Hello
I tried using Eneroth upright extruder and it didn’t work. a web search suggested i get an older version that is compatible with SK make 2017 which is what i use.
If anyone could direct me to where to find it or to send it, I would appreciate.
thanks
Doug
The latest version was released in December of 2013. The first release was in June of 2013. I don’t know how you could get an older version.
I expect if it didn’t work in SketchUp 2017 the problem isn’t with the extension but with how you’ve set up the model or how you are trying to use the extension. You could share the .skp file so we can see what you’re working with.
To give a more complete context:
I am working on making a LEGO version of the Jumbo Jet Rollercoaster.
I want to use SK to design the track pieces and 3d print them.
I have modelled the whole thing in SK but for simplicity i am just showing a section in a Component called ’support’ so i can hide it easily and things don’t stick to it.
There are 5 components called ‘3m Beam’ that i will incorporate into the track piece so i can connect it to the lego supports after it has been printed. Later, i might welcome an easier suggestion for how to join these with the main track to make a solid object. what i have been previously doing has been very labour intensive.
Workflow:
I made a circle with 212mm radius because it is the diameter of the outside rail center. I want this particular track to rise up 48 mm over the 90 degrees that this curve travels, so i made the circle 48*4=192 degrees.
Each segment of the circle goes up 1mm, so i drew a 1mm line up from the next point on the circle, and made a line connecting it back to the first.
I copied and rotated this line and moved them up to meet the previous line to make a 48 sided helix with 212 radius, 48mm rise with a 90 degree section.
I selected all of the lines and clicked weld to connect them all.
This is my ‘follow path’
I have made a cross section of the track and rotated it so it is perpendicular to the 'follow path’.
i brought the track cross section to the starting point on the follow path and selecten them both.
I clicked Upright extruder> upright extrude.
When i tried it yesterday i got different results but today being more methodical it sort of worked but it came out with a wireframe look. Not sure if i can fill in the wireframe to make it a solid object?
Upright Extender seems like a powerful tool that will help me with more complicated track pieces later on in the project. I am hoping i can figure it out as it will save a lot of time messing around.
Thanks for your help.
Doug
path and cross section before upright extrude.pdf (24.1 KB)
upright extrude result.pdf (102 KB)
UprightExtruderExperiment.skp (2.1 MB)
Without looking at your model I guess that you are running into SketchUp’s small face limitation. Anything smaller than about 1 mm might result in a face not filling in. The recommended workflow would be to scale the thing up, 10, 100 or 1000 x before doing the follow me or other operation. When finished, the thing can be scaled back down, or, if modelling for 3D printing, the final scale can be set up in the slicer application.
@Anssi got it in one. You are indeed running into SketchUp’s small face limitation. Upright Extruder worked fine.
I sacaled your model up by 1000 so 1mm equals 1m and this is the result or running Upright Extruder.
BTW, you should make sure you are using Layers (now called Tags) correctly. All edges and faces should be created and remain with Layer 0 assigned.
And keep the model clean by purging unused stuff.
Or even better, model in meters as if they are mm, export stl as meters, then import into the slicer as mm. You get automatic scaling with no small faces issues.
@DaveR beat me to it…
Thanks
I scaled up 10x and it was better and a further 10 x and it was great.
sideways to this, i don’t know if there is a setting in the upright extender that lets me change the “bank angle” through the curve. Ie. have the track start paralell to the ground and rotate clockwise by a controlled amount over the length of the curve? Maybe set a follow me line and a second line to indicate the angle each segment is at?
That may be asking too much?
Doug
There isn’t. If you need to do that you could create curves for the inside and outside edges of the track, put a copy of the profile at the top end and use an extension like Curviloft to generate the surfaces.
As was mentioned, Just do your modeling as if millimeters are meters. That will avoid the small face issue.
Thanks. i like the 1000x so you do mm for m, and i like steve’s suggestion of just building in meters and import to the slicer saying it is mm to automatically scale it.
