Hi - what’s the best way of putting this shaft through the hole in the wheel so that the wheel goes hard up against the shoulder?
Thanks
SMART BOGEY REV 1 20171222.skp (190.7 KB)
It would take several different move steps. Why are you using 11 sides for circles and randomly placing their vertices? You’ve made your work difficult.
Frankly, I’d have drawn the shaft in place in the hole of the wheel if I was drawing it.
Many different ways to do do this. I’d add some geometry or guides to your wheels to mark the center point of the hole (as they are a component this will apply to both). Then find the center of the end of your axle ( either by marking it or you can grab it by “inference” to get the center). drag with that center point to intersect with your mark on a wheel. Then grab a point on the shoulder of the axle and drag until it hits the wheel surface, you can constrain this move along the green axis using your arrow keys (left key in this case to keep it centered on the green axis) an inference or pop up will show when it intersects. Then select both the axle and the now aligned wheel (you could group them) and do the same move as before to align with the center of the other wheel and a similar move using the shoulder. You may want to rotate one of the wheels to align with the other’s vertices.
It seems like you are new to this and I’m sure with some practice you will figure out how to do this kind of alignment and furthermore will figure out ways to construct drawings that streamline the design so that you’re not having to jump through more hoops than necessary. I’d recommend looking at some SU tutorials on-line that cover the “move tool.”
Thanks – appreciate the response – will try that.
Next problem is making holes through a component. I have checked at least 7 videos online and done all they said and I still can’t make a hole through a component without huge work arounds. If you look at the attached file, the push pull does not create a hole through the whole wheel. I have tried edit component, explode etc – the 2mm hole will still not go through….
Thanks
SMART BOGEY REV 2 20171223.skp (1.28 MB)
You need to reface the hole to be able to Push it through. There are extra internal faces that should be removed, you can see me doing that through the hole.
You are also working at the extreme end of the scale when it comes to SU tolerance of tiny edges. You should be looking at working with this method.
what looks like a face on the wheel is actually a hole, so you are trying
to push pull a different part of the wheel. you need to seal the hole (by
editing the component and drawing a line between 2 adjacent points on that
outer circle. Once that is “sealed” and is now the correct face you can
push pull through to the other side. Looks like you have to delete some
internal geometry too after this.
I had answered through email, hadn’t realized there was a clearer explanation already posted !
@Box, I’ve been providing instructions on working on enlarged component copies since the Google forum days - but I guess that doesn’t count 
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You mean the CatMethod? I’ve seen it, yes.
On a different note, I wonder if it makes any difference whether the smaller instance holds the component definition or the larger one. I’ve also experimented with that years ago. I forgot the outcome. I think it matters to have the larger instance at scale 1:1.
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Thanks - it defaulted to 11… what’s the best number?
The default number of sides for a circle is 24. I expect you accidentally changed the number early in drawing. The number of sides will remain as you have changed it for the remainder of the drawing session unless you change it again. After quitting SketchUp and restarting it will go back to the default 24.
Thanks DaveR - long way to go…!
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The best number would depend upon what you’re tying to do. Folks will adjust this stragetically for the most part, so that the side count might. . .
- enhance construction methods
- help reduce model size (and on occasion, improve overall SU performance, and responsiveness)
- Go to serve a higher level of model detail
. . . a couple examples of these being:
(1) Construction: modeling a gear with say 19, 21, or 42 teeth… Adjusting the side count accordingly in this case can result in SU placing endpoints (or midpoints) in the right locations so ‘snapping’ automatically locks into the correct tooth count for the gear/sprocket being modeled.
(2) Model Size: for arcs (/or circles) that have a small radius—lowering the side count can greatly reduce a models overall geometry count. Fewer subdivisions mean fewer edges which SU has to keep track of—and subsequently fewer elements which need to be drawn upon a users computer monitor.
Consider for example, an occasion where an 1/8" radius gets added onto all of the edges of a piece of furniture… and maybe that piece of furniture gets turned into a component and is repeated throughout the model many times.
Chances are, nobody is going to really notice visually, that such a small detail has a segment count of 12 sides. In many (even most) cases you can get away with using 3 or 4 sides for this sort of detail… and experienced SU users will know that SU’s ‘auto smoothing’ feature will step in and reward them for having made the compromise. That 3 sided arc which goes to form the 1/8" edging detail, will still appear to be sufficiently ‘round enough’ where it’s not a noteworthy distraction.
… and it’s also not a geometrically dense model that’s difficult to render on the screen every time the users zooms in/out, or pans, or rotates or what have you. This of course, all depends on model size, and the computers build quality.
(3) Increased Detail Quality: This being basically the opposite of point 2 above… Where for large radius circles and arcs SU’s ‘auto smoothing’ can only go so far… and it becomes necessary to increase the side count to say 48, or 96, so that the segmented, and faceted arcs, starts to look more like true curves.
SU of course doesn’t really draw proper curves… everything gets reduces down to a set of straight line segments.
Adjusting the side counts is essentially our opportunity to compensate for this fact.
With all this in mind, reconsider what others have mentioned above… in particular @DaveR and his comment on randomly placed vertices… It’s almost always worth taking a second or two to consider where you’re going to set your first point when working with arcs and circles. The consequences of this simple decision can save a huge amount of time.
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Hi
Tim again asking some basic stuff!
In the attached file I am trying to make a rail wheel. There are two ways of doing this – the first is to make two separate solid discs with 2 mm diameter holes in and join them together. Very clunky. Or I can make one solid disk and then try an put the 2 mm hole through. The problem is as soon as you join the two discs together they are seen as hollows, so you can’t put the hole through. Surely there must be a simpler way of doing this?
Thanks!
Tim
SMART BOGEY REV 4 20180117.skp (158 KB)
Easiest way would be to make your wheel as one piece.
Draw the wheel (increase the segments so it looks rounder) and then push/pull that to the first thickness. Then use the offset line tool and drag that in to get the smaller circumference, then push pull that to the desired thickness. Once this is done it will be a single solid object. you can then either use the offset line again or draw your 2mm circle from the center of either side and push that through to the other side. By means of inferencing, you can bring the push/pull tool to the edge of the other side of the wheel and a n exact hole of that depth will be made.
Thanks – that’s a much better way of doing it. I then saved the wheel as a component and gave it a name – but it is nowhere to be seen… how would you find a list of components that you have saved in the model?
in the main tray there should be a components tray. Twirl it open and click the little house symbol, that will show you a list of components in the model, or from the list view select in model. It will also be in the “Outliner” list too.
if these trays arent showing/visible, right click in the top bar of the default tray and check “manage trays”, from there you can check which trays you want to be available.
look in components in the tray, click on the little house icon (components in the model)
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