If this has been answered, can you just point me to it. Guess I don’t know the proper key words.
Using Sketchup Make ver. 2016. Assume you have a truncated pyramid (with a flat top). Can you punch a hole beginning at the top, through to the bottom, that is parallel with one of the sloping sides. How do you do this?
Make a cylinder and put it in its own group. Then place it where you want the hole and intersect the faces. Then you can delete the cylinder and you should be left with a ellipse that you can delete out of the pyramid’s face.
Or make a face on the top, the shape you want the hole.
Pushpull it to the bottom.
Then select the end face of the hole at the bottom, and Move it sideways until the hole is at the angle you want. Delete top and bottom faces of the hole (not the edges) then you are done.
I was finally able to make it work using John_mcclenahan’s method (which, in this case, is probably simpler). However, I cannot make it work using the cylinder method. According to an old manual I have, the Intersect With Model tool is involved. Everything seems to work up to the point of removing the cylinder and leaving a hole. Now, maybe it has something to do with the fact that both the cylinder and the pyramid are components. However, the manual says this should still work so long as the pyramid component is in edit mode.
The geometry of the hole needs to be in the same context as the geometry of the pyramid. So if the pyramid is a component, the geometry for the cylinder needs to be in that component.
Essentially what is happening after the intersection is you are trimming away the unneeded parts of the cylinder and leaving the rest as the side of the hole.
This is the same as it has always been in SketchUp.
OK. I’ll have to try getting them into the same component. The old (10 Years) manual is misleading (to me) on that point saying: “If one of your intersecting entities is a group (component), and you perform the Intersect With Model while editing that group (component), the intersection lines will be applied within the group (component)”.
I’ll work with it some more tomorrow.
That’s true. The lines will be applied inside the group(component) but there won’t be any faces created. Only the edges where the cylinder passes through the faces on the pyramid.
I guess I’m still doing something wrong. I am able to make it work 2 different ways: 1. The cylinder is a component (or group) and the pyramid is not or 2. Neither pyramid nor cylinder are components (group). Either way, when the external parts are removed, I’m left with a circle on the surface that must be push/pulled through to make the hole. The passage I quoted above from my old manual seems to be reversed.
Have you tried simply selecting the surface inside the circle and deleting it? Turn on X-ray mode and see if you have the cylinder inside.
This is all just loose geometry. No groups or components so the pyramid and the cylinder are in the same context. From left to right.
Cylinder extruded through pyramid.
Intersections created with Intersect Faces.
Top and bottom of cylinder deleted.
Faces skinning over the hole top and bottom selected and deleted.
DaveR,
You are correct. If neither the pyramid nor cylinder are components or groups, it works fine. And, right again, simply selecting the “hole cover” and deleting it works too. However, if the pyramid is a group or component, this will not work (for me). Everything is OK up to the point of selecting the “hole cover”. It is not selectable whether the component is in edit mode or not.
It will IF you put the geometry of the cylinder inside the component or group of the component. It would work the other way around, too.
Here are my steps:
Make pyramid component
Make cylinder (not component)
Move cylinder into pyramid
Select all and make new component including pyramid component and cylinder
Make new component editable and remove external cylinder parts
Remaining circle cannot be selected
Tried the same with neither pyramid or cylinder as components
Once cylinder is within pyramid, made an all inclusive component
Made component editable
Removed external cylinder parts
Again, remaining circle is not selectable
That’s wrong and it’s too much work. Check your private messages.
There are a variety of ways of creating a “tube”, an extrusion parallel to any of the sloped side faces.
But then what is the desired parallel direction? Many directions per face are parallel.
See attached file for a simple solution in which you create/draw the desired direction with the ‘Axes’ tool prior to creating the extrusion itself.
pyramid.skp (182.4 KB)
Once the axes are there, you can lock the circle tool (in SU17) with the appropriate [Arrow] key.
scene 2: [Right arrow] key locked the circle to red
scene 3: [Left arrow] key locked the circle to green
bilyo—
Ae you opening the pyramid component before making the cylinder? The old manual, and DaveR, are both telling you the cylinder has to be INSIDE the pyramid component. Edit the pyramid, construct the cylinder. Does it work now?
The answer is yes, but DaveR taught me that before doing that I need to “cut” the cylinder then “open” the pyramid component then “paste in place” the cylinder. After that, all the subsequent steps work OK.
bilbo—
Yeah, paste in place is a wonderful command. You can also construct the cylinder inside the component shell, group it and put it in place (so it doesn’t stick if you goof on placement. Explode the group when it’s set, and viola!
Paste in place is probably easier.
Best,
Jim
