# Friday SketchUp Tips (FSUT)



## SketchUp Guru

At Neil's request here is another installment of the irregular FSUT. I hope at least a few find them useful.

The first tip has to do with a Ruby script called WELD.RB which is probably one of the most useful scripts out there. It's a free script written by a fellow called Rick Wilson. It is available here: http://members.cox.net/rick.wilson/links.html Also take look at some of Rick's other scripts. You might find them useful.

In the attached drawing you can see the effect of the weld script on the molding I drew. In the left hand view you can see all the lines created during Push/Pull (P/P). they are drawn off the intersections of the line segments that make up the curves. For this simple example I'll admit that I exploded the curves to get those lines. There are situations where you might end up with this sort of thing happening even without exploding the curves.

Those lines can be cleaned up by hiding them or softening them but you have to hold either Shift or Ctrl while running the eraser over them. for this short length it wouldn't be a big deal but imagine this is a crown moulding wrapped around a long run of cabinets of different depths. That would be a lot of work.

The molding on the right shows what you get by running weld before P/P (or Follow Me for those long runs of moulding). In this case I selected only the segments that make up the curves I wanted welded and then ran the script. I did this three times so I could keep the lines on either side of the central bead and at the bottom (right side) of the curve below the bead.

I selected the bead at the left and the longer curve up to the bead and ran the weld script. I choose the "No" option for "Close Curve?" and "Yes" for "Find Faces". Then I move on to the next group of segments I wish to weld.

You can confirm that the scripted worked by trying to select one of the segments in the curve. The entire welded length should turn yellow.







Tip number 2 for today may be a repeat. It covers the use of cutting planes to create mitres in complex shapes such as mouldings. This has many applications besides mitres but this is just a simple example. Just follow the steps.






1. The molding to be mitred.
2. With the aid of construction lines, draw a plane at the mitre angle through the moulding.
3. Select the plane (double click), right click and choose Intersect with Model.
4. Erase the waste and the plane perimeter. Done.

I think the best way to think about cutting planes is to imagine the plane as a saw blade cutting through your wood. It doesn't have to be a straight cut either. You could draw a curved path from which you could create the cutting geometry. You could also use this idea for drawing angled holes such as for pocket screws if you wanted to create that much detail.

An ellipse is formed by cutting through a cylinder at an angle to the centerline. You could create that ellipse using this cutting plane idea with a cylinder. You could even create a parabola by cutting a cone with a plane parallel to the axis of the cone. It goes on and on, too.

Well, that's it for now. I hope there's a little something there for someone. I'm open to suggestions for these tips. feel free to send me a PM if you have some subject you'd like me to cover.

Dave


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## Steve Maskery

Excellent, Dave, I'll get Weld.

Here's how I draw an ellipse.

Draw a rectangle the proportions of the ellipse I want (eg 200 x 100mm)

Draw a circle inside it (100mm dia)

Scale the circle to fit the rectangle. (drag red axis to edge of rectangle).

Cheers
Steve


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## Neil

Great tips, Dave - thanks! I'm particularly pleased to hear about Weld - its exactly what I need 8) 

Cheers,
Neil


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## SketchUp Guru

Thank you gentlemen.

Steve, your method is easier especially if you know the length and width of the ellipse. My main intent was to encourage folks to perhaps think about ways to approach the creation of more complex shapes.

Neil, what is that boat in your avatar and where do you sail it?


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## gidon

Dave
That's great thanks - I've just downloaded the script and tried it out - works a treat. (And enabled me to discover Ruby scripts ...)
Please keep these tips going if you can - great to learn some Sketchup tips anyway - but ones related to woodworking are a real bonus.
Cheers
Gidon
[Edit: the Bezier scriptis quite nifty too - a little more powerful than the curves tool.)


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## Neil

Dave R":2ajq641m said:


> Neil, what is that boat in your avatar and where do you sail it?


Dave, its a Dart 15 - a 15' single-handed catamaran. Or at least it was, they have renamed it as a Sprint 15 now. Its good fun, especially when you sail it in its Turbo version with the jib & trapeze - it will do around 16 knots or so in that configuration. I prefer to sail it on the sea (west coast of Ireland) but at the moment I'm mostly lake sailing.

Cheers,
Neil


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## StevieB

Dave, How did you draw the moulding to actually get all those lines from push pull? I dont seem to get them whether I use Steves method of rectangles and squares, bezier curves or circles joined by straight lines :? 

Fairly steep learning curve on this for me - while a like the sketching format and the quick 3D model generation, I still find myself reverting to CorelDraw if I want an accurate 2D plan of something. Not sure if its because I havent given it enough time or if I am being dense! At the moment it is simply frustrating me, which is a shame beause it has loads of potential.

How about you set us a challenge - name something for us to draw and see how different users get on and the approaches they take. Might prove just what can be done with this system.

