# The SU Challenge - WIP



## Steve Maskery

Hi folks,
Here's the place to post your plane/any-other-tool-you-feel-appropriate models.

This is mine, so far. It's a lot harder than I had anticipated, but all this has been done entirely in SU. I got to the point when I was ready to cheat and do the curves in AutoCad, but I persevered and it has come out OK.


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## Neomorph

Nice one Steve... what plane is that (excuse my ignorance).


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## Steve Maskery

John,
It's a Vertitas Low Angle Jack.
Or at least it will be, in the fullness of time.

Cheers
Steve


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## Nick W

Steve, you swine (said Nick with a whine), I was going to do that one! [-(

Looking good though.


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## Neomorph

Steve Maskery":f6983zcl said:


> John,
> It's a Vertitas Low Angle Jack.
> Or at least it will be, in the fullness of time.
> 
> Cheers
> Steve



Will you be taking pics of the real jack to use as textures? It will make the model look almost photo like then.


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## LyNx

What is this challenge?


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## Nick W

LyNx,

See this thread, page 2.


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## LyNx

Nick, still think i'm missing something. No mention of a challenge in that topic :?


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## Nick W

LyNx, Sorry, wrong link, try this one, end of page 1, page 2 again.


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## Shady

Took me ages, but I'm quite pleased with it... :wink:


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## LyNx

Thanks. Steve, does these have to be done in SU only? Do we have a closing date?

Andy


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## SketchUp Guru

Steve, you're doing a right good job of that plane. You're really making good progress with SU.

Shady, that's a nice rendering. I like the presentation with the 2D drawings included. In what program did you render the drawing?


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## Shady

Dave - it's a spoof... It's actually Karl Holtey's website picture of his '98'... Autocad, I think...

My efforts look more like this at the moment...


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## SketchUp Guru

It's still a cool image, Shady.

It looks like your SU drawing is coming along nicely. Keep plugging away.


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## gidon

Nice one Steve. Just so you don't feel you're out in the cold, here's my effort so far:






It is flippin' hard - and I'm realising quickly that you need to decide early on the level of accuracy you want to achieve. I don't know how I'd get the front to all merge together if you know what I mean.

Anyhow still got loads left to do ...

Cheers

Gidon


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## Steve Maskery

LyNx":2egq3hde said:


> Thanks. Steve, does these have to be done in SU only? Do we have a closing date?
> 
> Andy



Hi Andy,
Sorry, missed this one, been away for a couple of days wasting my time.

Closing date? Cor, we're not that organized! This is just a bit of fun, if something this frustrating can be called fun.

I don't see any reason why you may not model it in anything you like, really. It's just that with all the recent excitement about getting SU for free, and people wanting to learn how to use it, it seemed like a good idea to have this sort of challenge.

I've been using SU for a year or so, so I know the basics pretty well, but this is more complex than anythig I've modelled to date. As you say, much depends on the level of sophistication you wish to achieve.

So what are you modelling then, and what are you using?
Cheers
Steve


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## LyNx

Steve

Not sure what to model as i only have a few records 4 1/2 & 5, a Norris and an apron plane. The Norris would be a nice one i think.

I will be using Autocad and 3ds MAX as i don't want to start learning another system.

Andy


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## Steve Maskery

LyNx":32c2imqr said:


> The Norris would be a nice one i think.



Nice! Go for it!



Cheers
Steve


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## Shady

Here we go: Grandad's Norris bullnose in progress...


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## gidon

Looking good Shady!
Some more progress on my 60 1/2 block plane:




Now to the hardest bit - the lever cap - not sure how to do this but will give it ago.
I have found that scaling trick Dave pointed me to invaluable - trying to cut that small screwdriver slot in the screw I just couldn't get to work properly using intersect with model - until I scaled up by 20.
I find the hardest thing in sketchup is moving bits and pieces to line them up where you want. Is there a way to line up centres of components - for example lining up the blade adjuster knob onto the threaded bolt?
Cheers
Gidon


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## Shady

Plane and blade... Just the wedge to do.


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## Steve Maskery

Tra-la, la-la-la, la-laaah! With a little help from my friends:
















There are a few bits missing, like the grub screws which align the blade and the text in the casting, and the underside of the cap iron is not hollowed out either. But life's too short, and I've really had enough.

I really must get a life.

Shady, I like the texture on the blade - what did you do, take a photo and paint the blade with the JPG?

