I never got into this - no way to test for me, and I didn't feel I had the math skills at the time to convert between faceted edges and the real curves needed for CNC. However, someone did it. Google it. Todd

The only ruby I use which I would say is especially applicable to woodworking is CutListAndMaterials.rb. Others which see a lot of use in woodworking are: weld.rb, centerpoint.rb, deletecoplaneredges.rb and sometimes projection_extension.rb and bezierspline.rb Always looking for more tricks.

Cool. Thanks for the replies. I've been away from home and computer access for several days so haven't gotten back sooner. I figured there were a variety of reasons, not the least of which being keeping your real "work" from being borrowed. If someone can gain some insight into techniques or if they even wanted to use the stuff I've posted as plans for making a piece of furniture, that is fine with me. It has been awfully muggy in my part of the woods lately, so my woodworking has slowed down. Being able to design and "build" pieces in SU in air conditioned comfort is almost like being in the shop. And it helps to work out problems I might encounter when I actually go to build one of the pieces, saving wood and time.

Thats a rather large project. That would look rather nice using some of Todd wood, ripple something. Alan

Cool. Thanks for the replies. I've been away from home and computer access for several days so haven't gotten back sooner. I figured there were a variety of reasons, not the least of which being keeping your real "work" from being borrowed. If someone can gain some insight into techniques or if they even wanted to use the stuff I've posted as plans for making a piece of furniture, that is fine with me. It has been awfully muggy in my part of the woods lately, so my woodworking has slowed down. Being able to design and "build" pieces in SU in air conditioned comfort is almost like being in the shop. And it helps to work out problems I might encounter when I actually go to build one of the pieces, saving wood and time.

Hi Sawduster, I noticed another posting of your on this site and its interesting to see the Fine Woodworking are now using sketchup. I think its a great idea. cheers Alan.

hey Jerry, could you post the thread that you posted this in? I'd like to see what other suggestions you gave him.

Thanks all. Always face me is something I don't generally use except on the "Bob" layer (or whatever that guy's name in the Arch template is) and I don't mind him following me when I light up his private layer. I was wanting to play with the balusters from http://www.sketchucation.com/scf/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=3603 and couldn't get the one I isolated to play with from following. Real strange behaviour when you do a rotate copy with something like that.

Thank you Jim! These are great collections!

The kneelers do have padding, I'll use some thin masonite with foam, then covered with vinyl. They'll attach to the rail via velcro strips so they can be removed for cleaning and repair. For the height, a went around to several pieces of furniture in the house till I found something close, measured from the floor, then added two inches. I'm 5'10" and it is a little bit of a stretch for me to the height I came up with, which felt about the same for a prayer rail at another Church. The minister asked the same thing, and laughed when she pictured my wife (5'2") and I going around the kneeling in front of different pieces of furniture.

Bernard, Since I'm designing and not replicating, there is no image of an actual leg to provide. The curves do not need to be super accurate. The execution of the real thing is done by applying a pair of mirrored patterns to two adjacent faces of a board carefully matching their orientation to each other. The pattern on one face is then cut out using a band saw (or other saw capable of making curved cuts), and then the waste from the cut is taped back in place, and the adjacent pattern is cut out. This leaves a squared off version of the leg which is then rounded appropriately using rasps or other freehand tools. While pairs or sets of the legs need to be very similar to each other, this is not (in my case at least) a machining process which requires super accuracy. Thanks for the CTRL-Erase tool trick.

This has been changed (in Maintenance release #2 I believe) though...

Once in awhile I find Jerry's method a better option that hiding the rest of the model. If I want to add details that would generate those tiny, non-filling faces, I'll copy the component and move that instance away from the rest of the model. I scale that instance up by a factor of 10 or 100 or something. Then I do the editing on the large version. The original instances of the component get the same treatment and even those tiny faces fill. When I'm finished with the editing, I delete the enlarged instance of the component. This is faster than scaling it back down andgetting it accurately placed.