Does Sketchup Make 2017 have a tool or method to run a plane through an object and split it cleanly in 2? Perhaps to flatten a bottom for 3D printing?
There are many methods. The most fundamental is the one you describe.
Create a rectangle where you want the cut and select it and the surrounding geometry and use Intersect Faces with… from the context menu. Then delete the parts you don’t want.
Any videos on this? I haven’t found any process for this that isn’t pretty time consuming.
Can you share your model so we can see exactly what you are working with? It’ll make it much easier to give you direction. I will say there’s no need to explode the group or component to achieve this.
I don’t have a current model I’m working on, but have an idea for slicing a 3D object into even layered parts. Lets say a model of the statue of David. So there would be some complex geometry.
So let’s say you have a single solid group/component as I do at the front left. For the example I’ve made two copies side by side (center and right) with some cutting geometry passing through where I want to cut the part. The part in this example needs to be split so it can be installed where it’ll go and I want the pieces keyed so they fit together so my cutting geometry isn’t flat. Some of the cutting geometry will become the cut faces at the end. Although it doesn’t need to be done at this stage, I’ve reversed the faces on one of the cutters so the face orientation is correct. It will need to be done at some point anyway.
I selected the cutter geometry for one of the objects and used Edit>Cut to cut it to the clipboard. Then I opened the object for editing and used Paste in place. The cutter is now inside the object. Select the geometry and use Intersect Faces>With Selection. Then erase the waste . Repeat for the other one in the same way.
No need to explode the groups or components and there should be no “repair” work to do. If you leave the cutter outside the object, you will have to create the faces in the cut area after Intersect Faces. That’s not a big problem if it’s a simple flat face but this method works for any surface shape.
1 Like
Looks complex. I will experiment with it over the weekend hopefully. Is this a standard procedure? A video would help me a lot.
There are various extensions that will slice a model in a variety of ways.
But it is such a fundamental of sketchup you need to get your head around it.
Here is a very simple shape, grouped. I position a face through the group, then enter the group for editing so that I am in the context of the groups faces. Triple click to select them all, then right click to choose Intersect faces with Model. This allows the external face to create edges within the faces inside the group. I select half of them and group them (the menu item offscreen) to easily separate them from the other half. Then trace an edge or two to infill the missing face. It takes far longer to type than to do.
1 Like
Hey @Rocketman. All of what Dave and Box mentioned are great and it’s important to know the fundamentals too as I’m sure you’d agree.
I would say the fastest way to make a cut operation, much faster than these native options, is to use a plugin called s4u slice and s4u multi slice. They are two different plugins, they both have a cut tool, a detach tool, a slice tool, the only difference is one plugin has single cut and detaching, slicing, and the other can do multiple cuts, slicing, detaching. These are incredible time savers and you can instantly split anything you want. I use these tools ALL the time in my design workflow. This plugin alone has been a massive game changer for me.
Good luck.
EDIT: oops haha, you’re using make. I don’t beleive you can use plugins with make. Ok well my suggestion will not work for you, you’ll need pro I believe to take advantage of using the sketchup plugins out there.
The majority of extensions work with Make, slicer 5 and split to plane by Tig, just to name two, but as I mentioned above you should understand how to do it before relying on extensions.
1 Like
It appears there is also such a slice tool included with SU Podium, but you wouldn’t buy Podium just for that feature.
Oh cool, didn’t know that, thanks box.
Yea try out s4u cut tools as well than, they will change the game for you and are the fastest options by far that I’ve seen out there for cutting objects, detaching is super useful as well in those plugins. I think the s4u cut plugins are like $10 each…
On a side note… Just realised today that when using the fredo move tool, if you double click an entity after you’ve moved something, it will move any entity the same amount instantly. Mind blown. Fredo you the man.
@DaveR , the amount of times you answer users online, I wonder now if you’ve made yourself template answers? If you haven’t, man you’d save SOOOOOO much time creating a library of template answers to just copy paste lol… Same with you Box.
1 Like
You should learn how to type first, before start using Textezpander, TypeitforMe, etc.
You should learn how to type??.. What lol?