As part of a project I’m modeling - envisioning a “group” (not commercial) kitchen - I ran into problems with the complexity of the model. Specifically, the only “hotel” pans I could find in the 3DW had far too much geometry and were slowing down my model considerably. So I created my own component: 1_4x400_Hotel_Pan_Cutting.skp (42.8 KB)
which is a compromise between appearance and geometry count (original was almost 9000 in it’s geometry count!)
When I first created it, it successfully cut a plane, and a solid. So I saved it and tried to bring it into my complex model (which I won’t inflict on you - it’s huge!), but it didn’t cut!
So I created a test model: Model.skp (102.9 KB)
It contains just two things: My (supposedly) cutting Hotel Pan, and the simplest mockup of the counter into which I want to cut the pan. And it still doesn’t actually cut the counter!
Might it be related to the fact that my Hotel Pan isn’t a solid? (I intentionally made it as a series of connected faces to reduce the geometry count.)
It works fine for me but you have to open the counter top component so the pan can cut the face. Also be aware that only one face will get an opening cut. You should leave the bottom face off the counter so the bottom of the pan will show.
No matter. A self-cutting component must be a component, which your hotel pan is not, and it must have its axes set in such a way that the Red-Green baseplane is the cutting plane, with Blue perpendicular to the plane of the cut.
Also, a self-cutting component can cut through only a single face, so the bottom face of your counter will block the sink.
Methinks you’re mistaken. My Hotel Pan IS a cutting component. And when I did as both @DaveR and @Anssi said, it successfully cut through both top and bottom faces of the counter - when I did it within the counter component.
And a “Hotel Pan” is a fairly standardized (in the US at least) piece of restaurant equipment. It’s various sizes are designed for “standard” steam tables and storage racks. Most restaurant kitchens also use them in an angled rack to hold prepped ingredients for dishes, so that all ingredients are close to hand when putting the dish together.
In my case, I want to cut a hotel pan into the counter to hold a few squeeze bottles with various oils and vinegars that I frequently use when cooking.
<<mea culpa added>>
Whoops! I spoke too soon. You are correct that my cutting component does NOT cut the 2nd face! <</mea culpa>>
you can place a movable back cut contained in an outer component which includes the sink such that when the depth of the cut matches the board, then upon explosion creates the back cut.
place component 2 on board, change depth to 1.5inch (the board thickness). then explode.
As a further edit, if you place the sink another sub (child) level down, the back cut component or group could be destroyed as well with another explosion, just leaving the sink with a hold welded to the board back cut example.skp (92.5 KB)
Now that I’ve got my nitpickiness out of the way, your approach is valid for my case - and for sinks - and for door/window components, and for many other purposes. But it is, I think, too complex for what I’m trying to do. Like many things I do, I always think about how other people might use the tool I’m creating. Which means I don’t like this approach for a couple of reasons:
For my own use, I don’t need that level of complexity in handling the component. I can live with cutting only the top face of the counter as a cutting component does naturally. That way, I can still move it around and the top cut will move with it. Should I ever get to the point of having to present a fully detailed model, I can create a section plane of the “back cut” on the same plane as the bottom of the counter, copy the resulting rounded edge rectangle from the hotel pan, edit the counter component, paste the rounded corner rectangle in place, then delete the face it creates.
As an uploaded component in the 3D warehouse, my target audience would most likely be the SketchUp Make (not Pro) user who is trying to do a fairly quick concept model. I have lots of friends in the Tiny Home community who have installed Make for just this purpose. They won’t be bothered to learn enough of SketchUp to realize that “cuts only 1 plane” is a problem, and when it rears it’s (IMHO ugly) head, they’ll use something else rather than learn to change the counter depth to match the “back cut” component, nor to then explode it.
I have a tendency to go off on tangents that take me away from the basic task I’m trying to do, which in this case is modeling my idea of a group kitchen, This is such a tangent. I’ve determined that making my hotel pan component function as I wish it would is taking too much time away from the basic task, so I’m abandoning further work on perfecting it. I’ll live with it’s imperfections.
I reserve the right to raise the idea of a “cutting envelope” as an enhancement of cutting planes in a further topic, perhaps in the Developer/Ruby API category or the “Feature request 2017” topic (which I haven’t seen started yet, although I haven’t looked very hard!)
