Hello What am I doing wrong?
I am working on a high rise, with many curved balconies as an concept and exercise. I would like to simulate a large softly illuminated tube shaped, lantern like, running along a curve (that doesn’t seem to be a curve) illuminated by neon or LED with colours moving and running held up by flashes of light originating from the solid illuminated part balustrade.
Like a railing, that no one has to hold onto as it runs on the outside of the balustrade and giving an impression of a spiral although the floors are horizontal.
The original file was created with a real point to point made with the curve tool, but since I installed the glass panels, although it looks the same, the many sections seems to have changed it slightly.
I created a center line running along the exterior support structure from center to center point from the vertices of the balustrade.
I highlighted one by one, then made into a group copy pasted it with the intention to use the follow me tool to create the so called tube and put it back into its dedicated position on top of the same line (that would be the bottom center of the tube)
BUT the follow me tool seem not to be able to follow my path probably because the angles.
When I make again an curve between the two points the tool works smoothly but the my curve is made of many straight lines following each other.
Do I need to copy paste the same diameter circle and use the follow me tool on each section?
How can I overcome that problem without redesigning it all again?
I do not need a perfect smooth curve. I rather have the cut pipe/tunnel as at each connection there will be a metal ring joining each section along the balustrade and I think is would be way easier to install piece by piece.
Thank you for any advise I uploaded a screen shot and the SketchUP file.
One more question if I may.
I designed the entire building quite small for the initial concept so it is all in millimeters for example the LED tube is only 10mm across to say 50cm.
How can I change and define how many milometer equal say one meter or ten centimeter that
I suspect that two things are defeating you. First, the copy/pasted curve is a Group, so you have to open the Group for edit before the followme tool can work with the curve. You also have to draw the profile to follow the path inside that Group. Second, the curve is broken apart into a series of segments, not a curve, so you have to select all of them to create a path for followme. I drew a small circle perpendicular to the start of the curve, selected all the segments of the path, and did followme. Below is the result. There are possibly some anomalies due to the small size, but on the whole it worked fine.
you can scale the drawing up by using the ‘tape measure’ tool on any line…
select any line, go to the Measurements box, click, thenmove the decimal place…
accept the ‘change entire model’ dialog that comes up…
Thank you very much for your detailed reply
I will now attempt to change the size first
then redraw my line with less of the small segments
then add the inside distance to the actual glass balustrade
and then try again along your instruction
and then show you my result again
PS: Your name is very popular in Austria
I am originated from Tirol does that ring a bell?
Sorry : Changing model size
When I use the measuring tool, and take the height of the balustrade from bottom to top 43.00mm
I get a green points at both ends (yours has a red dot)
Then when I go the measuring window, it does let me make any changes
(its not greyed out) but when I put the curser into the small window I can’t amend the parameters
is there any other key I need to click to keep the measurement window active?
Thank you
OK ignore above:
I have managed the balustrade height is now 1700mm
(i entered the value “without” putting the curser over it (it pays to read the help indication on the right)
one gets so concentrated on the graphic
if they are green you are selecting un-grouped geometry…
make sure to deselect all before trying again from out side a group…
it may differ slightly on a windows pc…
john
thank you I have done so and I managed
Hello.
I managed to resize
and create the support for the drop shaped tube like lantern (top thinner than bottom to stay cleaner)
I managed to use the follow me tool BUT
the last five segments look different as it would not do all in one go
I started from there again
I rotated the model 180 degree and tried from the other side to use the follow me
but it stopped there again
I zoomed in the line connection there is no different to all the others (to me)
maybe it is not
I posed the lantern in front of the balustrade but the could not delete it again to replace
with the yellow illuminated one…?
Has is become one I thought I had moved a group that have NOT exploded but could not highlight it again.
I saved the previous version so once I get the lantern looking the same all the way long
I ran the follow me along the line as in the 2nd attachment
Thank you for having a look again if you can.
0_newMEASURES_BALUSTRADEpreviousSAVElampionNOTplacedANDdone.skp (856.1 KB)0_newMEASURES_BALUSTRADEwithLEDlampion.skp (953.4 KB)
My ancestors emigrated to the US from Switzerland in the mid-1800s, so not Austria but not too far away.
