SketchUp basics - precise editing of an object

Proficiency with any new tool requires learning and practice.
Bemoaning the fact here, is a pointless waste of your time and ours.

Visitors generally find their time spent in this forum far more productive when they post a clear, concise description of their objective.

Considered ‘How do I … ?’ questions typically elicit quick, to the point solutions.
A list of unfulfilled expectations rooted in baseless assumptions does nothing to help us help you.

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I was walking on the promenade the other day and this guy was doing fantastic portraits and caricatures of people passing by, I asked him what he was using to capture these wonderful images. He replied ‘Pencil and Paper’.
I immediately went and bought ‘Pencil and Paper’ but it doesn’t work, it’s useless!
I’ve just bought the far superior Pen, Ink and Cartridge paper at huge expense, no doubt it will be perfect, I’ll post back my results.

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I feel you’re going to need the DrawItForMe plugin.

Reminds me of the time one of my apprentices asked how I got such a nice polish on my work?
Lots of elbow grease! I replied.
Oh Ok, Where do you buy that?

Thanks for spouting that reply.

I have determined that SketchUp is overhyped, way more difficult to use than one is led to believe, and that I can do what I need much faster and better with primitive tools in Ppt.

I’m uinstalling SketchUp, but might reinstall it for kids who want to make houses with cylinders growing out of the sides.

To roughly quote Shakespeare, methinks he doth protest too much.

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You came and asked… and as for me. I spent the first 4 to 6 months going through what you are or were experiencing. Was trying to give the benefit of the doubt but… There is no push that button for it to do this or that button does that. Plus what you have accomplished in Power Point is not that good…how much time did you apply learning how to use its native tools to make two sides un-identical??

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If you want to actually learn how to use the software I can make a step-by-step of how I achieved the above result - it’s about 10 or so steps to make the shape from basic geometry.
(Or you can continue to strop and complain… or just walk away, never to darken our door again…)

Hi, mrwmrutski.

PowerPoint is an easy prog to learn. Back when I learned it, I was putting out useful presentations after only a few hours. It was fun and there was steady learning, with discoveries made along the way that improved use of the prog as I went along.

Ppt is intended for presentations, not for drafting. But it works pretty good for the latter anyway, more or less. It has some shortcomings that I wished to overcome. I was expecting that SketchUp would be the answer.

I don’t do designing or drawing as a profession or as hobby. It is a sideline, an accessory to getting other things done. So learning (and paying for) something like AutoCad is out of the question.

I checked out SketchUp, and was quite impressed with the first few tutorials. In no time I was building silly houses with extensions, doors and windows, and of course cylinders sticking out of everywhere. It was really easy. I was totally considering showing it off to an architect friend of mine who still uses pencil and paper.

But I’m glad I didn’t because once you try to serious work in SketchUp, the fun ends and the drudgery begins. The intro deceives, it makes it seem easy when it is not. As you suggest, it might take a few months to become comfortable with it.

Although Ppt is not a drafting program, it actually works quite well for this secondary purpose for the relatively simple task that I have.

As I mentioned, I have a cardboard model of my device. The model was built by eye, with several modifications made along the way. It bears the scars of these changes. It is not quite symmetrical either. The measurements that I show in my drawing are the actual dimensions from the model.

The prototype worked really well. So my goal as already mentioned was to improve the model, make it properly symmetrical, and rationalize some geometric inconsistencies. See, the Ppt drawing hides the fact that the box won’t close perfectly, because of 3D geometry. One of the faces has to bend a bit. There are one or two other geometric issues too that I would like to solve. A good 3D prog should be able to fix all these things.

I’m pretty sure SketchUp can do all of this. But for my requirements, it is way too hard to use. And I reject comments from SketchUp fanboys that suggest I am lazy or that I should just put in the effort. That is crazy. Why should I work for months to learn some prog when I can do it in Ppt in a few hours?

And I’m a bit angry about it because the SketchUp interface, GUI and first tutorials imply that it is all so easy. IT’S NOT. I don’t appreciate being deceived.

Anyway, one has to cut one’s losses. I have uninstalled SketchUp. And the prog took one final swipe at me! After the uninstall, a little questionnaire came up asking me why I had uninstalled it. I clicked on “Too hard to learn”. When I submitted my response, the web page came back angrily saying I had neglected to complete one of the fields, and told me completing it was mandatory. I just closed the web page.

Goodbye, SketchUp!

Thanks, gadget. You mention an “above result”, but I can’t see it. Did you make something?
EDIT - sorry, found your file. Thanks.

I have uninstalled SketchUp and won’t continue with the design in SketchUp. Even if the box could be made in 10 steps, it is only part of the device, and the second part promises more challenges. If it could all be done, it would be such a thing of beauty. But it is not to be.

I won’t strop and complain any more. But you never know, maybe I will be back some day with renewed resolve.

That’s a pity - it would have taken about 10 mins to create that shape (accurately). And I think it would have just taken a small adjustment in perspective to have a ‘lightbulb’ moment. I maintain that it is easy to use - but the more dedicated experience you have in other programs and other ways of drafting, then the harder you will find it to work out which tools to use and how to use them to best achieve the desired results. This is the bit that takes time to learn. (… and I am still learning.)

