Concerning the sink cabinet side, I tried exploding the side and making it a component again and the bounding came up the same. I did go to the component area on the side and deleting all the components related to the side so as to avoid duplication.
I watched your video on making cut lists and the ap you recommended is not supported by this version of SketchUp. At least that’s the error message I got. I did download one called OCL and it seems to work pretty well.
I tried to get a cut list from another model which is attached and I get some dimensions that are approximates, which leads me to believe there’s something wrong with my model. I thought that I made everything a component so that shouldn’t be an issue. Can you take a look and see what errors I have? Dishwasher cabinet plans copy.skp (143.1 KB)
You need to change the component axes as I showed in the later part of that video.
It isn’t listed as working in SketchUp 2020 but it works just fine. That’s where my screen shot of the cut list came from. I wouldn’t have suggested using it if it didn’t work in SU2020. Another example made just a few minutes ago.
Creating components is not a fix for inaccurate modeling. I see the tildes and the 64ths in the cutlist from your model, too. As I mentioned before, it reports the size of the bounding boxes but those dimensions are only as good as your modeling.
Loose geometry is geometry not contained within a component or group. The trim to the left of the dishwasher opening is loose geometry as is that of the face frame rails on the right and the toe kick panel. You can identify that by the blue dots on the faces showing they’ve been selected along with the components.
Some time spent at the The learning Center will show the basics for using Sketchup. This is by the Sketchup Team. Another great place isSketchup You Tube, also by the Sketchup Team.
OK, I’ve had a good night sleep and willing and ready to get back in the ring. Thanks for you patience with me and I’ll continue to work at this. I did check out both links you sent concerning cut lists and axis. Although I’m understanding the axis better I’m still stumped concerning my model. I’ll continue to work on this.
I have spent time at SketchUp campus and have gone thru all the lessons on Fundamentals and Modeling practice. I don’t remember any lessons dealing with axis. I am checking out youtube videos as well.
I’ll continue to work on modeling and hope to get this eventually.
You mentioned in one of your correspondence that you might be willing to talk live. Did I understand this correctly?
started working on another portion of my cabinets. I really tried to pay attention to making components. Would you mind taking a look at what I’ve done so far and offer your observations? cabinet group.skp (82.1 KB)
I don’t see any loose geometry any more (oops - a couple of loose edges I found later), but I do still see a double wrapped component - the angled side. Explode the inner, unnecessary component.
[And later I found that ALL the cabinet stiles are also double wrapped. Explode the inner one, again.
The stile components on the front are slightly misleadingly named - you’ve (very sensibly) copied one to make the front upright stiles the same, but they are named for the left hand one as front left end corner #1.
Why is the actual left end corner not the same width as the others, and a copy of the same component? Perhaps to make a drawer fit the opening?]
I do see that the angled panel has a bounding box aligned to the model axis, not the face of the panel, and it isn’t a solid.
I R-clicked on it, saw a loose stray edge in the near corner (bottom left in the image) when I went to Change Axes. There’s also a missing face near the new axis origin. You can see something is wrong because there’s a blue back face showing. It could be just a reversed face for the top of the kicking plate cutout in the sloping side, but that isn’t the issue in this case.
Delete the stray edge, and complete the missing face by redrawing it using the Rectangle tool with the component open for editing.
There are still a couple of problems with that side.
Its corner doesn’t exactly meet the stile (not style), and you didn’t continue the pushpulled bevel all the way down the side.
Move the whole component to meet the corner of the stile exactly, and just delete the two lines left making an extra triangle at the bottom corner in the angled panel.
One of these isn’t part of the component panel - highlighted here.
Delete that too - it seems to be ‘loose’ in the model.
With the panel moved, you’ve now got a clean corner and solid panel component (Entity Info reports Solid Component)
Saved as cabinet group fixed JWM.skp and uploaded back here. cabinet group fixed JWM.skp (88.6 KB)
Thanks for your response, John. Needless to say, I’m still confused with some of the terms and, although I’m starting to get an understanding of the axis, it’s still foggy to me. Some questions/comments,
When a component gets double wrapped does that mean I made a component twice? I’ve been trying to pay closer attention to the Components area on the right and seeing what pieces I’ve made Into components. There are times where I try to make an adjustment and it doesn’t work out so I go back to try to undo all the steps that lead to the “dead end”. I’m sure that complicates matters.
Once a component is made and I have to back up past the point where the component was established to correct and error, I’m assuming that the component was cancelled and needs to be reestablished. Is that correct?
I think I mislabeled one of the styles and had two different pieces labeled “left corner”. I noticed this and tried to delete the mislabeled one in the components area on the right and it would not let me do so.
The left style is a little wider because I want to add two vertical routed round groves just to dress it up a bit as it is a corner piece.
OK, the axis thing…I did change the axis to coincide with the angled piece when I was working on this area but got confused once I was done because it appeared to change the axis for the whole model. I was actually excited to see the bounding box proportionally around the piece as I was working on it but, again, changed it back to the original orientation…or so I thought.
I’m confused as to what you are communicating in paragraph 6. If I understood what you’re referring to, I was trying to create a cut out for the kick plate as you inferred. I did have trouble pushing this piece out of the way and I know this probably created problems.
I was having problems with the bottom of the cabinet “clicking” into the edge of the angled side. I tried to create guide lines but it didn’t seem to work.
I did produce a “cut list” and noticed that two of the dimensions has approximates so I knew I had some issues. Just didn’t know where they were.
Thanks for your guidance. This is a program that I’m sure is very powerful but boy, there’s a lot to know.
It’s too hot here outside (35°C and humid, and not a lot better inside) to think, but I’ll try to respond later this evening when I hope it will have cooled down.
