How do you create a hole in a surface with intersecting lines

darkfire112886 · July 19, 2015, 2:37pm

I am a woodworking and regularly laminate products, which is basically gluing two or more surfaces together. A good example would be a cutting board or butcher block counter tops. I need to make plans for these projects and as such need to be able to cut a hole in them in the plans. I need to know how to do this. I know how to do it with a plain solid surface but not one with intersecting lines.

Geo · July 19, 2015, 4:59pm

Use the Intersect command to ‘cut’ complex geometry.

slbaumgartner · July 19, 2015, 10:02pm

Your profile doesn’t specify whether you have Make or Pro, but if you have Pro the solid tools subtract is an option. It ultimately doesn’t do anything you can’t do as @Geo described, it is merely quicker.

davidheim1 · July 20, 2015, 2:08am

There are a couple of simple ways to drill through all the pieces of a workbench or butcher block. Let’s assume you’re making a workbench. I assume you have several pieces of thick wood laid edge to edge to make the top. I also assume the two outside pieces are different from the ones in the middle because they are counterbored for a washer and nut. So, make one piece for the top and make it a component. Make as many copies as you need and have them touching. Select the two outside components and go to Edit>Coimponents>Make Unique. Open one end component for editing. Drill a hole in it as needed. Orbit in so you can see the bottom of the hole. Click on the edge of the hole to select it, and go to Edit>Copy. Close the component and hide it. Open the next component and go to Edit>Paste in Place. This positions the circle precisely in line with the hole in the first component. Use Push/Pull to make the hole in this component. Because all the pieces are copies of the same component, you’ll have a hole through them all.
Hope this helps.
dh

darkfire112886 · July 21, 2015, 5:59pm

example.skp (47.4 KB)

This is an example of what I am attempting to cut out. the circle representing the hole I need to cut.

DaveR · July 21, 2015, 6:34pm

If you have SketchUp Pro, you could make a cylinder from the circle and use Trim to cut the the planks for the top. With the free version you could make a cylinder and use Intersect Faces but you’ll need to get the cylinder inside each plank group so you’ll wind up with a wall for the hole. Another way might be faster.

First, explode the top group and the component underneath it (there’s no point in that kind of nesting anyway) so that you have easy access to the planks.

Then select the circle and use Edit>Cut to cut it to the clipboard. open one of the plank groups that needs to be cut and use Edit>Paste in place to paste the circle. Push/Pull to push away the waste and erase the unneeded parts of the circle.

Repeat for each succeeding plank. I have a keyboard shortcut set up for Edit>Paste in Place so it goes very quickly.

mrwmrutski · July 22, 2015, 12:26am

Just a little quicker still, unless there is a need to have EVERY strip made a separate group??
…Peace…

<img src=“//cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sketchup/original/2X/9/9ddfc361cc3ff367747e7232b92ac677c5df1b61.jpg” width=“690” height=“295”