It is currently 29 Mar 2024, 16:30

[SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Share everything from your tablesaw sled design to how best to calculate magnetic North using only woodshavings and a blunt carpenters pencil...

[SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Dave R » 22 Jul 2014, 18:20

I don't know if you folks who are interested in SketchUp look at the blog posts I do on the Design. Click. Build. blog at FineWoodworking.com. If not, here's something you might find useful. It shows making the transition from a turned portion of a table leg or column to a square section.

Image
Last edited by Dave R on 16 Aug 2014, 14:34, edited 1 time in total.
Dave R
Nordic Pine
 
Posts: 653
Joined: 22 Jul 2014, 13:38
Name:

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby riclepp » 22 Jul 2014, 20:22

Hi Dave

I am looking forward to your SU tips. I place su in the area of dark arts :) as i struggle with it.
Life is always giving you a second chance, it's called tomorrow.
riclepp
New Shoots
 
Posts: 61
Joined: 22 Jul 2014, 17:03
Location: Halstead
Name: Richard Leppard

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Dave R » 22 Jul 2014, 21:21

Feel free to make suggestions. It's helpful for me if I know what you're trying to figure out how to do.
Dave R
Nordic Pine
 
Posts: 653
Joined: 22 Jul 2014, 13:38
Name:

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby RogerS » 22 Jul 2014, 21:42

Welcome to the forum, Dave :D
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
User avatar
RogerS
Petrified Pine
 
Posts: 13293
Joined: 21 Jul 2014, 21:07
Location: Nearly finished. OK OK...call me Pinocchio.
Name:

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Robert » 22 Jul 2014, 22:05

Interesting watch.

Think I knew most of what was in it already... except about the scaling up to work on it.

I've come across the problem of things being small (in sketchups normal working method) and scaled up 10 times to avoid hiccups then scaled back down again but thought it was a pretty specific problem to whatever I was doing at the time. Seems it comes up far more often?

Is it just a matter of looking for things that don't join/work quite right and trying again but bigger or is there a list of actions that will cause problems at 'small' scale and should always be enlarged?
Robert
Old Oak
 
Posts: 2491
Joined: 21 Jul 2014, 19:31
Location: Woodford Green
Name: Robert

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Dave R » 22 Jul 2014, 22:31

Robert wrote:Is it just a matter of looking for things that don't join/work quite right and trying again but bigger or is there a list of actions that will cause problems at 'small' scale and should always be enlarged?


The issue at small sizes is that holes get left because faces don't get made. If an edge is less than about 0.001 in. SketchUp's tolerance settings cause it to consider the endpoints as one. The funny thing is although SU won't create a face with very short edges, the face can exist if it is made at a larger size.If you have a reason to expect you'll be creating short line segments and might run into the holes issue, scaling up helps you avoid the problem.

You can certainly scale up and scale back down again but you'll want to make sure you use the same scale handle for both directions. Otherwise the thing you're scaling can wind up at a great distance from the origin and potentially the rest of the model. I prefer to leverage components for this kind of thing because whatever I do to the larger copy will be done to the original one. There is no need to scale back down and the original stays exactly where I left it. Some folks prefer to use groups rather than components and for them, the method I use isn't an option.

Here's a video that shows what happens if you are creating the tiny faces and don't take the preemptive step of scaling up.
Dave R
Nordic Pine
 
Posts: 653
Joined: 22 Jul 2014, 13:38
Name:

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Robert » 22 Jul 2014, 22:51

I can't think in inches for small things but 1 thou is a lot smaller than the size of error I was thinking of.

at 21:25 in your original video the glitches from not enlarging first look bigger than 1 thou. Do small inaccuracies cause bigger and hence more visible errors or something?

I'll have a look at the new link soon.
Robert
Old Oak
 
Posts: 2491
Joined: 21 Jul 2014, 19:31
Location: Woodford Green
Name: Robert

Re: [SU_TUT] Pommels and Transitions From Square to Round

Postby Dave R » 22 Jul 2014, 22:58

Well, if you have a number of consecutive very short line segments you can can get rather large gaps. You can see that very dramatically in the video I linked to in my previous post on chess piece. Look at around 5:30.

That spindle in the first video is only about 18mm square so it isn't very large.

By the way, the most common operations that cause these sorts of tiny face issues are Follow Me and Intersect Faces.
Dave R
Nordic Pine
 
Posts: 653
Joined: 22 Jul 2014, 13:38
Name:


Return to Tips & Tutorials

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests