How to use outside shell in SU 2016 pro

SketchUp Pro
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#1

I’ve created a simple cube … square polygon 24" x 24", then extruded 24’.

I select “Outer Shell” from tools and highlight my cube … nothing happens.

I then made the cube a group, selected outer shell and then clicked on cube … I’m told that it is not a solid.

So:

  1. How does one make a solid … I have a simple cube with each of the 6 faces showing a surface … why would this not be a solid?

  2. How does one use the outside shell tool?

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#2

the point of outer shell is to combine solid groups…

a singular solid group is already an outer shell, as SU is a surface modeller…

it must have stray geometry to not be solid…

try again and make the new cube a group, then move a copy slightly offset…

select both and try outer shell…

john

1 Like
#3

In SketchUp only a Group or Component can be a solid. If you checked Entity Info after creating a Group from your cube, it should already have been designated as a solid. If it wasn’t, that suggests maybe you didn’t select all of the geometry of the cube (triple-click on a face) before making the Group.

Outer shell requires two solids to create the shell. You select the first solid either before or after activating the tool then select a second solid you want included within the shell (the cursor will be a little 1 if you need to select the first solid and a little 2 if you need to select the second). After the first operation, the result remains selected so you can continue adding more.

#4

Got it … I didn’t understand “Outer Shell” … I thought that it would take a solid and create a new solid inside at some offset distance, i.e. creating a “shell”.

I found a plug-in that does this … so all is good.

Thanks for the quick reply!

#5

Yeah, what outer shell does is to take two existing solids and create a new one that “wraps” their combined outer surfaces and eliminates any interior geometry if they overlap. Glad you found something that works for what you wanted.