The elusive clothes hanger

I have a project to make a 3D model of, yes, a plastic clothes hanger. It has 4 little notches on each side. It’s for a special coat hanger that is for oversized clothing. It has another part that is a tube that fits over each shoulder section. If someone was kind enough to show me how to show me how to make the hanger look like a 3d hanger, made of rounded plastic stock (like the ones in your closet and mine, I should be able to make the extra piece. I tried our 3D warehouse, and also tried the follow me tool…which were both non productive. I have the skp file but don’t remember how to attach it.

Drag the .skp file into a reply in this thread.

What version of SketchUp are you using? That information will help us help you. Please complete your profile.

Hi Dave…Long time no see. Hope your Spring is going well. I also posted a request on how do I attach my SKP file to my query. I am using SU 2020 now…I just don’t see anywhere to attach my file. Please let me know. Thanks, Robbie in NYZZZZ-SKP-HANGER W 4 notches on each side.skp (187.8 KB)

How wide is the coat hanger supposed to be? In your first post you say it’s for oversized clothing but in your SketchUp model the hanger is only 11/16 wide (long?)

Hello again Dave…This silly hanger is 16 3/4 wide, at it’s widest point. It is made of simple tubular plastic. Any help/advice would be well received. Thx, Robbie

I’m not sure if you were able to see my skp model?

Of course I was. That’s how I knew it’s only 11/16 in. wide.

It’s been a few years, I do use SU quite a bit, but haven’t visited the community hardly. So I’m a little rusty. I still love the program, and I also remember your chops as well as your kindness. R

This should be pretty straightforward then.

After you’ve scaled the outline to the right size, simplify the outline of the hanger as below. Then use that outline as a path for follow me using a circle for the profile.

For the next part it would be better to work with the model scaled up by a factor of 100 or 1000. Of course I used the so called Dave Method of making a component of the correctly sized version, creating a copy and scaling that copy up to do the work on it.

In order to cut the notches, I held the end of the path back a little to leave a gap so the hanger could easily be a solid component. For the notches I drew some “cutters”, cylinders extruded through the hanger component. Those were collected into another solid component.

Then I used Trim from Eneroth Solid Tools to trim the hanger with the cutters. After that the end can be pulled out with Push/Pull to close the gap.
Screenshot - 4_18_2021 , 12_10_53 PM

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It looks beautiful DaveR! Is it an SKP file? If so, can I open it at this end to remove everything except the hanger, and try doing it and learning something new. Thanks DaveR

Robbie

Here you go.
ZZZZ-SKP-HANGER W 4 knotches on each side.skp (1.1 MB)

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DaveR I wanted you to know that I really do appreciate your help on my elusive hanger project. I spent many hours trying to get it right without any fruition. What you did for me was professional, and inspired me to finish the job. I am very grateful.

Robbie

Hi Dave…I think there is a missing decimal point…It says it’s 163,000+ inches from one side to the other. I tried to reduce it for like 3 hours, but couldn’t get it below 90" wide.Is there an easy way to reduce it to the 16 3/4"? Sorry to bother you (again)…Robbie

Dave has used the Dave method to avoid the tiny faces issue. So you can delete the huge one and you will find the correctly sized one at the origin.

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Box gave you the answer. I left the big one in the model for you in case you want to make any changes to it.

Dave, Thankyou for the fast response…I did do my changes on the large version, but could not get it down to the 16.75" threshold. That would be perfect. Is there somewhere where I can re-scale the hanger drawing down to the correct size, by dialing in the 16.75"? I spent some hours trying. I appreciate your expertise and advice. Last time you helped me, your Son was in the Boy Scouts (I think)

Robbie

Did you see the GIF and the link that Box posted. There is a correctly sized version of the hanger close to the origin. After making your edits, you only need to close the large component and delete it. Then Zoom Extents will take you to the correctly sized one.

He’s still in Scouts but kind of losing interest.

DaveR…I think you are saying that changes made to the big one will modify the small one, even after
i delete the big one?

thx,

R

Yes. The big one is just a scaled up copy of the normally sized component. Keep in mind that it’s because these are components that this works. It wouldn’t work with groups in the same way.

DaveR…I’m getting a little confused trying to keep our emails in order. Attached is the skp I made with that hanger AND the appendage that I need to dock into it. When I try to rotate or resize the image it disappears. What I am trying to do is resize the hanger to 11 3/4"W so I can fit the 2 sleeves (one on each side). Having worked on it for 2-3 days is very frustrating. Is it possible to resize the one in my attached file so that the hanger itself is editable and looks like the sleeves I designed? I appreciate your interest. As always, I am indebted to you.

RobbieTODD WATERLOO-SKP-DaveR.skp (10.7 MB)