First off, hello,I’m Nev I’m new, second, apologies for my inexperience.
A while ago I created a model for a longboard mold/press, both male and female components,
I have a strange situation in that I cannot for the life of me remember how on earth I did it, I do know I did not use sandbox, I wanted to change a few things before I CNC it but cannot remember how I created the contours.
I know I imported the side profile from Autocad LT but I cannot remember how I created the altering contours down its length.
However I did do it I know I was very happy in the precision in the method I used.
I’ve saved the file in the model warehouse titled ‘Longboard Mold’ by Nev H, or you could just look under Nev H.
I was hoping one of you super sketchup genious’sesses could unravel the mystery of how I did it and help me do it again!
First off, welcome to the forums @Scenex! Thank you for providing your model so I could take a look at it.
I am not quite sure what you need here. If I am understanding you correctly, you can’t remember yow you did something in SketchUp and need help figuring out how you did it in order to alter something. Does that sound right?
If that is the case, I will need a bit more information from you in order to figure this one out. What exactly are you trying to redraw/change?
Rather than alter that particular model I wish to create a new one, I just want to use the same technique I used to create that one.
So what I want to do is create another mold drawing with slightly different contours than in the model I shared.
I’m referring to the dip in the width of the model.
The mold is 964mm in length and 250mm wide. This is the one on the bottom, I call it the female half.
Across the width at the front there’s a slight concave curve, this alters towards the centre of the component where it becomes convex dip, i remember creating a width of 250mm and an approximate dip of 12mm in the centre, this alters again towards the tail end of the model where the tail lifts.
I can create the profile in the length and use follow me tool to create a consistent curve down the length but this isn’t what I did when creating that model.
As I’ll be cnc’ing this model for use as a longboard mold I want to redraw the mold with a greater dip in the centre of the model because i feel 12mm is not enough, I need a deeper valley, just only in certain areas.
I did play around with the sandbox tool to try and achieve this, but really don’t like it for this task as it lacks the precision I achieved when creating my model. If I could just remember how I did it!
I find it quite hard to explain what I need to know as I cant think what I did in the first place, all the tutorials I search for all point to sandbox, I’m certain I didn’t use it though.
It sounds like this may be a job for the Solid Tools. They are only available in SketchUp Pro, but given the info in your profile, you should have access to them.
I am curious, do you by chance, recall if you used any extensions? I have thus far been assuming that you do not have any installed but if you do, that could answer some questions.
Well I do use Sketchup Pro, and I do use some extensions but I don’t think I did for that model. I don’t recall ever using an extension called solid tools, I’ve just had a peek but all I found was Enrothe which I’ve not used.
My list of extensions are; Weld, Unfold, Texture Positioning, Upright Extruder, Bomb and I render. I don’t remember using an extension.
Solid Tools are actually a part of SketchUp Pro. You can toggle the Solid Tools toolbar by selecting the toolbars tab under view. If you do not recall using them, then that might not be the answer. My next guess was boing to be one of the subdivide extensions but you didn’t list it as one of your extensions. The curved shape of the boards makes this a lot more complex than it would seem. I will see what other information I can get for you and keep trying to figure this out.
I shouldn’t be so confident in thinking I didn’t use an extension or tool, I may have, like you say they’re not all listed in that list, added to which I’m asking these questions due to me forgetting in the first place.
Thanks for your help I’ll keep scratching my head and lookout for any responses.
Thanks John, however my issue isn’t in importing the profile, I can easily do that better by using Bezier tool.
My query is in creating the changing contours.
This is a mock up for a CNC model, it wasn’t being used, it was to figure out how to create the contours, which somehow figured out, this is what I need to recreate.
Looking at model I doubt you used Soap, Skin and Bubble:
Checking dimensions the thickness is a consistent 12mm but other dimension have some slight variation.( Change your model info display precision to at least 3 decimal so you have better idea what dims are:)). Whether that is model error or by design I do not know. Follow me tool will probably not work because it follows only one " rail" and as such is not adaptive like I think you want.
Bezier tool may make the g code unhappy since you will probably wind up with very many sub mm short segments but my guess.
My initial thought would be use Freedos curiviloft for each cross section. if you use pay attention he has other support plugins you must also D/L for it.
The item will not be longitudinally symmetric based on you description and therefore you can not use mirror to save time to draw only 1/2.
Is your profile up to date? It states you are using W 8.1 but have very large video memory?? If not you should up date it:), profile that is.
Hm, interesting, I am using Windows 8.1 and that is my graphics card memory.
I didn’t use follow me, I know I may have had soap skin, I’ve never used the extensions you spoke of.
I’ve created a almost identical model using soap skin and bubble, so far this is the closest thing to recreating it I’ve found, I used this extension quite often too.
The bezier tool works great for me as the CNC software turns the many lines into one smooth line I’ve done a few bits using that now.
I 'll not suggest you use any thing different if it is working for you;
FYI couple section using Fredos tool. Note the dimension are consistent using your curves but, may just the sections I selected;
On the front I would use a second order Bezier. It will give a true tangent between the two sections and make model a little more organic;
I some times will delete small line segment while modeling to help with loop selection . That is reason some are missing and I would add back in before making surface.
Gday and Good luck!
SU usually has several mays to solve problems hope some one longboard specifics.skp (515.5 KB)shows you those also.
Thanks for your help, I did think I might have asked the wrong question, rather than ask what I did, maybe I should have asked;
How would you guys achieve this?
I was looking at curviloft, this looks like it might be a good tool to use. I’m struggling to understand how to install it though.
I was under the impression if I had Libfredo 6.9 installed I could install it.
I have installed and it says successfully installed however I cant find any toolbars or options in a any menus for this.