder to manufacture. So when designing the plywood surface most the shapes in the surface need to have 4 - 5 sides. This makes it really difficult when I want to adjust the shape, as when I move the surface from a node point or an edge my 4-5 sided shapes break into triangles. If I group each individual plane then they separate when moved which is not right either. There cannot be any gaps between shapes.

Here is an image of the surface with few triangles so all good.

However if I want to adjust the shape a little bit, maybe make the feature more prominent or steeper, everything breaks to triangles

Any help with this would be much appreciated as it's very time consuming at the moment and i'm sure there must be a good way of doing it? I can't just smooth the surface either as the model is required for manufacture.

Thanks again,

Michelle