It looks like for some reason the followme tool did not soften/smooth the last segments (I don’t know why - maybe a tiny glitch at the corner between those segments). The fix is to open the group for edit, triple-click to select all of its contents, then right-click and select Soften/Smooth Edges. You may have to wiggle the slider on the Soften/Smooth dialog before it has any effect.
There is a tiny gap where two segments are misaligned.
If you triple click on one segment it will select all connected, as you can see in the gif the triple click show the Curve is made up of two sets of segments, in this case a simple delete and redraw joined the edges together.
Hello
Many thanks for your time and support. I much appreciate it.
0_newCURVEDlineWITHcircleATleftTOuseFORfollowME.skp (339.9 KB)
I have managed to do that the connection is fixes and when triple click it shows the entire curve.
(zooming in very close to that failed connection was impossible)
Either my zoom jumps into the field way beyond or not enough and when I scroll scroll and scroll zooming in slows down dramatically.
Now I have one more issue about the circle (that I would like to turn in to a perfect drop shape after learning how
to install it at the end of the line on the blue axis and not parallel to the segment
I created a cross 90degrees at the left end of the curve
the circle tool still wants to make the circle flat instead of vertical perpendicular to the segment
(naturally I am doing something wrong or just don’t know)
I often have the same problem with the protractor tool often
Is there a key board order to switch the circle or protractor tool within xyz?
The “custom window” in your gif where do I find that
(is that on Mac or in the newer pay version of Sketch up?)
I went to http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/95448
but I don’t see the “customize” option in my free SketchUp Google version
Victor;
Suggest you slow down and then you can hurry up. I think you need to make basic changes to model so it is easier for you to work on, example attached. Using the second model in your last post exported as dae model; deleted 1 duplicate face; 10729 duplicate vertices, 31 zero area faces, 259 unreferenced vertices; removed self intersecting faces, vertices and edges.
Imported back to SU and remove much of the geometry easy to redo; Made tubes , two of them, into components and replaced the one in model with one you had off to side and then deleted one. Layer make for installed tube so you can hide while working on rest of model. The model has a number of coplanar edges, many in the tube support, which I corrected most but those supports need more work, they should also be made components. Think once you get that basic structure under control rest should go quickly.
Good Luck0_newMEASURES_BALUSTRADEwithLEDlampion-modified.skp (614.9 KB)
Hello
Thank you for you kind assistance I’d love to follow your advice.
I attempted to open your file but it tells me that I have an older version 8 04.8.11and need to visit google.com to get a newer version. 15.3.33.31 This worries me as I know Google is not the owner of SU any more.
I understand that is close to 1K $
Thank you
Vic
Yes this is from the non Google version. You can customise toolbars. But there is nothing there that isn’t available in normal toolbars, I have simple consolidated my most used ones for stylus use.
Thank you very much I hope to upgrade one day but…one day …
Here is Mac’s model converted to SU8
0_newMEASURES_BALUSTRADEwithLEDlampion-modifiedSU8.skp (614.9 KB)
Thank you very much
I am trying now to deconstruct and reconstruct to find the many mistakes
not easy will upload when done to show you…
this building concept has MANY curves and balconies like that
on it total high of over around 78m
I must get a grip one one total balcony
structure as there are many more to repeat
NOT all the same size naturally but same concept through out it all.
Sorry I did not make my point very well above if you are referring to them. Those issues noted were not form SU capability but other analysis tools and purpose was to get to a “clean” model. IMHO you would be much better severed and not use shot gun approach but concentrate on present state. As a minimum you need to learn use of components ,layers and correct of “tube” supports (maybe). The model only has to be good enough not perfect. That is based on viewing distance. The adadage is: Better is determent of good enough. Fix present model per your design, come back with questions so all the excellent modelers here can help vs. spending all their time correcting problems. Once you can do one floor then others go quickly I hope.
Just some thoughts
Thank you thanks for caring
I am on it for the whole afternoon and evening
there is ONE support on the left incline
I can’t seem to fix
Can’t seem to have the triangular front to snap full into plane
and can’t pull the left support out next to it
have to try some more …