I have PDF, DWG and STP files of components I use at work and want to model them in Sketchup. I’ve tried the STP Importing extension, which works well but it creates files that are way more detailed than I need for my purposes.
Since I have plan, elevation, and profile views of my components in the drawings, I’m wondering if there’s a way I can just make a three-dimensional rectangle via extrusion and project their images onto it so I can essentially ‘carve’ the component out of them.
If you have vector files of the views you can import them and orient them at 90°. Then extrude them to pass through each other. If you make each extrusion a solid object you can then use the Solid Tools to create the intersections and leave you with the shape. Depending on exactly what the thing is that you are modeling, there may still be additional work to add surface features but you can get a fair way along.
BTW, please flesh out your forum profile with the version of SketchUp you are using. That helps us help you better.
Edit to add an example. Intersect was used with the three main parts and subtract to create the holes. I didn’t bother with the screw threads in the top hole or the chamfers.
Watch for cases where the 3-views don’t agree with real world details. That’s not unusual.
Sometimes things like this are more quickly modeled from scratch, too.
Edit #2. I used Follow me to make a more accurate initial part and then used the view showing the flats from the side. Then Subtract to create the through hole and the flats.
