DC - built in closet (slanted wardrobe)

I am fairly new to SketchUp yet I already know how to work with dynamic components etc.my question now is if it is possible to turn the closet from the picture below into a dynamic component where it is possible to change the height on the left and right side together with the depth and length. First of all i want to know how to define the slated part of the closet together with the length of the supporting planks. My second question is, if it’s possible for the angles at the end of the supporting planks to move accordingly as the height on the lefthand side or the righthand side changes.

Greetings Peter
29

Probably.

The key is that, instead of single vertical boards with a mitered top, you’ll need to model them as vertical boards with square tops, then model the miters separately as extruded triangles. You can make the resulting boards appear as a single board by judicious hiding of edges and faces.

You’ll have a bunch of formulas involving trigonometry to determine the length of the boards and the angle of the top piece, and either the height of the triangular pieces representing the miters or the angle of the miters.

The one thing I’m worried about (and why I answered “probably”) is how to deal with the top diagonal board. It will have miters at both ends and - if you keep that subcomponent’s axis the same as the base model axis, keeping it’s thickness constant (or user determined through Component options) might be a problem. The alternative is to align the subcomponent axis with the edges of the (unmitered) board, but then you’ll have to experiment with X, Y, Z and RotY.

Were I to try to model it, I’d start with the model you appear to already have, model each pieces as a component (including the “miters” as separate triangular extrusions, set a scene as the front view, then send it over to layout so I could dimension it in terms of a few attributes (these are descriptions, not names!):

  • Left Tall (Height)
  • Right Tall (Height)
  • Overall Width
  • Board Width (assuming they’re all to be the same, multiple attributes if different)
  • Board Thickness
  • Toe kick Height
  • Panel Thickness (of the back panel)

Keep the edges and faces where the boards meet the miters visible! The’ll help in the Layout dimensioning.

Finally, I’d print out the dimensioned Layout drawing and start doing the trig necessary to determine your unknown dimensions - those later will become formulas for the LenX, LenY and (possibly) RotY attributes when you make it dynamic.

It’s intriguing enough that I’d like to try modeling it, but I’ve got just too much else on my plate right now. Thus I hope what I’ve described is enough to point you on the way.

Hi sjdorst!

First of all thank you for responding to my problem! :slight_smile: I understand what you mean, but I still have no idea how to begin defining the angles of the miters and the lengths of the panels. It would really mean a lot if you could give it a try or help me on my way with that… i understand if you really have no time.

Thanks on beforehand!

Hi Peter,
As Steven suggested, to create dynamic components that preserve their angular ends, one need to divide the shape into simple workable parts, so a board with mitred ends could be divided into three, the left mitre, the central body and the right mitre. Then one needs to add formula to position and size the parts. I suggest the parts are “solids” so if or when required they can be made a manifold shape via “outer shell” or union. Lines or faces that are common to both can be hidden to give an appearance of one object, or left to be lost in the union process.
Selecting and preserving an axis orientation is the first step. I general accept the default with X as the foreground width of the object, z the height and y the length moving back into the screen. So for your basic board

file example: board1.skp (26.7 KB)

Now consider the board with two end miters and the mathematical relationship

Capture

So going back to the simple board, confirm its in its original state, right click menu the scale definition and reset scale should be greyed out, otherwise select scale definition so as avoid possible scale issues. Rename it to middle, draw a 45 deg triangle and extrude either end, make them components. Left,Right, expose their size and position attributes. Collect all three as a component, “mitred board”.


Have a go at assigning the formula, (the result should match their grey value) Private message me with results and we will go on from there
cheers
Philip