I’m fairly new to sketch up and I’m in the process of prototyping my first product which is a pot/planter for house plants. I’m having issues with using round corner to round the inside of my planter. It’s an octagon shape and I would like to round the inside with an offset of 1/8" if possible. I’ve been working on this for quite some time but I can never get the inside to be rounded without creating an overlap or gaps which result in the entire object not being solid. I have read that you can scale the entire object 100x, then using round corner, and then scaling it back. I’ve tried to do this method but it the overlapping still occurs. I’m not sure if I’m missing a step, if so can someone please offer some help or advice? Thank you in advance!
From my understanding the key with the ‘Dave’ method of scaling up by 100 or 1000 times, is to firstly make the item into a component. Then, copy the component and scale that one up.
Perform the operations on the scaled up version, and when done, just delete the large version.
As it is a component, any changes to the larger one will be reflected in the smaller, original.
I think it is best to start with perfectly symmetrical geometry.I created your pot from scratch. I made a quarter panel copied and flipped it both directions to form 1 of the octagon faces. Then I used a circular array. When I was done it made a volume without the need for any editing.
The simplest way to create an octagon is to use the circle tool, type 8 s for 8 segments and then explode the curve. I also worked from the top center and used an index line so everything stayed perfectly aligned.
I started out with an Octagon and used the offset tools and push/pull to create the planter and went from there. I took a look at the one you made from scratch but I still have issues with rounding the inside of the planter. Do you know a way to round the inside without the overlapping issues? Thanks!
Yes, exactly that except with the inner top edge being rounded as well. I was able to do it with the scaling trick mentioned before but there are still a few nested instances. I’m not sure how to fix this.
So I actually just copy and pasted the whole planter in a new file and that seemed to work just fine. I uploaded the old file with the nested instances in case you wanted to look at it. The photos shows what it looks like in STL which is exactly what I wanted and needed in order to run a 3-D print. Thank you all so much for the help!
That’s a nice looking planter you have there, a solid is reported in entity info and solid inspector.
The reason you have nested instances showing is because you have a layer “temp” with visibility switched off. Inside that layer are two more groups. Check the box of the temp layer to see them. I thought there might be something amiss…
Ahh, yes! Now I see it in the STL file for that one as well. I’m wondering how Gkernan made it from scratch with perfect geometry. Is there a way to do this? I’ve been mainly using the circle tool and typed 8s for 8 sides. I then use the offset tool and push & pull tool to create the rest. I’m not sure how he made a quarter panel and flipped it to form 1 of the octagon faces and used a circular array. I definitely need some more tutoring to make my workflow a bit faster. It’s been quite a struggle the past few weeks.
I would also expect it would be a good idea to move the planter base upwards onto the ground plane (red/green axis) and centered on the origin. It’s always easier to model symmetrical parts like this as you can use the origin to rotate copies of the groups/components around, like so…
Ahh ok, yes I’m hoping @gkernan will elaborate a bit on how he did this. I’m a little lost on the paneling and circular array. I would love to know so I can run into less problems for future models. I have a lot that needs to be tweaked. Also how would I go about moving the planter base onto the ground plane? I think I have tried this before and rotated the planter to get the beveled edges by using the arrow keys. I created each panel from scratch and rotate and used the move tool and arrow keys to create the beveled edges. I know there’s many ways to make this a lot easier for myself in the future. Thanks so much for your help!
For this I would place two guides using midpoints as inference, where the guides intersect is the centre. Select everything and use the Move tool to grab the centre and first move it upwards on the blue axis holding the shift key to lock to that axis. Use the origin to place it onto the ground plane, then move again to the origin. I find two moves is simpler than one in some cases…
