Hi there, I’m a new user and am trying to draw mouldings for project I am working on. I cannot figure out how to draw in full scale. What am I doing wrong? dawgspun
What seems to be wrong ?
Maybe you could share what you’ve got? What exactly are you doing?
It is perfectly possible to draw mouldings at full scale. I frequently create mouldings and moulded edges as on this French side table at full size in SU.
what will you be using these mouldings for?
hi
the profile will be sent to a cnc machine to create one elliptical casing and one radius casing.
I was hoping to sent the operator the profile at full scale to help him with his tool pathing, i have tried making the profile a group and then editing it with the tape, but nothing. I am new at this and feel a little lost. erik
To have a model drawn at real scale, you just need to draw it at real scale.
If you have a model that is not at real scale, you can scale it up with the scale tool or use the Tape measure.
To use the tape to rescale, just click on one end of your model then pull it to the other end and click, you will see the distance measured, then enter the desired distance and hit Enter.
Post the SKP file as you have it or if you don’t want to share it publicly, send it to me via a PM by clicking on my avatar at the top of this post.
There is no ‘scale’ setting in SU per se. Everything is drawn in real world dimensions, full size.
The notion of scale only comes into play when printing orthogonal views of a model on paper.
It would help us help you if you’ll describe in more detail what you’re trying to accomplish.
As @DaveR suggested, sharing the model for us to work with first hand fosters communication, saving time.
In the interim, have a look at this topic and the video tutorial below:
Injecting Accuracy Into Your Model — Aidan Chopra
thank you so much for your help, here is the file, it is in dxf format. I
realize now about SU being in real world dimensions, thank you.
let me know what you think erik
AutoSave_Gordon casing patterns and glue forms.skp (15.9 KB)
I’m not seeing a problem. The short flats aren’t exactly the dimensions show but they are close. When those edges are selected, SU reports their length with a ~ meaning they are close but not exactly the shown dimension. Increasing precision through the use of decimal dimensions would show more precisely what those dimensions are but it’s probably not that critical.
Yes. That’s exactly it. SketchUp can have difficulty creating very short edges (< 0.001" long) but there are strategies to handle that. You aren’t running into that with this file, though.
The profile in your model is drawn to scale and those are the real dimensions.
Now it is up to you on how you want to use the profile. If you draw the shapes you need, you can then use the follow me tool to follow those shapes with your profile.
Are you needing to extrude the profile or are you using it to create a pattern for having the molding made? With SU Pro you have LayOut and can make a better dimensioned drawing if you need it.
Gordon.pdf (8.6 KB)
Hi @dawgspun
Here’s a revised version of the model file you shared:
Gordon_Casing_Patterns_Glue_Forms.skp (10.0 KB)
Therein, the six edges defining the profile have been ‘welded’ into a single entity using the Weld plugin referenced in my first reply.
Upon opening the model notice the camera is in Top View and Parallel Projection mode necessary for exporting an dimensionally accurate DWG or DXF file.
To create a file for use downstream on your CNC, simply export a 3D (not 2D) DWG or DXF from SketchUp Pro.
hi there, thanks for your advice, I see how the scaling technique works,
but in this drawing I have multiple profiles that seem to fall out of
accuracy when I scale an individual piece. should I be making each piece a
group before scaling or something else? thanks for your time, erik
Yes, you need to group each piece and scale it inside the group.
If you scale using the tape measure it will scale all the geometry, unless you are working inside a group or component.
I am still wondering, why do you need to scale it if you can draw it at scale ?
If you have the right measures for the paths to follow, just create the paths and use follow me and it should be to scale !
Also, if you plan on milling these shapes on a cnc, use circles and arcs with as high as possible number of segments.
hi there, do I have to redraw the circle and ellipse to achieve a high
number of segments?
You can select a circle or arc and change the number of segments via the Entity Info window. Note, however, certain kinds of model editing can force SketchUp to break a circle or arc into a raw series of edges, at which point you can’t regenerate the original circle metadata.
If the circle is just a circle you can change the number of the segments as slbaumgartner said. The elipse however can’t be changed.
If you want to change the segmentation of your already drawn molds, it is impossible.