Not sure i understand about layers/ tags (never heard of tags before)
I generally separate things by making them different layers so i can easily turn them off if i want to see something. Ie. Supposts layer, track layer, construction lines, dims etc.
are you saying i sould make everything layer0 when i am extruding and creating edges and faces?
Also, i may be using components and groups incorrectly. I make my subassemblies and parts into groups so i can copy them easily and so that moving things around does not stretch things that happen to intersect.
sometimes i make a component that is made up of several components so i can manage it more easily.
I never firmly understood what groups are for, and probably use components where i should be using groups. This is probably a common question, probably fully explained in another thread.
I am self taught in SK and probably have a few things i do the hard way because i never learned properly.
thanks
Doug
Steve and I are telling you the same thing. Model as if millimeters are meters. Leave the model units set to meters. When you export the .stl you shouldn’t need to scale the model in the slicer if the slicer is expecting millimeters. .stl files have no units so what is a meter in your SketchUp model is read as a millimeter in the slicer.
Here’s a little bevel gear I modeled in SketchUp with units set to meters.
All I did was export the .stl file, open it in the slicer, make it do its thing and save the gcode file which I then printed and it came out like this:
The name Layers was changed to Tags a few years after SketchUp 2017.
Yes. That’s what Layers are for in SketchUp 2017. But you should only assign layers to groups and components. Do not assign layers to edges or faces. And leave Layer 0 active at all times.
Yes. It’s probably easiest to think of giving layers to entities instead of putting things on layers.. If Layer 0 is left active at all times, the edges and faces you create will have Layer 0 assigned to them. After you’ve created the geometry for a part, make a component or group and then assign a layer to that component or group.
That actually sounds like you’re doing that correctly. Every LEGO part should be a component so its geometry can’t merge with the geometry of other parts. You can select a set of components and collect them into a component or group as a sub-assembly. These are known as nest components or nested groups. This is useful when you need a bunch of sub-assemblies. Just don’t go crazy with the nesting. It can make editing your model more difficult. Be thoughtful about how you do that.
There are probably a number of threads on that topic. Basically when you make either a group or component you are putting the selection into a container. Think of jars and bottles on a shelf. They prevent the contents from mixing/merging. So you can have the mustard and strawberry jam next to each other without creating a mess.
Groups are basic containers that provide the separation. Components are like groups on steroids with a lot of capabilities that groups don’t have. when you create a group you are prompted to give it a name which is useful when you need to look at a list as in Outliner or create some sort of report. (You could use a CutList extension to give you the counts of all the parts, for example.) If you have multiple instances of a group and need to edit them you have to either edit each of them or go through a bunch gymnastics to replace groups. If they were compoents, editing one edits all other instances the same way so you only need to touch one of them. You can break that relationship if needed with Make Unique in the Context menu.
Components can also be saved into collections so you can use them in future models by dragging instances in from the Components panel. Here I have a collection of hinge components.
Some people get their knickers in a twist when I say this but I only use components even for nesting. I prefer the consistency and having the options that components provide. This works for me but you can do what you find works for you.
By the way, here I’ve put a controlled amount a twist in the track. As you can see there is an inside path and an outside path. I drew the paths with Curve Maker and use Extruded Edges by Rails from TIG’s Extrusion Tools (Sketchucation) to create the surfaces.
thanks, this has been a great help.
It makes sende that the STL is unitless, I just don’t know enough about it to have realized it.
I will take a while to process it all, but it will definately make this a lot easier. I am trying to make models that are clean and accurate and avoide leaving loose ends and artifacts behind.
one last thing…
Sometimes i encounter this when part of a model gets big. it cuts off like a section plane and i can’t see the geometry outside. If i rotate or move things around i can see the missing parts.
see the lower left of the track with an unwanted cross section removed.
How do i get rid of this, and maybe how do i deliberately use it if needed. (not knowing the name of the phenomenon make it hard to look up 
thanks
Doug
That’s called “clipping”. It happens because you have the camera placed poorly. Switch the camera to Perspective and do your modeling that way. Save Parallel Projection for setting up scenes.
I can’t think of a time when I wanted to use clipping while modeling.
Thanks
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