Sorry but I have to emphasize the fact that I need this issue resolved fast so hopefully this amazing community can help me in time.
I’m modeling one side of a roof with Mediterranean styled tiles. The shape of the side of the roof that I’m modeling is basically one big trapezoid. There’s also 3 sections for windows on the roof. So what I did was lay out the tiles on the roof (which I downloaded from the 3d warehouse) without following the trapezoidal shape of the actual roof. And afterwards, I basically made cutout blocks to cut out the window holes and the slanted ends on the sides of the roof. Sketchup successfully intersected the cutout blocks with the tiles but when I go to select the tiles, it selects the whole thing even when I explode it. I just need to cut these shapes out fast because my draft is due by 10/6/14.
^When I go to edit the component and explode it down to it make any edits, it still selects the whole piece as if the cut wasn’t even there.
I’ve also noticed that on the actual model I downloaded for the tiles I can’t edit it even if I triple click it. I can’t even erase a single tile.
I need help really fast guys, I know there’s at least one person here that can solve this issue. Thanks in advance!
Some questions:
Are the tiles components?
Are the intersecting lines in the same context as the tiles? (looks different in the first image)
Do the tiles have a thickness?
Are you working with the make or the pro version?
Can you share a part of the model to have a look at?
Yes the tiles are components and have a small thickness. I’m working in the “Make” version, I’ve been up for about 6 hours trying to figure this out and it seems impossible so I really need to get some rest LOL. It says the file is too large to post here so I’ll try exporting it to the 3DWarehouse right now for you to mess around with and see if you could get it working.
It seems from the first picture, the tiles are components/groups, that’s why when you try to cut it off you place the lines and shapes outside the components. Sometimes, you need to use other extension to be able to draw lines over any other curved or non-staright lines objects such as this roofing. See if nobody answered you then tell me to check that extension for you.
As Cotty suggests, most modelers would probably use a texture in this situation.
However, if you want to use this component, you need to understand how components work. In particular, whatever you do to any one instance of a component also happens to every other instance. Since your roof consists of a row of twenty of these components, as soon as you start to cut the window out of one of them, the same cut will show in the other nineteen, which you clearly don’t want. Therefore, you have to make each of the instances that are cut out around windows unique (right-click > Make unique).
Second, you must invoke the Intersect command from inside the context of the tiles to cut them. Third, you should protrude the window forms all the way through the roof tiles before invoking Intersect since you want to cut all the way through.
You were ill-advised to make an urgent commitment to model the roof before understanding what’s involved.
This is a very tricky intersection. Sketchup’s native intersect most often fail due to two different tolerance issues. The first issue is related to scale and can be mitigated by scaling up the model. The second failure is more subtle; Sketchup allows faces to be non flat within a certain tolerance, the intersection however is (probably) computed for a single plane approximating the face which sometimes produces cut edges that doesn’t merge properly. The solution is to triangulate the non-flat faces.
I’ve made a script which tries to overcome both these issues and does to some extent (it’s by no means foolproof though), the experiments I’ve made with your model all worked. Just drop the script in your plugins folder. You can then find it under ‘Simple Cut’ in the plugins menu.
Here’s how to use the script:
Scale everything up by a factor 50. This doesn’t matter for the script but it does matter when the cut edges are exploded into the roof (see 4).
The script only works on pairs of groups. Turn you components into unique groups (explode + triple click + make group). Also, split the window cut out component into three different groups.
Select a roof group and a cut out group and run the script.
The resulting cut edges are placed in a new group. Select the cut edge group and paste it into place in the roof group. Explode the cut edge group. Hopefully this will result in a proper cut.
Warning! This is not a ‘real’ script, it’s just an experiment. The script requires all groups to be unique otherwise it hangs. So, save often and make sure that entity info says ‘Group (1 in model)’ for all inputs to the script.
Finally, the script is quite fast, a cut only takes a couple of seconds.
KEN! Your response just made me happy but are you saying you exploded everything? I’m trying to do that and I still can’t delete any lines or anything. Can you please walk me through your methods please~
Nevermind oh my god THANK YOU KEN! YOU’RE AMAZING. IT WORKED. I could’ve sworn I tried exploding them. I think what I did last night was try to explode them all at once. But I did it individually and it worked. In the process of cutting out the holes now. THANK YOU SO MUCH KEN!
The tile roof component is comprised of >34,000 Edges and nearly17,000 Faces
That, in itself, is a “brick”… A mass of overly complex tiny geometry that will slow model performance.
Exploding all the tile roof components will only exacerbate the performance issue and bloat the file.
Here are the Model Info - Statistics for just one instance of the tile roof component:
Add my vote for texture image vs geometry for the tile roof.
Below is an example.
The tilling texture image was rather hastily crafted from a screen shot of the roof tile geometry in the model.