magnet3.skp (990.3 KB)
I’m still a newbie here, and I can’t seem to find any problem with why this object isn’t solid. I’ve tried grouping and making it into components, but I’m still getting the same output.
First… you have nested groups.
Then, internal faces.
In SketchUp Go you have Solid Inspector… use it!
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And here is a way of fixing those issues without using solid inspector.
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thanks! I tried that extension, and now it’s working
I forgot that I had it hidden. Thanks, man!
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Not sure what you mean about hidden, I just removed internal faces and removed one level of nesting.
It took me a while to get round what SketchUp defines a solid. As a wood worker if I join 2 pieces together where the 2 touch there are 2 surfaces in contact which I can’t see and in my mind I have made a solid thing and when I model the same thing it looks same to me and I perceive it as solid.
However as I found out after many frustrating attempts SU only considers it solid if there are only external faces and all connected with no overlaps. This may get your mindset working for SU solids.
https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/modeling-complex-3d-shapes-solid-tools#:~:text=In%20SketchUp%2C%20a%20solid%20is,following%20image%20contains%20several%20solids.
That’s a matter of word meaning and usage, a common problem when tech or science appropriates a word that is also in common usage (or vice-versa). In SketchUp a solid is a single thing, not an assembly of things. If you can disassemble it into smaller parts without cutting, it is not a SketchUp solid.
The more mathematical terminology is a manifold in 3 dimensions. But since too few people know that word, SketchUp chose to use a more familiar term.
Not completely true, I know what you are saying but, a SU solid can be a collection of manifold objects, as long as they don’t share an edge or face. Simply put, two cubes not touching but grouped will be a solid.
So long as the cubes themselves are loose geometry, not groups. Nested groups aren’t considered to form a solid.
So I guess the definition of a SketchUp solid should be “a group or component whose surface is a manifold”? Language gets awfully squirrelly when you get down into the weeds!
It does indeed and often those weeds just confuse people.
Took me a long time to understand what a manifold solid was, I don’t think anyone has ever managed to describe it in lay terms that made sense on first reading.
Yeah, when I started using SketchUp, the term manifold brought to mind an intake or exhaust manifold on an engine.Left me confuddled
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