SketchUp Guru
Established Member
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
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
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 
