Guys, I already gave Dave credit for a solution because his guidance did help me get through the sticking point but, let me extend the issue a bit more as I still have a question.
Take a look at the following screen shot. I’ve drawn a short line (3/8") on the face of a component and then used the end of that line as the center for a circle. However when I select the circle for a push/pull SketchUp is showing the plane is apparently not orthogonal, yet the various points seem to indicate it is.
But, when I draw a line completely across the surface and then draw another line on top of it the same length as in the first instance (i.e. 3/8") to create the center point for my circle, I can create a circle that when selected (both halves) does show it to be an entity separate from the whole surface such that it can be pushed/pulled.
If you go back to my screenshot you’ll see that I changed the units to millimeters in order to see the error. It’s so small that inches are too large.
Because it’s not a single face.
I would suggest that you delete the entire thing and start over with a fresh component. That would be much easier than trying to repair the bad component.
Dave,
Yes I did notice you showed values in mm. I just thought 6 decimal places for inches would be enough. Apparently I was wrong.
Trash the old part and rebuild it. Well I did that already. What is in the drawing now is at least a second iteration of the part (from scratch) if not the third. Obviously when I build a part my technique has some holes in it. So…I just built another new part
Create rectangle 27.5, 3.25
Pull the rectangle up 3.25
Draw a line at the mid-point of each end and push the lower part in 3.25
Draw a 3/8" line on the face of one edge at the midpoint
Draw a 3/4" circle with the center with the end of the line as the center
Select the circle for pushing.
This is what I get, same problem all over again.
Dave,
I can just envision you tearing your hair out now A tangent circle with two lines on each side is my way of creating the U-shape. Okay, so what’s the smart way to create the U-shape?
Again, my method works great if I first draw a line across the full face and then set the circle center point with a second line of the circle’s radius overlaid on the first. The circle still ends up being tangent with the part edge. It just seems to take that first line to “register” the face surface for the circle.
Dave,
I went back to your video so I could review how you used the Arc tool for the half circle and then extended it to the U-shape. It took a coupla tries but I nailed it. When I viewed the video yesterday it cut off before it finished so I didn’t get the full benefit of how to use the Trim tool. Then I tried it. Wow! that’s slicker than greased lightning on Teflon. Okay, so this old dog learned a new trick. Now if I can just remember how to use it when I do a new project down the road
Dave,
I’m now working smarter but I’m having trouble figuring out how you did the multiple trim action in your video. You show selecting the Trim tool, then selecting the first component, then the second. Then you continue to select first and second. When I do it, I select the tool, then the first component and the second. The trim works great but the first component says selected and I have to go back tot he Select tool to “divorce” the function and then go back and select the Trim tool to repeat the process for each trim action. How do I “jump” from one trim action to the next all in one series like you show?
Another semi-unrelated question. While trying to use Trim on a couple other parts I got an alert saying one item is not a component. The help file has a tip about using the Solid Inspector to help find issues with solids. How do I get this inspector utility?
Are you using the same extension I used (Eneroth Solid Tools) or are you using the native Solid Tools? I use Eneroth Solid Tools because they respect the “component-ness”. The selection order is different than with the native Solid Tools. With Eneroth Solid Tools the mantra is “trim this with that.”
Is it telling you it’s not a component or not a solid component?
Solid Inspector and Solid Inspector2 are both available in the Extension Warehouse.
Dave,
Okay that explains it. Even though you did mention using the Eneroth Solid Tools I didn’t catch that it was different from the native Solid Tools. I thought there was some trick to locking the tool like when I use the option key to extend the Move tool.
After reading the help file tip I learned something new (for me) and that is the status of a “solid” component is indicated in the upper left corner of the Entity Info pane. Oh, well waddya know, let me check a few of my components. Some showed as solid but others did not so I thought, ok, let me use this Solid Inspector to help me fine some issues.
When I open the Extensions Warehouse window, it flashes some extensions and then goes blank. Well now that’s interesting, I thought maybe I should close and restart SketchUp but I first closed my file only, SketchUp still active, and Bam! the Extension Warehouse window now shows stuff. But wait, there’s more. Jumping between SketchUp and typing this post, when I go back to SketchUp and open the Extension Warehouse again, it flashes and then goes blank. So I quit SketchUp and then re-started it. Same thing. Poltergeist for sure. I moved the Extension Window off to the side so it isn’t hidden by either the SketchUp window or my Firefox browser window. It looks like at this particular point in time I can have both my file and the warehouse window open with extensions showing, but wow, something ain’t right. Ever seen something like that?
A tangent circle with two lines on each side is my way of creating the U-shape. Okay, so what’s the smart way to create the U-shape?