Curved cut on pipe or cylinder

SketchUp
1

Hello, I need to cut away a portion of a cylinder. Red faces are the desired object. Please advise.

Thanks!

01
01762Ă—750 9.6 KB

2

This would be a good job for Subtract in the Solid tools. Make sure the pipe and the cutter are each solid groups first. Then get the Subtract tool, click on the cutter shape and then the pipe. Better, use Eneroth Solid Tools especially if you are working with components.

sub
sub738Ă—617 88.2 KB

Alternatively if the cutter shape and the pipe are in the same context, that is, ungrouped or in the same group or component, you could select all of the geometry, right click on it and choose Intersect Faces>With Selected. The erase everything that isn’t the pipe.

3

I like using the classic “Intersect” method. This allows you to attain complex shapes without relying on the objects having to be solid. :slight_smile:

2019-04-11_07-48-56

1 Like
4

Thanks Dave, I may use method 2 as I’m not sure that I want to add a plugin at this point.

“Alternatively if the cutter shape and the pipe are in the same context, that is, ungrouped or in the same group or component, you could select all of the geometry, right click on it and choose Intersect Faces>With Selected. The erase everything that isn’t the pipe.”

I’d like to clarify method 2 a little bit.

  1. create the cylinder and cutter separately, then move the cutter into position…
  2. Leave both elements ungrouped?
  3. Select both elements at once.
  4. Right click select Intersect Faces>With Selected.
  5. Erase the cutter.
    Is that basically what you mean?
    Thanks!
5

Thanks for this, Much appreciated!

6

Solid Tools are native to SketchUp Pro so no need to add any extensions for that.

Yes. That’s what I mean. Or, if you’ve already grouped the geometry of the pipe, you can open the group for editing and add the cutter geometry.

When I need to do something like this where I’ll use Intersect Faces, I’ll draw the cutter outside of the component that is getting cut and get it in the right location. Then I select the cutter geometry, cut it to the clipboard (Ctrl+X or Command-X on Mac) , open the component for editing and use Edit>Paste in place to paste the cutter geometry inside. This allows me to use the geometry in the component as a reference for modeling the cutter without having to worry about intersections being created when I don’t want them or otherwise wrecking the component.

7

Thanks for that further explanation Dave.

8

Hi Chris, thanks again for sending this. I’m just now getting to this and I’m not getting the same results.

  1. I create the cut-away cylinder (ungouped)
  2. I make cutter with a 1" radius - select, move into place.
  3. Select entire model + intersect faces “with selection”
  4. Select right to left - remove back of cutter.
    From here I get different results than you do. Perhaps there is a step I’m missing with the creation of the cylinder?
    Thanks again.