Dan and Dave: Your suggestions have helped me solve this problem. I noticed the whorl was created with the faces reversed, and managed to correct that. However, it took a lot of effort to “close up” the ends of the whorl so it could be recognized as a solid. Supposedly, all a face needs in order to be created is to be bounded by edges. No matter how carefully I tried to close the ends of the whorl, I only saw a face appear once in many attempts… My line would snap to “end point,” “intersection,” or “on surface.” This would often be different at each end. The hint about hiding the cylinder to clean up the geometry was the secret. Here’s what worked: a) select the whorl and explode it; b) hide the cylinder but leave it as a solid; c) simply connect the openings at each whorl end with a line, end point to end point. The faces appeared. Then continue on.
It appears the software interacts with a hidden object differently than with a visible object; it’s still there, and affects things like section plane, but you can see and navigate through it. Probably more…
At any rate, I was able to finish building up the solid threaded component and smushing additional parts to it. I will attach files, which are still built at large dimension. ( I am able to scale these models back down to the correct dimensions.) So I will close this thread, but now I have run into another problem trying to use Layout. I will open another forum question. Thanks! Main Hydronic Adapter 1.skp (1.3 MB) Accessory Hydronic Adapter.skp (1.3 MB)
Your geometry does make solid objects which is good. You might want to look at the bottom of the one, there are holes iin it. Reminds me of the old corroded bronze fresh water intake for the engine on the Catalina 27 I owned.
I will try turning off length snapping and see how that works. I’ve redone these objects so many times, I can get right to the spot I had trouble with.
Yes, coplanar of course.
When trying to “look inside” a solid, it seems some view options, like X-Ray or “back edges” are available. However, trying to pan or zoom into a solid, so your POV is “inside” doesn’t work. I just seem to bump up against the surface. And it appears you’ve got to be inside to do stuff like erase or modify geometry. So what I used was either “Hide a face” at the edit level, or hide the entire surrounding thing. (It was labor intensive but instructional to be inside and hunt down offending geometry.)
When I played around with section planes, it seems the plane includes hidden objects nearby; often one or two sides of the section cut simply didn’t show up. I finally unhid the object and saw the cut plane had included it.
Yes, my solid items still need cleanup. (One of the plug-ins?) I also noticed that there is a small gap between the BSPP threads and the main body of the adapter, but Sketchup still considered it a solid. This version was done before I increase the # sides on the circle to 60.
Yes, I can get both Curve Maker and Whorl to operate properly…
It depends upon where the geometry is. Sometimes a Section cut is easier but you need to turn the section plane off.
Well, they report as solid. I don’t think an extension exists that would close up the holes and leave you with a solid. This would require your input to determine which holes need to be fixed.
Yes. The separate lumps of geometry meet the requirements to be considered solid. All edges are shared by exactly two faces and the faces are correctly oriented. Even with a large gap the the requirements for being solid are still met.
How about trying to model the threads with Curve Maker and Upright Extruder as I showed. You shouldn’t end up with reversed faces and should have much less to do to make the geometry solid.
I’d disagree… where it makes sense most of my model content is solid. But I have custom DCs for windows / doors that clearly are not, and I often add things that have no need to be solid (appliances, hardware, surfaces for terrain). But if it is part of the structure and needs to be built (foundation, walls, roof, etc) make them solid. It’s just easier with the various tools for model manipulation.
There is a good chance that somewhere in the previous 24 posts the original problem has been solved! But, we found out something today that may be worth knowing.
There is a Create Radius extension, that if asked to create a radius that is smaller than some amount, leads to a crash, but only if you are using the new graphics engine.
Not sure if it would also apply to the Curve Maker extension, but you could try scaling up your geometry, or change to use the classic graphics engine, and see if that behaves better.
Good deal. I’ve been using Curve Maker frequently with the new graphics engine since SketchUp 2024 was released and haven’t had any issues at all but maybe you’ll see something different on your Mac.