Cheers,

Steve.


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## Nick W

StevieB":323s9bdw said:


> How about you set us a challenge - name something for us to draw and see how different users get on and the approaches they take.



Ooooh I sense a competition coming on. :wink:


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## SketchUp Guru

Neil, it looks like fun.

Steve, as I said in the first post, for the example I exploded the curves so those lines would show. Of course I wouldn't normally explode them in practice. You would get one those lines at the join between arcs and Bezier curves or where an arc is tangent to a line. You would also get those lines if you copied a profile you had already used for Follow Me and then used the copy for another extrusion.

I see this frequently in models that others have sent to me when they are looking for assistance.

Here's a simpler example. On the left, Push/Pull without weld. On the right, Push/Pull after welding the arc and the two attatched lines. This would be a simple clean up but if you had radii on all four corners, you'd need to orbit around to take care of all the lines generated.






I like the idea of a challenge. Let me give some thought to it. I have a couple of ideas for subjects but I'll also come up with some ground rules.

as to the 2D files, there really is no reason you can't do them in SU. Maybe that should be the next installment of FSUT?


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## StevieB

It wasnt meant to be a competition, just a way of seeing how different people approach the same goal. There is so much to learn to get a good grasp of sketchup I just thought it might be a better way than lots of posts discussing specific points. A pic and a brief description of how you drew it I thought might be helpful  

Steve.


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## SketchUp Guru

Well, we don't have to make it a competition but I think we should have a bit of a challenge to it. I like your idea of having a bit of description from the artist about how they drew the object.


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## StevieB

Ah, got it 8) I was trying to weld after push pull, not before. Makes sense now  Many thanks for the simpler example Dave.

I have to go to Brussels for a 4 day conference next week, think I might take sketchup on my laptop to pass the time!

Steve


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## Shady

Gentlemen: if you want to draw those mouldings quickly and easily in sketchup, this site provides autocad drawn profiles:

http://www.sfvictoriana.com/profile-index/

Click on any of the profiles on that page, and you get a detail box for it, which includes a 'DWG' downloadable file of it... Right click, and 'save as' (if you don't have a DWG viewer, then just save it as a DWG, and then import into sketchup from within sketchup).

Clean up any unwanted lines with the eraser, and then you have a very useful, ready dimensioned moulding profile to play with... :wink:


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## Steve Maskery

OK folks, here is a challenge. A comp, if you like, although I'm not offering any prizes.

Does everyone have a Bailey No.4 plane? I bet you do. Or a Veritas LA smoother? Well how about we model one of those? It's small enough to take out of the workshop and sit next to your computer whilst you model it, and as everyone has one, or a similar plane, we should all be able to get accurate dimensions, etc. If you don't have such a plane, choose something similar from your tool kit. Or just use it as an excuse to go and buy one 

Who's up for it?

Cheers
Steve


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## gidon

Shady - good find. And just trying one a perfect example of one to use that weld script Dave introduced - without it the face isn't closed and can't be pushed / pulled.
Steve I like that idea - difficult though for us newbies perhaps? But I'm still up for it. Why not just leave it as any plane that takes ya' fancy? 
Cheers
Gidon


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## Nick W

If we do enough different tools, Alf will be able to model her workshop completely! :shock:

Rob, I guess you guys use CAD to produce your tools, if you'd like to send me the files, I will translate them to SU (unless you use SU that is), that'd get us started :wink:


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## Steve Maskery

gidon":18qie7u0 said:


> Why not just leave it as any plane that takes ya' fancy?



Why not, indeed. It's just that the narrower the criteria, the easier it is to make direct comparisons. But let's not get anally retentive about this - any plane it is.

Any more takers?
S


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## houtslager

sorry for this Dumb a** question but I cannot fathom how to load these ruby scripts into SU can someone please explain for this poor da !

from a sweating HS in a hot "workshop" aka my dining room tobe :shock: :?


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## Steve Maskery

Hi Karl

Locate the script - they all end .rb .

Right-click and Save As ... in your Plugins directory 
(probably C:\Program Files\@Last Software\SketchUp 5\Plugins ). That same directory should also contain Ruby.rb, which seems to be some sort of engine that they all use - might be wrong about the ALL bit, but many Scripts seem to need it.

In Sketchup, you need to have Ruby Scripts ticked in Window|Preferences|Extensions.

Unless the script loads itself somewhere else, it will appear in the Plugins menu along the top of your screen.

HTH
Steve


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## SketchUp Guru

Steve has the right instructions for getting the scripts into SU. Some scripts are accessed through the context menu and only appear if the selection could be acted upon by the script. Others might show up in tools or Draw (i.e. Bezier.rb). you can tell where to find them by opening them in WordPad or NotePad and looking at the last few lines. It will tell you where the script will appear and what the entry in the menu will llok like.


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## SketchUp Guru

FWIW, I wasn't thinking of a hand plane as the first challenge but if you want to go that way, go for it.


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## Shady

(deleted repeat post)


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## SketchUp Guru

I took one of the molding samples from the link Shady posted and created these. The near one with weld and the far one without. In case anyone needs more reason to use the script.


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## Shady

Or, to really bring it home, here's a newel post downloaded from the same site, and then 'lathed' using 'follow me' to create a solid - imagine getting rid of that mesh without using weld first...


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## SketchUp Guru

Excellent example, Shady.


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## Newbie_Neil

Dave

Thank you so much for taking the time, it is much appreciated.

Cheers
Neil


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## tim

I know its not Friday and I'm also about to disappear until Sunday night but I have a real prob in SU that I can't seem to improve. 

I find it very difficult to move objects to where I want them! If I try to move them manually then the object often moves on an axis I don't want it to or moves along straight axes rather than going where I want it to. Can anyone shed light on succesful ways to resolve this please.

Thanks

Tim


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## Shady

Tim - 3 tips that may help:

a) don't try to move in the '3d view' - the inference engine will keep trying to second guess you in 3 planes - as you've found out! Switch to plan/elevation views (the 'houses' on the toolbar), as appropriate, and it's easier to see what effect you're having.

b) use move 'offsets' for absolute precision: use the tape measure to work out how far something needs to move, select the object/component, move it in the appropriate direction a little way, and enter the desired value in the vcb - this gives whatever precision you want.

c) Use 'construction points' (made by clicking with the tape measure on an existing object) to snap things to precisely.

I agree, it's about the least intuitive 'bit' of the program - anyone else got any good hints?


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## Nick W

Yes, don't forget that once you've got something moving in the right direction, you can 'lock' it into that direction by holding down the shift key, and then concentrate on getting the location correct, and that extends to inferring a position from something (e.g. a midpoint) that is quite some distance away from the actual desired position.


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## Jake

Or make it a component, and then the "grab handle" things can be snapped to any point you choose.


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## andrewm

Dave,

To come back to the original tip about welding - I have just tried this and when I push-pull the curves really are smooth as expected. However If I then use the welded shape as a basis for a follow me command - I was trying to create a cornice from one of the downloaded cross-sections - the segments return. Is this to be expected or am I doing something wrong?

Andrew


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## SketchUp Guru

Andrew, could you post a jpg or gif of what you're getting?


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## SketchUp Guru

I'm not sure if this is what you were seeing, Andrew. I took one of the profiles from the Wood Moulding Index and made this drawing. First I welded the curved parts of the profile. Then I drew the path for the moulding with the curve. It is just a line and a half-circle arc. I selected the path, then the Follow Me tool and clicked on the profile.

To create the shorter profile, I copied the end profile of the moulding on the left. I actually copied the orignal profile. then I drew a path and used Follow Me to create that short segment of moulding. I could have used P/P for that, too.

Notice the curves are no longer welded and we get all those lines. I don't know why the curves are exploded during the Follow Me process but they are. The proper thing to do would be to run Weld again on the curves of the new profile before extruding again.

An even better option because it would reduce the work is to copy the original welded profile and run Follow Me on the copies. You could keep that profile off to the side until you're finished using it.

Save that welded profile as a component for future use, too.


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## NeilO

Glad to see your back at it, Dave....

gives me a chance to start using this SU.
would gratefully appreciate it if you would make it a regular spot, as would some others probably , but to embarrased to say :lol: 

i have tried it, and am quite adapt at drawing non descript sized cubes  

so, if you have the time and the inclination, please, please help the ungifted few at solving this program.....

Many thanks, 
a grateful SU abuser


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## andrewm

Dave,

Have managed to get a jpeg, so here it is:






I started with importing one of the downloaded profiles
Exploded the group (or was it a component?)
erased the surplus straight lines
Selected all and ran Weld
Rotated in all three planes to get it into the correct orientation
Created a 'box' and copied the profile to one corner.
Used push-pull to extrude the original (no lines)
Used follow-me to extrude the copy around the box (lines)
I also get the lines if I used push-pull to extrude along on edge of the box

I notice also that I cannot seem to be able to 'follow-me' along an edge of a grouped object. I have to explode it first. Is this to be expected?

Thanks,

Andrew


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## SketchUp Guru

Andrew, I think your problem comes from Not welding the copy of the profile. The same thing occurred in my example with the curved chunk of molding. I copied the end off the curved one and P/P'ed the copy which ended up with all those lines.

Again, weld the profile, make copies of the profile and use those as needed.

Your experience of not being able to use FM around a group is normal. The easiest thing to do is simply trace the edge of the group with the pencil tool to make a path. If you explode the group so the profile will follow the edge, the molding becomes part of the geometry of the group. By tracing the edge to create a path, the molding remains separate from the group.


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