ok cool.
Yeah, I'll have to try to use that more often.
Yeah I had seen the reversed faces before i up[ loaded the model,lol could have sworn that i flipped them, shrugs
as for the rendering thing...lol i need to read up on Kerky a little bit more, last time i tried to do a simple room, it didn't work very well. Again I am thinking part of the issue is my machine doesn't have enough guts to handle it.

I knew when I was making the model that the high ply count of the blades was going to be an issue, but I wasnt sure how else to get that shape without using push/pull and scale. Then again, it's not like they were aerodynamically designed, so I guess I could have gone larger on my sections....lol ah well, you know what they say, hind sight is 20/20

thanks for the input guys,
WHen you say purge and tie_up, what exactly do you mean?

... or does my computer just suck that much...lol
A good example is this very basic model of a propfan engine. I've put in (what i think)only moderate amount of detail into it, however it seems that SU, or my computer can't handle it all that well.
(1.5Gb of ram, NVidia 6600 video card, Athalon 64 3200+ processor)
I've tried making the overal model into several groups, and it seemed to help, however trying to rotate the camera angle around the model and other simple tasks seem to really bog the system down.
Is there a way I can model this more efficiently or with a better technique that would be less taxing on my system? there are also relatively few ruby scripts that I am using, for this one i only used the Beziers curve.
my appologies for the compression type. I wasn't sure how else to post the model. (its .15 Mb bigger than the limit...lol)

thanks you again

propfan.rar

I'll take a close look at those tutorials, thanks.

Yep, that pic is an excellent example.
this particular design is inspired off the VariEze/Long-EZ design.
I've also been looking at the Berkut, Cozy, and several other homebuilt variations of the Rutan design in hopes of finding a good starting block. This is the simplest of the three designs i did recently so I figured I would start with this one

Does sketchup have various scripts that can be run on it? I know CAD had the LISP scripts that allowed me to build 3D meshes and build certain shapes i wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

thanks again

its kind of a bad scan, though i hope it gives a clear enough picture.
its a bit of a rough sketch, most of the details are evolving as i go. lol

I am designing a push prop, canard aircraft, mostly for the heck of it, with the eventual goal of building it someday.
I have the hand drawn sketches of what I am wanting to do, but am running in to some problems and need some advice.
I've attempted to do other aircraft designs in Sketchup in the past, and have always run into this problem, not being able to build complex shapes, such as a nose cone, or a canopy. oddly enough, wings haven't posed much of a problem, lol.
I learned 3D modeling using AutoCAD, and dabbled a little in GMax. Is there a script or some function that I dont know about that would let me create mesh type shapes?
I've included the fuselage I've been working on. yeah, it needs alot of work and to be slimmed down some.lol, but right now its a starting point
The nose cone was a HUGE pain to build, and still does not meet my satisfaction.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

_ Mike

canardfuse.skp

aaahhh....
ok, that makes perfect sense now...
great images btw.

thanks for helping out a noob

So i've not been able to figure this out...
what are the differences between the ball joint and the universal joint?
in which cases would one be better than the other?

thanks for your help

Mike

its a simple "Gimbol" that i build as a test for a larger project. Eventually, something similar will be used as one of the front or rear wheels in a car like... thing...lol its still in concept stages. Had a hard time trying to get a cylinder to work as a piston within another cylinder, even though i broke up the outer one into several sections, so i went with a n octagonal piston for now.
Anyways, Let me know what you guys thing, and if you have ways to improve it let me know. I am always open to suggestions

gimbol.skp

So, I've been working on trying to build gears for use in SP. Here is one set of helical (i belive) gears that i put together fairly quickly. I realize now that they are in fact quite huge,lol. Anyways, ....

gear.skp

lol nope it wasnt late when i posted last...lol anyways heres the zip.

gyro.zip

ok well i tried to make them all convex, and in fact i got some results.
yet when i tried to do three rings, it failed to work, as if something was getting stuck on somehting else. When i ran the combinations of the rings, two at a time, they worked fine.

the lines in the model i am posting is probably because i copy and pasted the rings.(without the joints of course)

i tried to attach the file though for some reason it is bigger than 512 kbso if you'd like to take a look at it, PM me your email and i'll send it to ya

hmmm... yeah that thought crossed my mind when i was doing this though I dissmissed it (not sure why...lol) Thanks man, I'll give this a shot.

So i decided to try and build this gyro type thing tonight more so as a goofing off/learning type project. at first i had a problem because i was nesting square rings, and didnt leave clearances. So i redid the cross section of the ring and i still find myself with a problem.

Any suggestions?

Mike

gyro.skp

cool, i'll give that a shot and see how it works... thanks

Ok, so I've been toying with the new sketchy and i built this small car.
The car itself works great though i seem to be having a problem with the road its on. I've posted it with this post so you guys can check it out.

Oh, and I am open to critique... if you see something i could be doing better, please tell me

Mike

drive.skp

This is just too awesome...lol I am going to have too much fun with this

lol, now that you mention it, i dont know what i was thinking when i first built this...
It took me a while to recognize where i got this shape from, and then it clicked that is was based off the chain links that LEGOs use....

I mentioned in one of my other posts about making a chain, not sure anyone else has done it, but i figured i'd post the one i did on here and let you guys play with it some. Let me know what you think

Mike

chain.skp

lol i wish i had seen that one last night,
i found another one that i had seen before through 3dwarehouse, though had hard time getting it to work properly. i finally did though. I dont have anything that can capture video froma running SP (any suggestions?) so i decided to just through up the sketch file for you guys to critique

next step... the engine block and cams....lol

Mike

crank.skp