I’m trying to draw a corner guard for a craft table. I’ve got the basic shape drawn, but I’d like to round the exterior edges so they’re not sharp 90 degree corners. And if possible, I’d like a small bevel along the edge of the interior curves. Lastly, the top and bottom shelfs need to be deformed so that they pinch on to the table to stay in place.
I drew the bottom shelf and then moved a copy vertically. The connecting wall was drawn as a simple rectangle and then extended along the exterior curve by the follow me tool. I got it done but it was awkward.
Any suggestions on what I can do now, or what I should have done in the first place.
All done in Sketchup Make 2017.
Here’s my skp file and two photos of what I’m trying to draw.
I assume you are doing this for 3d printing, I’d suggest modeling it straight then using a little heat to bent the faces together to give you your grip. Or add something grippy to the inner faces.
I’ll do this in a couple of chunks.
First look what is in your model. Needs a bit of clean up.
So we remove all the odd bits, clean up the overlapped faces, and use orientate to fix the end face then use outer shell to combine the two solids into one.
Then I missed recording converting the group into a component, easy done, right click Make Component, which allows me to make a larger copy to work on. This large copy will avoid the tiny face issue you would get trying to round the edges on the original, but because the edits are mirrored in the original you can just delete the large one and keep the small one.
Something else to think about, stl files are unitless, so you can model in metres and say they are inches or whatever it is that your printer wants to import.
Thanks Box. You’re on track for what I want to do. But I’m not sure what you mean when you use “orientate” and “outer shell”. I’ve tried to follow along with your illustrations but I think I’ve missed something. Does this modified skp file suggest anything to you? I’ll repeat that I’m using Make 2017 in case you’ve been using tools that I don’t have access to.
I’m afraid your model suggest to me that you don’t understand the fundamentals of basic geometry and groups.
I can do a gif of fixing your model again but if you aren’t gasping the concepts it’s not going to help.
I suggest some time at the campus to really get an understanding of groups/components and raw geometry and how they interact would help you understand what I have already shown you.
Do you want this thing to be a single piece or would it be printed as two pieces? I’ve modeled a single piece version but it might be easier to print as two parts.
I guess you were using my v2 skp file, not much of an improvement over the first one, eh? I’ll definitely print as a single unit.
I drew the bottom first. I thought I had made it a GROUP. I then moved a copy of the bottom vertically to create the top, intending to make it a second GROUP.
My intention was to open the bottom group, and draw a tall skinny rectangle attached to the bottom and extend high enough to reach the top shelf. I selected the exterior curve edge and used the follow me tool to drag the skinny rectangle to make the connecting wall. I had to do that in two or three steps.
Of course, when things don’t go well, I start experimenting and then I lose all sense of what I have done.
I feel bad for not having a better grasp of the fundamentals. Still working on it, but now I’m drawing it in feet and not inches.
Somehow missed the group for the bottom or maybe you exploded the group after copying it?
The idea of extruding the wall from the bottom to the top can be a good way to work. I drew the bottom and only half of the vertical wall. I moved a copy of that geometry vertically and flipped it in the blue direction. Then I joined it to the bottom half.
Still seems like a two-part affair might be easier.
I’ve redrawn in meters, and followed your procedure of drawing the bottom with half the height of the wall, and then copying that and flipping on the blue axis. Not sure how to connect the top and the bottom. Online research suggests a JOIN tool but I don’t see that in my tool bar.
Is my geometry any better? Sewing table corner guards in meters.skp (152.9 KB)
It’s me again, Box. I’m up to the point where I use the 2 point arc too to draw an arc at the top and bottom of the cut out section of the wall. My arcs look good to me but when I use the follow me tool, the start and end of the extrusion curves in two directions. Can you see what I’ve missed?
My problem may lie in my use of the select tool. I double click on the top face and that gives me dark blue lines around the perimeter of the top face. I 've been using the select tool while holding down the shift key and the selected blue lines go to black. But my follow me extrusion gives the same result as when I don’t deselect any line segments.
