Hi -
I'm trying out Maxwell render and have been unable to get the render I want.

Is there anyone out there that is able to produce a render for me? (in any tool)

I'm using this for a cover of a design doc that I am sending off to a few machinist friends to have them look at CNC machining this piece for me.

Materials:
Primary body and screws: Stainless steel (ideally scratched and would be painted black)
The cable coming out is Chrome for the ring and then black plastic for the end piece.

Document size is 8.5 x 11.
The following is my attempt at matching the model to the photo. (note, the second photo has a box for scale. 0.75"x1.25"x4". the model size is ~53/64 x 2 7/8 x 4 59/64)

--
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/CBHolder_Cover.skp
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/IMG_1820.JPG

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/CBHolder_Cover2.skp
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/photo.JPG

Thank you!!

Todd

@tig said:

Right!
One look at your SKP showed the issue.
It's tiny !
Sketchup/OpenGL have problems coping with tiny faces [<~1mm/0.001sq"] - and also enormous faces.
Sketchup is designed as a tool to model objects within a range of 'normal sizes' - doorhandles/doors/walls/buildings/blocks etc [but not tiny screws or giant cities].

Your SKP is at the level of something like the parts of a wristwatch !
There are some faces/edges <0.4mm across in the part that has the issues - the one that succeeded is just large enough to exist.
So all tools like this will fail to make the desired geometry, because Sketchup itself simply can't create it. I'm surprised you haven't had problems with the geometry before...

However, a workaround is to group the object, edit the group, select-all and scale your groups' entities by say x10 or x100, and then make the faces using this tool [or others like it] and then scale everything [including the section-cut-face] back down by 0.1 or 0.01 - the tiny faces can 'exist' it's just the 'making' of them that fails...

That worked! Thanks TIG.
I'm still learning the limits of what Sketchup can do and find myself modeling what would be real world parts for projects I am working on.
Unfortunately these do tend to be screws that are 0-80 in size or in this case, walls that are ~1/16" thick. (model train and steam engine parts...)

I'll have to keep the scaling trick in mind and work at a larger scale and then back down to real size for production documents.

Thanks again!

@tig said:

If you have non-solids, with overlapping 'volumes' sometimes it can't decide which is solid and which is void, so no faces get made.
Repeat - this time 'keeping all edges' [option].
Then you can see what's the complexity you've generated...
and then manually face/color the required parts that you want as solids...

I'm still having no luck.

I've posted my model to my dropbox.

Dropbox - 404

(dl.dropbox.com)

The currently active scene is the one I am having a hard time with. The last scene is the one that seemed to work correctly.
NOTE: I've told the section plane to hide.

If you have any insights I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Todd

Great plugin! I was able to use it for one portion of my model, however in another section plane I run the plugin and get no face fills.

Any suggestions on what to change?

I can post a link to the model if that would be helpful.

Thanks!

Todd

Hi -
I'm trying out Maxwell render and have been unable to get the render I want.

Is there anyone out there that is able to produce a render for me?

I'm using this for a cover of a design doc that I am sending off to a few machinist friends to have them look at CNC machining this piece for me.

Materials:
Primary body and screws: Stainless steel (ideally scratched and would be painted black)
The cable coming out is Chrome for the ring and then black plastic for the end piece.

Document size is 8.5 x 11.
The following is my attempt at matching the model to the photo. (note, the second photo has a box for scale. 0.75"x1.25"x4". the model size is ~53/64 x 2 7/8 x 4 59/64)

--
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/CBHolder_Cover.skp
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/IMG_1820.JPG

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/CBHolder_Cover2.skp
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/199646/photo.JPG

Thank you!!

Todd

Hello -
I am working on laying out my models and changing the line styles in LayOut to one from "Style Builder Competition Winners" (the Tech pen with Endpoints).

I want to have to more variations of this same style, one with HIDDEN LINES and one with BACK EDGES turned on.

Does anyone know how I would go about modifying the existing style and creating these two other versions?

Additionally is it possible to have one color for all visible edges and another for BE or HL?

Thanks much!

Todd

@mac1 said:

Since you have Su8 Pro can't you use the Boolean subtraction to create the taped holes you want

Thank you!

I'll have to take a look, I tried using the solid tools but that was when I kept getting the error that it was not a solid.

Slowly getting there. now to figure out how I am going to make this, hand mill it or run it through CNC, or maybe send to MakerBot for the first output???

Hrmmm...

SO I gave this another go and have had a bit more success.
I did still have to cleanup a lot of edges, and I have been unable to actually make a tapped hole in my piece.
I also keep getting a warning saying my model has a problem and do I want to fix it...?

Attaching the new file for anyone to look at.
I'd love to have this be an actual solid with the through holes being tapped to 10-24.

CB cable holder

I'll try and find the shapes used to do the loft once I get home from work.

I only went with 144 segments on the arches to make it relatively smooth (since I'm planning on running this through a CNC mill).

Though perhaps I should not have run "smooth edges" after the original operation.
I'll probably have something to post up in 3 or 4 hours.

Hi Rich -
Regarding the clamshell (lofted) shape I did do the intersecting and lofting at the larger size (scaled up by 100x) then sized it using the measuring tape.
When I went to add the Lip I found all the missing faces along the edges and bottom.

Any other thoughts? problems with the mesh?

Regarding the first model (the clamp) what is the best method to slice it such that faces are left on the interior of all six faces.
I am basically wanting to wind up with that part split into six individual boxes that I can then recombine.

Thoughts?

Hi everyone -
I have a model that I am trying to finish.
I plan on having this machined on a CNC mill.

The basic idea is to make a custom clamshell vent with a wall thickness of 1/16th inch.
the front face would consist of a two part clamp that would then clamp down on a cable end. this would make a strong platform to allow for cables to be plugged and unplugged.

I have made the base shape for the clamp portion, and tried to intersect but the object no longer appeared solid.
I basically need to slice this piece into 6 pieces, "explode" those 6 pieces and then join them back in the order I need for the top and bottom piece of the clamp.

Additionally my lofted curve, while looking good, has wound up with tiny holes in the mesh that I am unable to figure out how to fix. (this was after a subtraction using the solid tool)
Additionally I want the final lofted "shell to have a 3/8th inch wide x 1/16th thick lip around the base (left right and rear sides.)

Can anyone offer advice / instruction?

Thanks in advance!

Todd
clamp master shape and cable end.

clamshell vent

@dave r said:

Looks like an installation error to me. Could you post a screen grab of your Plugins directory?

Here you go.

@unknownuser said:

What are the errors you get ?

Fredo

I just downloaded and tried to use the Curviloft plugin and am getting this error with sketchup 8 on a Mac.

Error Loading File __loader.rb
uninitialized constant TraductorError Loading File bootstrap_Curviloft.rb
uninitialized constant Curviloft;;T6Error Loading File CurviloftAlgo.rb
uninitialized constant Curviloft;;T6Error Loading File CurviloftCurveMover.rb
uninitialized constant Curviloft;;T6Error Loading File CurviloftPalette.rb
uninitialized constant Curviloft;;T6Error Loading File CurviloftTool.rb
uninitialized constant Curviloft;;T6