Upload the skp and I’ll look at it when I get home.
Here is a quick version of the basic concept done with the desktop version, the tools look slightly different but nothing here can’t be done with the web version. (It’s just much harder to record.)
Great tutorial, thanks!!
You wouldnt believe how much time ive spent screwing up what you did perfectly in 2 minutes!!
Cant remember how I fixed that. Had something to do with sectioning the line, then I could delete parts of it. Almost there now, but catn get a face on the outboard side of the largest tube…its hollow, and should have a"cap"over the end.
Swing Bracket 3 .skp (299.1 KB)
There are a number of things you haven’t taken care of that were previously mentioned like getting the groups made correctly. You didn’t include geometry required to keep faces.
Your dimensions don’t accurately reflect what you’ve modeled so I don’t know which is correct. I added a couple of dimensions on the lower tube that show the modeled dimensions.
You’ve lost internal faces of the stepped tubes because you haven’t left any thickness where the step occurs.
It doesn’t matter whether these parts are machined out of billet or made by welding one tube inside the other, there needs to be some thickness in the region of the step. Maybe like this although I doubt it’s actually correct. There’s probably more of an overlap than this but you’ll have to determine the internal dimensions from the actual part.
I made each of the stepped tubes a component. That required selecting all of the geometry for that tube. Before moving on, I made sure that the tube components were reported as solid in Entity Info.
I used the method Box showed you for drawing a curved path. It’s started here but not finalized yet.
Earlier you said the curve is elliptical but what you’ve drawn shows a straight section so again, mine may not reflect the actual part.
I added a little segment at each end of the path to let Follow Me run a little longer than I need it so there’s stuff to trim off later. Assuming the curved tube to be hollow, I drew a ring to use for the Follow Me profile.
After running Follow Me the faces were inside out so I selected all of them, right clicked on the selection and choose Reverse Faces. I mentioned that yesterday.
After the Follow Me operation the path can be deleted and the tube made into a component or group to make sure it’s solid.
With all three parts solid, you should be able to use Outer Shell to make a single solid from the three.
Note: I did this in SketchUp 2019 but everything I did can be done in SketchUp Free in exactly the same way.
It would probably be worth your time and it would certainly reduce your frustration if you would learn how to use these basic tools. Go through the SketchUp Fundamentals.
Dave-
Thanks for the time, and expert eyes you put on this. I watched a couple of Sketchup YouTube vids to get started, and probably got ahead of myself in all the excitement of getting this part drawn.
I will spend some time on SketchUp Fundamentals as you suggest. I obviously am missing some logic in how this program works, and need to figure out why my parts aren’t solid, and why my attempt at creating a group did not work correctly,
what “geometry to keep faces” means, and why my tubes don’t have any thickness….
To get the dimensions, I used the tape measure tools, don’t know why, or how the dimensions are incorrect. I must have used the tool incorrectly.
Your note mentions that I “lost internal faces of the stepped tubes because I didn’t leave any thickness where the step occurs.” Could you elaborate? To create I used the circle tool, then offset a smaller circle, then pulled them both
to create the stepped tube. Then deleted the space inside the smaller “rod”, so it created a tube, not a solid rod. Not sure what I got wrong there….
Thanks much!!
This is what I get when I click on the Sketchup Fundamentals link. Also did a search in google and got the same error. Appears this site is down. It was also down a few days ago.
I did find some resources on the SketchUp forum, in the second screen print below, and I went through each but very little was mentioned about groups, and I still can figure out why the 3D objects I thought I made aren’t solid.
I guess I’ll start a new one, maybe I’ll avoid those mistakes this time….
The dimensions are not on axis, though. If you look at them straight on you can see that.
First, you can’t just delete the “space inside” and expect there to be an inner wall.
The way your model was created, you end up with nothing at the part where the diamters step down. You’ve got the I.D. at the large end the same as the O.D. of the small end. Think about how that would need to be manufactured out of metal. If you bored the I.D. on the large end all the way to the shoulder, the part would separate because there’d be no material where that hole meets the smaller diameter section. In reality there needs to be some material left there. I modeled it like I show on top but in reality it’s probably more like the one on the bottom with a chamfer to reduce the formation of stress risers.
Probably the easiest way to model that is draw the section and use Follow Me with a circle for the path.
As for the link I provided, when I follow it I see this:
I don’t know why you aren’t getting that.
Groups and components are fundamental things in SketchUp they aren’t specific to 3D printing. See this link:
https://help.sketchup.com/en/working-components-sketchup
This does not look right, but all I did was push out the outer circle, then did a smaller offset, and pushed that out too.
Looks like you pushed through from the opposite end. That would create the exposed reversed faces like you show.
I pushed it out from this end. Is that problematic? Ive been toying with it, but can see to extrude it so I get the double thickness for the first 1.75 inches that I need. Within the first 1.75 inches or the tube, it appears that the extrusion is hollow…
Any ideas on how to push offset circles out to differents legnths?
Yes. That’s creating the problems you are having.
Instead, extrude the larger cylinder, offset the end for the smaller O.D. and pull that out. Then offset for the I.D.s and push in. Push the large one first and then the small one.
Or do what I told you before and draw a cross section and use Follow Me to sweep it around a circle.
That’s different than what you presented in your earlier models. Just offset on the small end and push all the way to the opposite end.
Love how you drew the arc here. I am now doing same. Getting close to gettingthis drawing right but seem to run into a problem when drawing the curve each time. Either the top of bottom tube ends up hollow. In this, version 3, the bottom tube lost its “edge” when I finished the follow me for the tube…any ideas on where the mistake lies? I’m stumped and starting version 5 this AM.
Here is a different way to make your pipe, perhaps it will work better for you.
Will the stepped pipes have overlap if drawn that way?
