Cura® Adjust-a-Web Roof: need some advice here

So, I’m creating a roof and will be needing to straight cut these “posts” about 5" down from the roof, with clips on them, as shown in this detail (pay no mind to what’s circled, focus on the box):

They are all groups, they came in as components but dropGC wouldn’t work on them so I had to explode and regroup them all. Not ONE of them will be the same since they are sitting on a tapered membrane roof. I will be needing to create the z purlins and the clips. The clips… will be a booger to place… I think there are over 700 of them.

Here’s a video to attempt an explanation. Sorry in advance for the terrible video quality… But I think you’ll be able to hear me.

Tang BLDG 402.skp (4.0 MB)

Ugh. What a bear.

If one is solid, you can do @Box’s trick of exploding them all, and grouping them which makes one solid group of them all that you can then use solid tools on, but that would basically give you what you have already.

You could think upside down, and with extra long groups “drop” them up (instead of down) to the underside of roof, and trim off the extra from the other end.

Not sure how to apply it, but there is the trim/extend tool with Medeek Truss extension. That yields more or less the same results as solid tools.

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Start with them all the same length and a straight cut end, I used Zorro2 with a section plane to slice them all in one go within the context of the group, scale the group vertically so they are at least as long as the longest needs to be. Use an appropriate ‘drop’ extension, here I have used Throw To, Infinity option, to throw them all up at the roof, move them down 5" then cut them off at the bottom.

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Only works with solids. Only cuts one object at a time. (Except the miter tool) Makes components new instances automatically, (but this can’t be turned off). Can be a bit buggy sometimes. (Especially the extend tool) I love those tools and use them all the time.

That would work, and I actually had thought of that already, just couldn’t think of how to execute it.

@Box has thought outside of himself to basically accomplish what me and Robert had thought of, except without needing to flip things upside down! And I have two more extensions to add to the list. JOY!! I will try some of these tomorrow, Lord willing. Thanks @RTCool and Box!

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I am a bit lost as to how you used zorro2

Use a section plane, then right click on the section plane and you will find a new context menu item, Slice Model at Section.
This will slice and remove anything in the current context. So if it is within the group of groups it will only slice through the groups and not the rest of the model.

I then need to explode them all and erase the excess?

No! Open the big group, place the section where you want to cut, select the section so it is blue, right click on it and choose Slice model at section and it will chop off what you can’t see leaving only what is visible.

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Here’s an example, see how the group outside the group isn’t cut.
GIF 20-04-2022 2-54-10 PM

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:sweat_smile: Whew! Glad I didn’t have to do that!
I could feel my PC balling up a fist and grinding its teeth. I understand now!

I have cut and thrown the studs. Now they need to be cut to the tapered roof and other things

Were you able to throw them all at once, or did it take you a few tries? Had to run it like 5 times before they all went.

I tried it again and they all went in one with the exception of the ones that aren’t actually within the roofline.
Once you have them don’t forget to pull them down 5", then I would group them according to the ceiling slopes and and cut them off the same way by placing a section cut on the ceiling.

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By the way, you have your camera field of view set strangely, it should be around 35deg.

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I like having it at 60 because it enables me to see what I’m doing better when in interiors. Actually, I’ve had it at 60 for so long that 35 looks really strange to me.

Is 35 supposed to represent a “natural” perspective? Seeing things as they really are?

And they, like the tops, need to be cut straight… :man_facepalming:


Are there any advisors? Need I use the scale tool to bring up each one to the face of the tapered roof?
like this:
block

I’m finding that the scale tool doesn’t bring the bottom of the stud perfectly to the face as well.

If you check out his post and go down the middle column for Vertical Angle of View, you’ll see 59.5° corresponds to a 21mm lens on a 35mm/full frame camera (don’t believe what SU tells you it is) which is the beginning of ultra wide territory. 35° corresponds to about a 38mm lens, which is barely the beginning of wide angle territory. Not an uncommon focal length for a cell phone or point and shoot camera.

I almost never use scale for that operation. I’d use move instead. Takata’s Stretch by Area would move them all by the same amount in one go.

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I didn’t read this all and @Box knows what he’s doing, however I’d do this in a few steps with a couple of plugins:

  • group them all
  • inside the group that features all of those groups just select them all and use the plugin “groups to components” (maybe that’s not the name but you can find it in sketchucation or extension warehouse)
  • then use “component replacer” plugin to replace them all with a single component that has the geometry you need.
  • component replacer allows you to fit the new component in the bounding box of the original component. It works like that with a modifier key.

The result will be a single component replacing all those instances but scales to fit each one.

I think it’s pretty clean.

If you want you can split the component in two parts, one would be a dynamic component for the top part which would have constrained size and the other would be the bottom which would be scaled to the total length minus the top part length.

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Lol I use FOV 90 for modelling. Interiors are just too narrow without it.

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Things have moved along a bit, but when all the studs can get cut to the membrane roof, I will probably attempt to use the component replacement in the way you have described for giving the studs an accurate thickness, replace over-segmented arcs, and maybe, (just maybe) place the clips in the top and bottom of the studs! That will be really cool!

That’s exactly what you can do if your base component is composed of a set of dynamic components for the top and bottom and a filler component in the middle

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Well, I ended up just needing to do the studs, but then found out each one needed a specific name, and label which would correspond to a grid… This is the most complicated thing I’ve had to do with SketchUp so far.

God be praised! Thank you @Box for showing me Zoro2 and Throw To, and @kimrebley who has spent many hours with me over Skype showing me how to tackle this beast.

As I said, the main dilemma was the tops and bottoms of the studs needed to be cut straight, and the roof and floor were both at different angles mostly, so using either one as a cutting plane was not an option.

So here’s what worked:

  1. Make the studs all the same length at about halfway between the roof and floor
  2. Throw them to the roof using “Throw To”
  3. Cut them with a section plane using “Zoro2”
  4. Explode the studs and move the bottom edges a little more than halfway down toward the floor
  5. Run the “Loose to Groups” extension to group them all
  6. Copy the studs and “Throw” them to the floor so that the top studs overlap the bottom copies
  7. Explode the top and bottom studs, then remove the middle edges with “Fix It 101”
  8. Run “loose to groups” again.

Here’s a small (and sloppy) example:
block 1

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