Cheers
Steve


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## Nick W

Well done Steve. =D>


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## Alf

=D> 

But, um, Steve...? You, erm, couldn't put a nicer tote on it, could you...? :wink: 

Duckin' and runnin', Alf


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## gidon

Very nice indeed Steve. Well done.
Cheers
Gidon


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## Neil

Wow - thats fantastic, Steve! \/ I'm attempting to model my Record #077A but with my current rate of progress I'm sure this thread will be ong forgotten before it is done  

Cheers,
Neil


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## SketchUp Guru

Good job, Steve. I like it. 

I must ask though, what's with those non transparent faces on the totes in the transparent view? :wink:


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## Steve Maskery

Dave R":2hgcszqj said:


> what's with those non transparent faces on the totes in the transparent view?



Don't know, Dave, but I don't have the world's most sophisticated graphics card, and can only assume that that is the cause. It's certainly not something I've done deliberately.

Cheers
Steve


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## SketchUp Guru

Well, it still looks very nice. 

Gidon ought to be posting his soon.


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## Shady

> Shady, I like the texture on the blade - what did you do, take a photo and paint the blade with the JPG?



Steve: funnily enough, it was an accidental discovery. I'd photographed the blade in order to copy its outline. In sketchup, drew the outline on the picture, grouped it in order to move it off the picture, and it had 'acquired' the picture's 'face' for its face... Stayed on both sides even after I'd push/pulled it to the desired thickness - offers all sorts of possibilities... :wink: 

Yours looks excellent - mine's a quick and dirty just to have a play..


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## Noel

Excellent work there.
Can we please ensure that images are kept to a reasonable size. Nothing as annoying as having to scroll a mile or two East in order to read accompanying posts especially for those members that do not have a very wide monitor. 640 x 420 or so is a good maximun. 958 x 636 is waaaay too big...............

Adios amigos

Noel


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## Shady

Sorry Noel - automatically re-sized for me by photobucket.... I'll see if I can work out how to downsize. Nothing more annoying than people with tiny monitors... :wink:


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## gidon

Well also with a little help, here's my completed LN 60.5 LA block plane.














A few bits missed off (mouse adjuster that sits underneath front knob, side thumbprints, some moulding detail and LN embossed print) and I gave up trying to get the nice rounded bulbous lever cap - may have another go when I have time. 

It was quite a useful learning experience with Sketchup - feel a little more confident with it now. But can the next challenge be a little less consuming at least time-wise!!

Cheers

Gidon


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## Steve Maskery

Excellent, Gidon!

Cheers
Steve


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## tim

All looks very impressive guys - but I think time to get out more :lol: :lol: 

BTW how do you do the exploded view - is it just a case of moving the component parts manually or is there a snazzy trick?

Cheers

Tim


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## Steve Maskery

Hi Tim
If there is a snazzy trick, I haven't found it. But if you group sensibly as you build it, it's quite easy to move them in the appropriate axis, just remember to take a copy of the model to explode before you do!

Cheers
Steve


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## SketchUp Guru

Very nice Gidon, Very nice. 8)


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## gidon

Thanks chaps!
Cheers
Gidon


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## humanfish

I'm not in college today so i thought i'd crack on with a model. I've started modelling a Veritas No 6 Jointer. I'm a bit of a novice so progress is slow but it's coming on.


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## tim

Gidon

How do you do the clever spinny avatar?

Cheers

Tim


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## SketchUp Guru

Gidon, what Tim asked. 

B.H. Looks like a great start. Keep working at it.


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## gidon

Tim, Dave:

I exported a JPG each time (I did create a shortcut for this ) I rotated the model by 15 degrees (grouped the plane and then used the group rotation handle). Ended up with 24 JPG's which I loaded in Photoshop Elements. Made each exported JPG a seperate layer (just shift-drag'ed each photo onto one photo). Then cropped as best I could. Then "save for web" ... Selected "GIF" and "animated". Played around with output size (reduced colours and dimensions). Selected loop and reduced frame delay to 0s for nice smooth motion. And that't it! 

Well you did ask . Glad you like .

BH looking good. 

Cheers

Gidon


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## Neil

Well I give up... ](*,) 
Whoever thought up this challenge? :evil: Oh yes, Mr. Maskery, wasn't it? (hammer) 

Here is my attempt - incomplete but I've spent long enough on this already! The Record #077A which I decided to model:





and the Sketchup version:




I must admit that I've learnt a lot about Sketchup - IMO it is great 99% of the time, but completely infuriating when you are trying do do something a bit different, especially once you get into curvy stuff. As you can see, I couldn't model the lever cap (?) properly. I tried to do it in Rhino (a NURBS-based 3D modelling package) and it took 5 minutes...

But for most (especially rectilinear) stuff its really great.

