I’m new to sketchup so trying to improve my processes.
I’m trying to create cutlists and diagrams in OpenCutList. I’m getting certain components that aren’t falling into my options for Sheet Goods (for example 3/4" MDF) because they’re showing up as “Thickness Undefined”. Obviously I messed up something while drawing so the part isn’t exactly 3/4", probably a thousandth of an inch off somehow, but when I try to measure the thickness of the components in sketchup it shows they are exactly 3/4". I’ve tried creating a 3/4" reference line to push/pull the face to ensure it is exact, it shows that it is already exactly 3/4".
I fixed many components I had this same issue with using the methods above already, but I’m down to 4 specific components that I can’t figure out why they are still showing as Thickness Undefined (~3/4") instead of (3/4").
I’ve attached the file for reference.
If you can find my problem and help me fix this issue, great.
What do you think is the best way to fix problems like this? Is there a way I can just open something in sketchup that shows the dimensions of a component and I can just modify it? For example if it shows the TxWxL and the thickness is 0.751 instead of 0.75, can I just edit that in a textbox somewhere to quickly adjust? Or do I always have to draw reference lines and push/pull? Is there a simple way to use the scale tool for this?
Some of the objects in the model do have goofy dimensions. I really only marked the ones with thicknesses that are strange but you should also investigate those with strange widths and/or lengths, too. The ones with zero thickness are the glass panels.
Most likel the reason for the strange dimensions can be linked to either modeling components to fit between imprecisely positioned components or scaling that occurred in resizing the DCs in the model. Here’s an example from a drawer component.
I’m not sure where you generated that list from, but the "Tab"s aren’t an issue because those are a part of a larger component, so they don’t show up in OpenCutList. That’s just do that my dados in my DC scale properly when I change the size of the drawers. Also, I draw my drawers in metric so the imperial dimensions come out all wonky.
And the glass is just for visual representation so I’m ignoring those too.
BUT, the 2 AU4 - Adjustable Shelf and the 1 AU4 - Bottom are three of the four components I am having issues with.
When I open OpenCutList, you can see there are four items I’m fighting with.
When I measure them or create a guide line to size them to exactly, they show up as exactly 3/4" at every point I can measure.
If they were slightly off 3/4" they would have the “~” beside them, as shown in one of the screenshots. I just made a little block beside it and made it ever so slightly bigger than 3/4" to show that when it’s not exactly 3/4", it will give you the “~”.
So anyway, I guess my best bet is just to maybe delete these components and re-draw correctly?
I used the older Cutlist extension to make a quick CSV file. Even without the tabs, there’s a lot of components that have strange dimensions.
Save me digging through the excessive nesting in your model and tell me where to find those exact components.
Keep in mind that OCL and the extension I used report the size of the bounding boxes of the components. It’s possible you have stray edges or something else making the component bounding boxes larger than the edges you are measuring with the Tape Measure Tool. Those extensions don’t lie about the dimensions of the bounding boxes.
I think you’re likely right about the bounding boxes.
I found this old thread (of course these threads only showed up after I posted mine, when I tried several different searches earlier I couldn’t find any )
I switched my model dimensions to be decimal, and so I can more easily see that the thicknesses are off.
Even if I push/pull or move faces to try and achieve an exact 0.75 I’m still having issues, so the components must not be perfectly on a flat plane or something. I think I’m just going to delete these components and draw new ones.
But yes, a lot of the dimensions seem weird. This was my first large drawing since starting to use sketchup and OpenCutList just a couple months ago, so I’ve definitely learned a lot already about how to properly draw my components so I don’t have these issues in the future! Hopefully I can get a close enough cutlist for my purposes out of what I’ve drawn here this time, and improve for next time.
**Update: just saw your latest screenshots. Okay, clearly those components are skewed. Thanks so much for your help!! I’ll re-draw those components
Here’s the problem with the bottom of that corner cabinet. It is 0.75000 at the back corners but not around the grooves on the bottom or along the diagonal edge.
In the last screenshot I posted I have the face style set to Monochrome which shows the shading on the faces without materials. The the faces on the edges of the board as well as the bottom show the blue back face color.Those faces need to be reversed so their white front faces are out.
Based on the reversed faces and the vertical edges extending up from the corners of the groove I expect you drew a 2D shape of the bottom and detailed the groove feature before you extruded it to 3D.
You mentioned if there was a way to just view and edit the part dimensions. Actually, there is a way. I have had the same problem with OCL occasionally and this method works for me. Select the part in question, then right click and choose Dynamic Components>Component Attributes. Click the plus icon next to your part and add all three size attributes (LenX, LenY, LenZ). Whichever one is incorrect, you can edit the values from here and 9 times out of ten that will fix the OCL errors you’re getting. Granted if the part is skewed in the bounding box, this method obviously will not work, but hopefully, that’s a rare situation.
Note that this solution will simply change the scale of the bounding box along each axis, but it doesn’t solve the problem of imperfect geometry. This geometry will only shift the problem later if you want to export the shape or if you draw another part from it.
Generally speaking, it’s important to know that using scale factors to dimension component is never a good way to achieve accurate geometry.
Note that this solution will simply change the scale of the bounding box along each axis, but it doesn’t solve the problem of imperfect geometry. This geometry will only shift the problem later if you want to export the shape or if you draw another part from it.
Generally speaking, it’s important to know that using scale factors to dimension component is never a good way to achieve accurate geometry.
Inaccurate or skewed geometry is not always the problem. Sometimes a part is simply too small or too large for a dimensional parameter in OCL. Scaling it, no matter how it’s done, will fix that problem. The actual part will also scale to match the bounding box dimension. So, my point is, if you’re just trying to generate a cutlist, which is all the original poster was trying to do, scaling it works fine. OCL will generate an accurate cutlist with the above mentioned method. If you’re going to export and and draw from it, then by all means, make sure the geometry is accurate, but for a quick and dirty solution to adjust part dimensions by a factor smaller than the 1/64" limit in Sketchup, in order to generate an error-free cutlist, this is far easier than recreating a bunch of components.
Of course, this might seem like a quick fix, but the best solution would be to address the root cause of the problem by knowing what to avoid while drawing so you never run into the same issue again.
I get far too many questions about this type of problem. Almost all of them are from people who overuse scales without realizing that this is could be the source of their problem.
I did end up going through and simply deleting and re-drawing any components I was having sizing issues with. Most of them were skewed within the bounding box.
I’ll certainly be more aware of the way I’m drawing in the future.
And thanks to @boris.beaulant for making such a powerful and helpful tool and for chiming in on the discussion! It’s been incredibly helpful and this is only the first project I’ve ever done in sketchup. I donated the other day and will continue to do so on each project I use it for! Much appreciated.
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