Edit: Paper.skp (99.0 KB) this is the way I did it, but I can guarantee that there are loads of other ways… oh, and I rotated a face the wrong way - I’m sure anyone working through it could work it out and correct it.

Funny is with the amount of time involved with this post. He could have figured out what inferencing does, using the protractor for guide lines, plus the angles. Then how to draw a rectangle in X-ray over his image to trace // duplicate the Power Pt. thingy. OH WELL …I bet he did not un-install it!!! (he-he)!!

Wow Archibald really missed a great opportunity to learn quickly on just how easy SketchUp really is. Everyone was attempting to help him and he showed no real appreciation or willingness to make an effort. Apparently he just wanted to sit down in front of his computer and have the application do everything for him. Oh well his loss. Someday maybe he will realize how short sighted he was. Power Point does nice little presentations, in 2D, but editing a drawing to make changes easily, is not going to happen in Power Point. Good luck Archibald you will need it.

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As you have already learned from trying to use PowerPoint to solve a relatively complex geometry problem, your project is not a simple one. Thus it does not have a simple solution. However, your issue with forming various four sided shapes from four known lengths is technically a four-bar linkage problem in and of itself. This is mathematically complex given the number of simultaneous equations that must be solved. Somewhere you have to provide the fifth value you’ve mentioned previously to anchor the rest of the design.

Assuming that your current layout is close to what you want, I imported it and worked off of it from a center-line to construct my interpretation of your somewhat vague dimensions and descriptions. This is what I imagine you are looking for:

Laying it flat, I get this:


If I wanted to easily draw this and cut it out, I would dimension it somewhat like this instead:

As a bonus, I can also lay flat the bottom:

Laying it out from a center-line:

I think it’s unfortunate that you have dismissed a nice piece of 3D software based on the fact that you weren’t able to use it the way you wanted to in 24 hours or less. I’m kind of curious … how long have you been using PowerPoint? Were you able to do this layout in the first 24 hours you used it?

If this is the only design project you will ever do and you only need a solution this one time, then I would agree that you should chuck SketchUp because it won’t be worth the effort to learn it. However, if you have ongoing needs of this type, then I think it would be worth investing the time in becoming more proficient with it. Just my opinion, of course, as a SketchUp addict :wink:

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Just for fun (since I’m still technically on vacation and looking for something to do), I printed these two templates out and used them to make a prototype:

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^^^^^^ Over Achiever ^^^^^^ :+1:

Love it! :slight_smile: hahaha

You must really love this community to be hanging out with us over your vacation! Kudos.

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jimhami42 dude you are out of control! Nice prototype… feel like prototyping my woodworking bench…;-D have a great vacation…

I’m impressed with how helpful and friendly you guys are. Yes, a fine community.

jimhami42, thanks for your work on this. You captured the design almost 100%. I guess that says something about the abilities of SketchUp - and at the same time also of PowerPoint!

I tend to be goals-oriented, not an activities-oriented. So I wanted to make and improve this device rather than learn software. I have raced ahead with my [blush] PowerPoint model, and made Prototype 2. Here is a photo of it, complete except for side panels on the top piece.

I think I made good progress, and I don’t think I could have done this in SketchUp in months.

Note the top part. It looks like a cylinder with rounded corners and slightly bowed-out sides. But it tapers slightly from front to back. So I guess it is actually part of an irregular cone. This part segues into an elbow with multiple planes. I think the transition from cone to elbow would be scary to model as a geometric entity. The elbow connects to a box with some steep angles. And this box mates with the lower box that we already made.

The different parts don’t match up exactly yet, but the discrepancies can be fixed straightforwardly by trial and error. I still need to make that missing panel. Being the last piece, it is the hardest to fit. Of course I could just paste something in there, but I want it to be part of the design so it can be reproduced exactly and easily.

I had dreams of modelling this whole thing in 3D, but now realize it would be way too difficult for a beginner.

Once the design is done, then I will have achieved my goal. Then I will feel released, and ready for some activity-oriented stuff, and that might include learning SketchUp.

Many thanks for the help and hand-holding. It has been a good experience.

Hi Archibald, may I (we) ask what this is for?
to me it looks a somewhat like a hungry, oversized (papersheet) bathtub duck, no offence intended.

b.t.w… to make this wouldn’t take months. As a beginner probably a day with some help of us.
Using SketchUp is entirely up to you of course.

It does look like a duck. And when painted gray, it looks like a duct.

The device is a reflector and diffuser for a photographic flash. The cylindrical part slips on to a flash head of a flash that is mounted on a DSLR. Some of the inside surfaces of the device are white and others silvered. The light is reflected and emerges at the large rectangular opening as a very soft light at the right location to illuminate little critters that are being photographed.

When shooting small and close subjects, the bare flash as normally used is not very suitable since the light mostly shines over top of the subject. Furthermore, the flash is too harsh. My device is a cheap and lightweight solution to the problems.

There are many flash diffusers around, and this is just my own solution for now.

I should mention another constraint of the design. It needs to be flattenable. It should be possible to make the device from a reasonably small number of flat cardstock parts. I anticipate that this won’t be possible with a strict design in a 3D modelling program, unless the program can allow for the “give” that cardstock allows.

The exact size and shape of the device depends on the flash model and also on the camera and lens it is being used with. So in the future the design will probably need to be tailored to new equipment. That promises to be a tedious chore, but should be doable.

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