Making a design a solid

I am new to this program. I am a ski smith and am designing ski cores… I am having trouble making me design a solid piece once I make all the proper angles and shapes.

Could you share/upload what you have done so far and people (and/or me) cantake it from there to see if we can help you with the problem. Right now it’s just guessing what you are dealing with.

Here is the skp. file.

Once I create all the radius, tapers, and sidewall angles, Im not sure how
to “fill in” the sidewalls…

any help is greatly appreciated!!
demo sidewall sketch.skp (22.7 KB)

you need closed faces to have a solid. They can be triangles, or everything you want, but your faces has to be in one plane. Make a closed face and if it doesn´t close automatically right click on one of its sidses and chose generate faces.

SketchUp uses flat faces. Even an appearing smooth curved surface consists of facets of flat faces.

Some setting(s) that might help in creating the facetted surface.

  • In menu Window > Styles > Edit > Edge Settings (first icon) > set endpoints to say 3 or more, to make them visible.
    (- Also disable profiles, ugly thick lines)
    Create a scene to save this setting.

Select the lower long arc in your model and right click on it and select ‘Explode’ in the context menu.
Now you’ll see all the endpoints of all edges that need to be the boundary of your “surface”.
Start connecting coresponding endpoints from both sides with the ‘Line’ tool (stitching the surface).
You so create triangles (flat) and some rectangles (also flat). The drawn edges can then be made smooth / softened with the ‘Eraser’ tool while holding down [Ctrl].

p.s. to make the object a SketchUp Solid you’ll need to group it.

Thanks…

I guess creating a bunch of triangles on the sides to accommodate the curve
would be best???

Is there a trick to avoiding unnecessary lines?

here is what i came up with…

Thanks!!!
demo sidewall sketch.2.skp (56 KB)

Way too many triangles.
In SketchUp if any number of enbdpoints share the same plane, their connecting edges can support a face. Here on the side you have several “rectangles”.
See:demo sidewall sketch Wo3Dan.skp (31.9 KB)

BOOM!!!

Thats what I was looking for!!!

Youre a genius!!!

I also discovered the “follow me” tool. It works great for creating the
sidewall on the middle portion of the core… however, on the tapered ends,
it gets a bit messy due to the compound radius. I reverted back to creating
the facets, but with this info, I think Im on track…

Thanks Again!

Here is what I came up with…

RG
Arc Angel Final.skp (38.4 KB)

1 Like

Good job!
Some tips:

  • keep front sides of faces on the outside of the object (for rendering and/or 3D-printing purposes).
  • to see this, have distinct colors for front and back (say front is white v.s. back is yellow)
    (menu window > Styled > Edit > Face Settings > change back to yellow) Now switch the face style from ‘Shaded With Textures’ to Monochrome (both icons next to eachother in ‘Styles’ toolbar).

You have many faces inside\out. Right click on a front face and select ‘Orient faces’ in the right click context menu to get them all to “front out”.

p.s. one little triangular face is still hidden. You’ll spot it in monochrome and with a distinct back color. You can still look inside the object.