I work tiny, with many dimensions in the sub 1 mm. Mostly with 3d printing in mind, but also for cutting models with laser CNC machines. trouble is that tiny geometries don’t function well and things like constantly having to reduce the number of facets in a curve or not being able to draw a circle smaller than 1mm is awkward. Solid tools in particular fail badly unless I enlarge the model to massive dimensions (100x, for example) first and then reduce it again.
It would be hugely appreciated if this could be looked into.
The usual solution for this has been to use what has become known as the “Dave Method”. (search forum for it) Which is to make your geometry as a component and then scale an instance of that up to 100x as you say and work on/edit its larger brother. The changes you make there will be updated in the smaller - real world size - instance of that component. That way you are not scaling up and down.
Yep, That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. It would be super nice if I didn’t have to. It’s interesting that there IS a 3d printing template (complete wit makerbot print area) but no ability to be able to actually work in the scale required.
Yes, I’d agree. It seems that math/geometry should work at any scale but there do seem to be limitations in SU both on the tiny end and the giant end where it ceases to function as expected, I believe there are technical reasons for this which I do not understand, I am sure someone here can explain why.
SketchUp only runs by opening a SketchUp *.skp model file.
A Template in SketchUp is just that, a SketchUp *.skp model file, and nothing more.
Merely adding a Template would accomplish nothing in terms of SU’s ability to work directly with micro-geometry.
It would require major changes to the code of an application whose development is focused upon AEC.
Experienced modelers tend to eschew the 3D Printing Template.
Its dynamic component print volume does little more than clutter the expanded Components Browser with 25 unnecessary definitions, not to mention their contribution to file size.
Pretty obvious he was referring to exactly this, and the ability for him to work at that scale. This could be implemented as a template for the user interface, for example. I happen to think it would be a great, very relevant feature addition.
There could maybe be a setting in Model Info for what size you want the model to be accurate, and then be different templates with different such values. It would be like the Dave method, but hidden under the hood so all units shown in the UI would still be correct.