My kid has a toy set that is one of those “kids can work” where you can assemble a car from parts. It uses what I guess you could call nuts, but the thread spacing is very, very basic, like less than one turn in the entire nut, which is 6.5mm. Is there an easy way to go about this? I watched a tutorial on this but it seemed that the Youtube videos are more around making actual SAE or metric nuts while this is neither.
kruuth,
Your description of the problem is a little vague.
Are you trying to model a physical toy, or are you making a ‘digital 3D nut’ to include in an app? If the former, creating a solid threaded rod with a 6.5mm pitch and a solid nut and using solid tools to subtract the rod from the nut should work.
Chip
Sorry my bad. Yes, it’s a physical part for the toy. I do I do the rod? I’ve modeled the nut sans the threads already and I guess I could move it and then model a threaded rod. Is there a way to make the “nut” jump back to the origin?
Cool. I’ll try to find it Dave. What about returning an object that has been modeled to the origin? Is there some way to do that?
Gab it and move it. Then type [0,0,0] and press Enter. That willl move the pont you grab to the origin. Might be easier to start over, though. Model the threads first then model the outside of the nut.
I can’t seem to get that to work. I selected the move tool, and I only see a Distance option on the bottom of the screen but nothing else.
Start moving the object. Let go of the mouse and type the coordinates starting with a square bracket.
In the distance field you have to literally type [0,0,0]
As in Left square bracket zero comma zero etc.
Aha. I didn’t realize the brackets were needed. I tried that, and it moves it but not back to the origin.
Can you share your file?
depending on your unit mode, you might need to type [0;0;0]
with ;
(this is only if you’re in a country / language pack that uses , for decimal instead of .)
Sure. Here it is:
Willie Truck Nut.skp (254.3 KB)
As I wrote, it moves the point you grabbed the object by to that point.
Since @Chip_Cookie and @ateliernab are involved I’ll stand down. Good luck.
K. Thanks for the help. I’m still trying to find that post you made on threads
As far as I can tell, your nut is on the origin.
What am I missing?
It was when I moved it. I couldn’t get it to jump back to the origin. It was always offset
One thing I have noticed is that you only have ‘loose’ geometry. In other words, your nut and washer are not distinct groups or components. This will make it impossible to use solid tools to make the internal thread.
It doesn’t? How can I fix that?
If you are not in a hurry, To help achieve your goals, some time spent at the SketchUp Campus and at the SketchUp - YouTube channel will be very worthwhile. Both sites are from the SketchUp team. On the YouTube channel, pay attention to the Square One Series and Level UP series. They cover the basics for each tool.
1 Like
Willie Truck Nut2.skp (177.7 KB)
I have made the nut and washer separate ‘objects’ or groups. If you click on either one and look at entity info you will see they are solids.