Cheers,
Neil


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## SketchUp Guru

Neil, I don't care what you say, it turned out great. Excellent job.

Everyone is turning out such nice stuff, it looks like my work here is done.


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## Steve Maskery

Neil,
Is that for real? Absolutely excellent! Sure you didn't just greyify the photo? 

Very, very good.

I must admit though, I didn't realize the amount of work involved when I said "Let's model a plane". Glad you were up to the challenge though!

Cheers
Steve


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## gidon

Excellent Neil - well done!
You did better with your lever cap than I did with mine! Mine's not close.
Dave - how does one do bulbous'y things like that in SU? And no way is your work done here just yet ! Do you have an entry by the way?
Cheers
Gidon


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## Neil

Thanks, everyone  

Didn't have time to do these earlier - here are the exploded & transparent views:








Cheers,
Neil


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## Newbie_Neil

Hi Neil

I'm in awe of you all.

Well done.

Cheers
Neil


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## Nick W

gidon":3uhyqovv said:


> how does one do bulbous'y things ... in SU?



In SU Pro there is a tool called the Sandbox which is probably the easiest way to go. Basically what this does is create a grid of squares, and then give you tools for push/pulling lumps of various radii in that surface. 

I see no reason why you should not do a similar process by hand (apart from the time taken that is). Create a rectangular grid over the area you want to model, and pull the vertices up/down to model the surface. The finer the grid, the better the model, but the more time it will take.

A second method to try would be to draw contours of the surface, with each contour at the necessary height. Add lines between the countours to create a surface.

Third method: Draw several cross sections of the surface in both X and Y planes. Again join the vertices to make a surface.

Fourth method: Model the surface outside SU, and import, but this again will require SU Pro.

Fifth method: Where the surface could be part of a turning, draw the profile, revolve it around the axis, and delete the bits you don't want.

Also don't forget that spheres (and any other solid shape, such as one produced by method 5) can be scaled differentially to create ellipses of rotation etc. which will approximate to many surfaces. You can have several of them overlapping, do some Intersect-with-model-ing, and deletion of unwanted bits, possibly followed up with a bit of manual modification (a.k.a. drawing your own lines between vertices (see above)), which I guess makes the Sixth Method.

Edit: And then there's the dreaded follow me tool which can sweep a curvy profile/shape along a curvy path. :evil: 

But none of it is easy.


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## gidon

Thanks Nick - some good ideas there. Fourth method is the one I'm currently playing around with. You can import 3d models into GSU - only exporting is limited (but still possible). Follow me creates too much mess in the middle - well it did for me at least. How do you create a rectangular grid?
Cheers
Gidon


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## Nick W

Gidon,

Creating a rectangular grid is very boring - you just draw lots of lines :roll: 

Of course the grid doesn't actually have to be rectangular - any old randomly laid down set of lines _could _do the job so long as you know (or can work out) the heights at the intersections of the lines. 

When working with the sandbox it is sometimes useful to change the outline from rectangular before starting to model the surface, and the same will apply when doing this sort of thing by hand.


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## Nick W

Oooh, oooh, oooh, I've just thought of another way!  

Draw a rectangular grid of lines on the thing you're trying to model. Photograph it - plan, front, back, left and right views. Import the pics to SU and trace the lines. Continue as for third method.

Even easier would be to project (as in slide projector) a grid onto the object and photograph that - if you have the equipment.


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## SketchUp Guru

You could also get a Ruby script to draw a grid for you.

Here are three different Rubies for that.

3D Grid http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDep ... 3d_grid.rb
2d Grid http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/grid.rb
Parametric Grid http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDep ... ic_grid.rb
For that last one you also need Parametric.rb http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDep ... ametric.rb

I do like Nick's idea of photographing the article with grids projected on it.


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## SketchUp Guru

If you try the Parametric Grid script, it needs a bit of editing to eliminate ./ from the line that says "require './parametric.rb' "


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## gidon

Thanks chaps. Those grids aren't created on the surface though - you'd still need to trace over them? Still (some more) useful scripts.
That is a good idea Nick - not sure I'm going to start draing over the LN plane just yet though .
Cheers
Gidon


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## Alf

Steve, Gidon, thought you might like to know your efforts have hit the Woodsmith/Shop Notes/Workbench Blog. Nice one.  

Cheers, Alf


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## Steve Maskery

Ooo-er, do I get paid?


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## gidon

- well spotted Alf.
Embarrassing that I had a very bad model of a banana (was trying some prganic modelling) for all to see! (Too late - deleted it!)
Cheers
Gidon


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## Chris Knight

Well done guys - fame at last!


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