Plane distortion when bending 90 degrees

All my bends using rotate worked fine until the last one of 90 degrees distorted the previous part. I am a newbie so any help would be greatly appreciated. I would like to enclose the sketch but do’nt see an attach icon?
jerry

7th icon from the left in the row above the message window.

cover4.skp (80.8 KB)

If you turn on View->Hidden Geometry and look around, there are some folds and twists in many of your surfaces. I think it would help a lot if you describe exactly the process you followed, as it looks to me that things got messed up earlier in your model building than you realized!

What Steve said.

And what is it you’re trying to draw? If you are trying to make a bent shape, it’s probable that actually bending it is the hard way to draw it.

cover1.skp (73.9 KB)

I started from this 2d sketch and then extruded it 1/16 " using cntrl so it would have faces on both sides to mimic a sheet of steel for bending. Then I started bending the sheet at each of the places I needed, e.g. at heh first line in the drawing I bent the sheet 30 degrees.

Jerry

It would be better to bend it before giving it thickness. SketchUp can’t stretch the geometry in the same way metal would stretch.

Although not required, I used Fredo6’s Joint Push/Pull to make the thickness in one go.

You could radius the bends if needed, too.

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Dave R,

Thank you for your help! I thought I would have to have a side edge to get the rotate tool to the right orientation for the bend? One additional question. This is only half of a piece that is symmetrical about the y axis. Should I add the other piece now (when it is flat) or after the bends? Do I need to remove the center line before adding the other side?

Jerry

No. You can orient the Rotate tool’s axis along the fold line by clicking and holding the mouse button while dragging the mouse along the line.

You could do it either way.

Is this what you’re describing?

Or like this?

If the second way, I’d be inclined to draw the whole thing flat without the centerline, make the required folds and then give the thing thickness.

Dave R,

The second way. I can’t thank you enough for your help. You obviously have saved me considerable time and effort.
I wish there was some way I could repay you for your kindness.

Jerry

1 Like

Let me think about it. :smile: