Hello I’m Jeff seeking to buy a 3D printer but first trying out the soft ware here to design things before I buy it is very hard to do what I desire most likely because on the free version they give me to use dose not have all the bells and whistles that I thought I’d get to design custom motorcycle parts. So before I order a 3D printer need to see if I’m smart enough to figure out how to get a design ready for print.
Your profile says you are using SketchUp Pro 2020. Is that the 30-day trial? What bells and whistles are you thinking you need? There are loads of extensions available although before you even start looking at them, you should probably learn how to use the native tools. You could start with learn.sketchup.com and go through the tutorials there.
Well I’d like to have where it creates geometry in triangles that I can adjust to flow into curves and rounded areas this one lacks the ability to do that I only have like 8 tools of things I can manipulate I want ovals it only gives me circles or half circles or a slighted curve.
Clearly you need to spend some time learning how to use SketchUp. It is possible to make ovals and ellipses with just the native tools. There are extensions available that make it easy to draw non-circular curves, too.
The ellipses for this Shaker box were drawn using only native tools.
There are a number of extensions such as Artisan and Vertex tools that make manipulating surfaces for complex shapes easy enough.
Nice. Yeah time I was hoping to be able to take what I have like spent weeks in melting plastic together take some pics of what
I’ve’ designed so far and out line but trying to get it to measure exactly is difficult.
I can’t tell what it is but I’m sure that could be modeled in SketchUp. It’s definitely not a thing for a beginner who doesn’t know how to use the tools, though.
You might check out this thread for some idea of 3d printing from SketchUp.
So I’m finding out. No wonder manufacturer’s take so long now to introduce new lines of Motorcycle designs to sell to the public but I would like it left up to the buyer to decide what they want Bigger saddle bags or smaller ones not to mention better area for larger speakers not what has to come equipped with the bike. I finally seen a 3D printer large enough to build the rear speakers I want to incorporate into a older Goldwing rear housing going from 4" to 5X7 speakers I built this front area to do that but like I said melting ABS plastic and at times breathing the fumes is not healthy. So now that a 3D printer is big enough now to do the job figure it is time to buy. But you know tools should include all the tech stuff cause I learn faster from not being frustrated but having the ease of things and once I learn how to do things then I might go back to the simple things and relearn what I might of missed upon.
It sounds like you don’t want to learn how to use the tools to do the job. Maybe you should hire someone who has already done the learning to do the work for you.
Oh yeah here is the Front took 4 months to get these done with melting plastic together.
Even like came up with adding LEDs into the build as i did it,
Nice. Aren’t the LEDs distracting when you are driving?
I’ve been looking at finding a club here of 3D printer savvy people here in my area at a hobby store I visited a few months ago. It is on a switch so I can turn them off I mostly use them in well lit areas or at dusk and dawn but driving it dose effect vision with more light where you can’t focus on distance so when it is like to dark out I do not turn them on unless on a Interstate that is straight and well painted lines.
Here’s another example of modelling complex objects ( but not printing). This guy actually does not use many extensions if any. I tried to find an example of the engines he models, but couldn’t dig it up (at SketchUcation somewhere)
https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=333&t=39789