I believe the graphics card won't make much difference in sketchup.
I have two virtually identical computers - I running with a K4000, the other with a GTX680. Both perform equally well with sketchup.
My understanding is that CPU speed (which you have) is the key thing for sketchup, and of course optimising your models to reduce complexity. T

thanks Dave

• Mick

Hi,

I've been away from sketchup for some time... I went to open a downloaded file today and it said it had been created by a newer version of sketchup. I went to the check for updates menu item and it says it can't find an update.

I've got a pro licence and here's my current version:

do I just download the trial installer and add my licence details or is there a better way?

Thanks

• Mick

Why not create an xyz file in excel or similar: 3 columns for X, Y and Z coordinates describing your grid (which doesn't have to be uniform), then use a plugin to import the points and triangulate - you only get one set of points that way. I seem to remember the plugin might have been something like 'cloud' or 'points cloud' and there was a version that TIG had which did the same thing which I think is called TIG_points_cloud_triangulation.rb
Cheers

• Mick

Have a look at this thread http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=393786#p393786 and download the file in that post for an example.
Best of luck

• Mick

I seem to remember Artisan will allow you to 'roughen' (i.e. opposite of smooth) a mesh. I forget how though, but might be worth a look.

I'm not sure where I've heard this, but I understand that CNC laser cutting will be heaps slower on cutting arcs from a sketchup file compared to something like autocad that does true curves. So this could translate into higher cutting costs given all the curves in your design. Only going on hearsay, but might be worth investigating.
Cheers

• Mick

Here's a bit more detail on the drape/stamp method: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=393786#p393786
Cheers
-Mick

Very nice work ! amazing progress since your last post.

I guess you've seen some of the inspirational boat work by Axeonalias in the WIP forum? I don't remember any how to guides in his posts, but you can see the progress over time on some great models.

You can reset your axes to any orientation you like, using the "axes" tool. Just pick and edge parallel to the axis of your bolt, then align the axes along that edge. Then you can scale along an axes just fine. You can recover your original axes easily using scenes. See attached.

You can also simply move faces or edges along any orientation as long as you have something to "inference" from (like a parallel edge or two points in the correct plane, etc.)

Cheers

• Mick

axes.skp

Some great stuff there Jeff. Exactly what I meant when I said I'd like to see an elegant solution.

@gilles said:

Here is a way:

Nice !!!!

@unknownuser said:

@sketchymick said:

i am more_likely_than_not misinterpreting what you're saying here but if the 'rib' your referring to is the smaller 'rope' going twice around the torus -and- by 'solid' you mean a solid group (sketchup solid) then jean has already accomplished that..

No you're not misinterpreting it. I was just curious as to whether there was an elegant solution, rather than having to manually stitch up the ends (Johnny's method). Of course the pragmatic way is to spend 30 seconds to stitch it up like this, but the purest in me is searching for the combination of facets that would avoid needing to do this. It's pure curiosity.

@jean lemire said:

Hi Mick, hi folks.

There is probably one. when I have a few spare minutes, I will investigate this.

In the meantime, I would suggest trying the plugin Follow me and keep to check the concept.

Just ideas.

Thanks Johnny, yes I tried this out first up. Conceptually it is easy (sort of!) to see what is happening, but was expecting that there would be a magic number of facets with allow an exact match of the faces after twisting around the torus. I just can't figure out what that number would be. All I know is that it isn't 180 or 360 or 48 or 16. I didn't try 720 as my machine got bogged down and I needed to get on an do some work.

@jean lemire said:

Hi Jon, hi folks. See this SU file for ideas.

Apart from manually stitching together the rib, is there a mathematical solution to this?

I thought that by increasing the number of sides in the rib, say to 180 or some multiple of the rotations, it would fix this problem and the rib would become a solid, however this didn't seem to be the case. I'm intrigued now.

@pbacot said:

This might give you ideas. http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=31888&hilit=Axeonalias+Beam+Trawler+Sea+Lady#p281258

Yes definitely, I was going to suggest have a look at all of his threads - some absolutely fantastic work. Very inspirational.

@rosesinthebush said:

and sketchymick i actually wasn't aware that that option was even available, that i could just delete the excess around my circle....

It'll work for any shape. One thing I forgot to mention is that if you do use the smoove tool in this fashion, take care not to lift or lower the edges of your circle, otherwise the edge of your hill won't be flat anymore, and won't join in nicely to the rest of your model(although you could use TIG's drop vertices plugin to drop all the edges back to the same elevation again if you wanted to do it that way).

You can of course modify other geometry using the sandbox tools. For instance, make a dome, then use smoove on it to deform:

or even make some custom domes using the cross-section of your choice:

There's a stack of tutorials on youtube and similar which are worth looking at.

It all depends on what you are starting with. For example you can:

• trace over an image (say a scanned plan, hand drawn, whatever) and scale it to the right size
• import an autcad drawing and use the rectangle, line and offset tools to trace the image using the autocad points as reference.
• import autocad and use that geometry (sometimes problematic depending on the skill of the original DWG author).
• start from scratch using the line, rectangle, offset tools with the help of the tape measure to create guidelines and points.

etc. etc.

Give us some clues on where you ideally want to start and what you want to end up with - then you'll get some specific suggestions.

Cheers

• Mick

Or if you wanted more natural hills (or maybe hills with flatter tops, or whatever) you could you the sandbox tools - for instance, create a sandbox "from scratch", draw your preferred plan outline on top of it (say a circle). Delete the excess from the outside, then use the smoove tool to get your preferred shape.