Well, it’s cooled off a little indoors (down to 26°C or 79°F) but still humid and I’ve more or less stopped dripping sweat, so let’s have a go at answering.
Yes. You have made a component once out of loose geometry. Then you’ve selected it (notice the solid blue bounding box) like this one which is only single wrapped, and selected Make Component again:
Or else you had opened it for editing and selected all of its geometry (noticed the dotted outer gray outline). This is the same component, single wrapped, opened for editing and with all its geometry selected:
If you Make Component at this point, you’ve again double wrapped the loose geometry, as you had apparently done with all the stiles and at least one side panel
Probably. If you had made a component, then chose Edit/Undo back past that point, the component will revert to loose geometry, and you would indeed need to create it again. If it had been in the Component Brower it would no longer be, after the Undo.
You can’t select and Delete a component in the browser under several circumstances.
if there’s still one left in the model space, whether or not it is visible
sometimes, even if there isn’t one left in the model, I find I can only delete it if I highlight some OTHER component, come back to the one I want to delete and R-click on it, THEN choose Delete, it stays unhighlighted. And bizarrely, I think, that’s the one that gets deleted, not the one that is apparently still highlighted.
And sometimes the only way I can get rid of it (and all the others not currently in the model) is to Purge the components. A little hit or miss, in my experience. Fortunately, Undo will correct things if you delete the wrong one, and you CAN’T delete a component that is still in the model.
Makes sense. But perhaps choose a more distinct name, and don’t label it left or right hand if you will use it in both locations.
You probably DID change the axes for the whole model. If you R-click on any axis, you get the opportunity to change (or Reset, if you already changed them) like this:
And because Reset isn’t greyed out, I see you HAVE reset the axis origin. After Reset I see this instead:
That’s different from resetting a component’s axis. To do that, R-click on the component (NOT when it’s open for editing) and choose Change Axes - like this:
(you want the red axis pointing along the top horizontal edge of the kickplate cutout. Unfortunately, the screenshot moves the axes to the wrong location).
There were four problems. A tiny short edge left near the original bottom left corner. A stray edge parallel to and a little away from the top inside corner of the kickplate cutout. A little triangle left over from a PushPull all the way down the vertical edge to bevel the angled side panel to mate with the front stile. And a missing face where the top surface of the kick plate opening should have been.
When you do a Move operation, make sure to click on a clearly defined feature of what you are moving - at least on an edge, and preferably on a vertex (corner). Then be similarly careful about clicking on a clearly defined target. You might need to move a little bit away then back again when the points are very close, to be able to inference on the second point.
Lucky you the humidity is so low. It felt like 99% here yesterday and today (though I’m sure it can’t have been quite that high)! Though I found even a combination of very desert-dry and high 30sC when visiting in-laws in Wickenburg AZ too hard to take outdoors - even in the swimming pool because of the glare off the water.
I reconstructed the cabinet. I was really careful about making components. Could you take a look at this and let me know if there are any errors? I decided that I didn’t need the angled side. drawer cabinet.skp (68.1 KB)
All the parts are components, with no double wrapping, and both SU and Solid Inspector2 report each part as a solid, so there aren’t any stray edges or internal faces, which indicates they are cleanly modelled.
No loose geometry left that I can see. Everything is neatly wrapped in a component.
All edges and faces, and for the moment, all components, Untagged, which is also good.
And the parts all register exactly with each other.
The model axes haven’t been reset, and the model is located at the origin.
The only thing I see that you might want to change is the axes of the upright pieces.
If you want to use a CutList plugin, some but not all of those expect the red axis to be along the longest edge of the component. You have the axes at the default bottom left corner, with the component axes parallel to to the model axes, so the red axis is along the width of the wood, not its length.
@DaveR tells me though that CutList 4.1 takes the longest dimension for the length, regardless of axis orientation, so you won’t have to make that change to get it to work.
I have to say for myself I prefer it with the red along the length, but it’s only a preference, and never a requirement, and for Dynamic Components it may cause complications to have component axes not parallel to model axes.
And the normal spelling of the upright wooden pieces is stile, not style as you have it in the component names.
Other than those two small things, nothing else to suggest. Well done.
PS. Two other things I’ve just noticed on revisiting the post - the kicking plate cutout furthest along the red axis doesn’t level with the frame at this one corner. It does at the other.
And on a quick check, all your component dimensions are now whole inches or simple fractional inches. Also good. No tildes (~) showing up as they did earlier.
Thanks John. If this all comes down to misspelling the parts of my model, I’m totally good with that!
I feel I’m getting a better handle on the axis but still struggling to get the whole picture. It sounds like you said that you recommend the red axis run along the longest edge so that the cut list dimensions will be correct, but Dave said that is not necessarily the case. Is that an accurate statement?
I guess I don’t understand when the axis needs to be changed from the original axis that exists right from the start. The axis, as I understand its purpose, is to make sure that all is square on the part with the axis for accurate dimensions. Is that correct?
Concerning the kick plates, I did the same procedure for each one. I used the tape measure to establish the area needed to be cut out then used the push pull tool to push it away. I did both before making the respective piece a component. The only difference that I can think of was one I pushed up and the other I pushed sideways to eliminate.
That being said, I am going to be cutting each piece out of the wood so, I’m guessing, that this issue is not critical to my finished work, correct?
One last question, I got a message saying I should encourage others to get involved. How do I do that? Obviously I’m not clear on how to use this forum.
Don’t worry about that message. The Discourse software that runs this forum raises that whenever two people are doing all the posts in a topic. As its name suggests, the software is written to encourage a multi-way discussion. But to my knowledge there is no rule on this specific forum forbidding a two-person dialog.
