Hello, I’m trying to union 2 beams at different angles and i can’t seem to make it happen. i was able to do part of it but the bottom flanges stick out. I don’t know how to post the sketch i made. If anyone can help me out it would be greatly apriciated.
thanks
Upload the SketchUp file so we can see what you’ve got.
beam-union.skp (704.5 KB)
this is the first time i upload. see if you see the model. I hope I did this right.
Thanks
Yes. That worked.
The fact that you mention “Union” implies to me that you are trying to use the Union tool from Solid Tools. It won’t work because you’ve double wrapped your beam groups so the upper level group isn’t solid. There’s no need for the redundant grouping here.
If you explode the upper level groups you can then combine them with Union. That will create what I show in the foreground. While Union will work, it will leave you with a bunch of cleanup work to do. Instead, Use the cross section of the beam and a path outlining the beams and use Follow Me to create the geometry.
If you wanted to keep the beams as separate entities instead. Draw a cutting plane on the miter line and intersect it with each group in turn.
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wow. Thank you so much. I’ll try it out.
cheers
which command did you use to draw the cutting plane?
Thanks
I used the Rectangle tool. You could also use the Line tool.
ok thank you
i tried doing the cutting plane but i don’t get the correct results. see file.
can you tell me the steps you did?beam-union.skp (704.5 KB)
It doesn’t look any different than your previous file.
So, after exploding the top most groups so the beams aren’t double wrapped, I drew a rectangle that passes through the beams where the join at the top and bottom. This is the cutting plane. Draw the plane outside of the groups. This will prevent you modifying the geometry in the group until you’re ready. You’ll actually use the same rectangle to edit both groups.
Select the rectangle by double clicking on its face with Select. Then hit Command+X to cut the selection to the clipboard. You might want to hide the beam group you aren’t working on as I did although you can do what needs doing without hiding it. I just hid it for clarity.
Open the other beam group for editing and to make it easier to clean up correctly, give it a little additional length. there’s no charge for the waste so don’t be stingy.
Then hit Edit>Paste in place. This will put the rectangle in the same location in space but inside the group.
Select all of the geometry of the beam and the cutting plane, right click on it and choose Intersect Faces>With Selection. You’ll see that the rectangle and the beam are now cut by each other.
Select the geometry on the waste side of the cutting plane and the unneeded edges and delete them. This will leave you with the mitered end on the beam and the face in the miter is the remains of the cutting plane.
Repeat the process on the other beam group and you’re done.
That may seem rather complicated but it is is much faster to do than to describe.
And since someone else will mention it if I don’t. You could also do the same sort of thing with the Profile Builder 3 extension but since the process I described is useful in many other situations, some of which PB3 can’t handle, it’s good to know how to manage it this way with only native tools.
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ok thank you DaveR it tried it and it worked.
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