hello,
I’m trying to use hte CutNFill extnetion to calcaulte the amount of earht to be cut and filled. From what I understnad, I have followed the instructions, added skirts and aligned them but when I try to run the tool, I recevie he message: “Non-solid Groups will not intersect properly. Make then solid and retry”. form what I can understnad. both groups are solid buth I might be mistake. Cna anyone help me whit this issue?
How do you know this, did you check in Entity Info?
I used the polylines for mAutoCAD to define the lanmd using the Sandbox tool. The I used the skirt tool form the CutNFill to make the solid.
Then I made a copy and using the stamp function in the sandbox, I deifned the new topography.
Finally I named them according to the requirments of CutNFill.
You still haven’t answered what I asked you.
Have you checked in Entity Info that those groups are Solid Groups?
I’m not sure how to check if it is solid or not. The ifnrmation provided under netity are"
Tag: mine is untaged I tried to tag them but CutNFill seems to only accept groups
Instance: on of he is EXTG and hte other one is called Proposed
Tyoe:
How cna I check if the group is solid?
Select the object and look in Entity Info to see if it says it’s a Solid Group.
Before continuing with extensions, it would be helpful for you to learn the basics of SketchUp at Campus - learn.sketchup.com
Thank you. It seems like my group is not solid. However, I though the skirt ficntion in CutNFill makes the object soild.
I’ve run the Solid Inspector 2 tool and it says that “Nested instances will be exported correctly to STL file format by the Trimble Sketchup STL Exporter, but Solid Tools and Solid Inspectors 2 doesn’t treat nested instances as as solid tool”.
I’m not sure what it means with nested instances. Any clues?
thanks
If you had posted this over at SketchUcation.com here you obtained the extension, then I would have seen it earlier and you might have got more help…
Entity Info will say if the selected group is a Solid.
Solid Inspector² will report if a group is not solid.
I will also try to fix some problems, but others must be done manually.
Adding a ‘skirt’ is not a guarantee for solidity.
It reports ‘nested instances’ - a solid group needs to contain edges and faces and nothing else [although some 3d printing tools will allow nested groups with the main parent group].
Each of a solid’s edges must support exactly 2 faces - no more and no fewer.
So that means no faceless edges, no flaps, no shelves, no holes, no internal partition faces, no volumes sharing an edge which has 4 faces.
Faces are also best properly oriented outwards.
Also for any solid-tool operations - both native and CutNfill - remember that it’s possible to take two solid groups and subtract one from the other and end up with a non-solid result - reporting a 0 volume: this happens when there are tiny differences between some faces/edges in the two groups and the resultant geometry is malformed - SketchUp’s tolerance is 1/1000", so any two points nearer than than are assumed to be coincident, so any tiny edge that might have been made is omitted and the face[s] it supported get missed off, causing a non-solid object…
When modelling site surfaces the existing and proposed are likely to be several inches [if not feet] different - be sensible in your modeling because on site a contractor is not going to be working to fractions of an inch - it’s not rocket-science !
Many Thanks for your reply. I beleive I start understnading hte problem.
Seemingl;y, My problem seems to be that I import the height curves form AutoCAD and it seems to me that while sketchup processes the lines, it also creates more faces than it should. The problem however is htat I can’t idneitfy where these additional faces are as hte topography is rather complex. ANy suggestions?
I’ve added the two topographies I try to use for CutNFill, in case
House V1.3.skp (11.3 MB)
The existing group has lots of jagged edges around its perimeter, these are likely to cause issues with an added skirt and solidity.
There are almost 58000 entities in the surface - that’s a lot to process.
Also edit the group, menu Edit > Select All and use Entity info to re-tag everything to Untagged.
Also, so that you can see what you’re working, with set all of the edges to NOT be smoothed or softened, but just plain edges.
You might be better off making a simple contour group from what you have and using something like Fredo6’s TopoShaper to reform a simplified land form.
What you currently have is very complex and is inevitably going to result in non-solids as you continue…
Thanks again for your reply and the review of my data. I will cut out the unnecessary parts of the plot (where there is no change) and only keep the changing parts and sill also follow your recommendations about hte edges and tags.
Best regards,
Siamak
I’ve removed all unnecessary areas, reducing the number of objects to around 4,600. However, using the CutNFill extension to add a skirt doesn’t work—it only adds some lines. Before removing the external areas, the tool was able to create a skirt, although it wasn’t solid. Now, after cleaning up the unnecessary areas, it doesn’t work at all. Any suggestions (please see attached file)
Plot_V1.skp (7.3 MB)
?
Try to learn the basics of SketchUp first. Then you may be able to properly prepare your terrain to extract useful information.
click to see the clip
Dear Mihai,
Thank you for your efforts and the work you’ve done. I understand that you process the original data to create the required solid spaces. I’m very interested in learning how the terrain should be prepared, but I’m not sure where to start.
When I search for information, I come across numerous links explaining how to import data from various sources and formats. However, none of them seem to cover the specific steps or techniques you demonstrated in the video.
I would truly appreciate it if you could share any thread, link, or video that explains the process you followed to achieve these results.
Kind regards,
Siamak
You can start at Campus with ‘Fundamentals’, then ‘Landscape’, and then a lot of YouTube tutorials.
A method of preparing a terrain to be a Solid Group
Much appreciated,
Siamak
Hello Again.
In the video in Youtube, you first slect a number of jagged edges and delete them. You do that for two smaller areas and then it sems like you use a special command that makes sketchup idneitfy all other jagged edges. Coud you please let me know which comand you are using?
