Creating a Screw with Sketchup

How many times you have wondered how to make the thread of a screw with SketchUp, or not? Here is the answer!

First you draw a circle. We click on the instrument "Circle" in the toolbar and then on the point of origin of the axes and widen our circle by following one, red or green, with the cursor, so that the vertices of the segments that make up the match with aces.

Created the circle, from this, we have to create a spiral. The steps to follow are the same that you can find in the post "HOW TO CREATE A SPRING WITH SKETCHUP", would not explain them again.

Now we have a cylinder created by the initial circle and a spiral of the same diameter with the plugin "Weld" we welded into a single segment.

It 'important to create a group of one of the two models, in this case, my group is the spiral. This is to avoid that the two models, when superimposed, is intersichino between them. Then we position the spiral over the cylinder so that the segments coincide perfectly with each other.

We click on the instrument "Move" and then on the group spiral with the "CTRL" key to create a copy, spostiamola down along the blue axis until it reaches the center of the original one (see image below).

Now we can explode groups of spirals so as to intersect the segments with those of the cylinder.

We click on the spiral just created to highlight it , then the instrument "Scale" and finally, with the CTRL key pressed on the handle of the solid angle at the center, ...

... Pull outwards and ...

The screw ... is ready.

Under another example of a solid made with the same method created simply by moving the internal spiral downwards.

Or this' other using the plugin "Joint Push-Pull".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Rajib Dey

sketchup-ur-space.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SketchUp Section Cut or Floor Plan to AutoCAD

This tutorial will walk you through the steps of exporting a section cut from a SketchUp model to a 2D line drawing in AutoCAD.

1. Draw a large rectangle on the plane of where you want the section to be. It can be vertical, horizontal, or even at an odd angle. The reason for doing it this way instead of using SketchUp’s built in section cut tool is that this way eliminates the empty spaces where a mass has been cut, revealing the geometry below. Example: If part of a floor is cut through, the floor should appear to be solid instead of showing any lines from the top of the walls on the floor below. It isn’t that difficult to remove the extraneous lines from the section cut tool if your model is simple, but when it gets more complex, it can become confusing as to which lines should actually be hidden.

2. The next step involves intersecting the geometry, but before doing this, make sure all parts of your model are not grouped, but that the cutting plane you drew earlier is in a group. Now select all of the model geometry, and intersect the faces with the model (right click > intersect faces > with model). This will draw a line anywhere the plane cuts through the model.

 

 

3. Delete the cutting plane and you’re left with the model and the intersected lines. Now all of the geometry that is being cut through has to be deleted. The easiest way to do this is to switch the camera to parallel projection (camera > parallel projection), switch to one of the head one views, such as top down for a plan view, or one of the side views for a section (camera > standard views > top/front/back/etc…), and drag a box around all of the geometry that has to be erased. You may have to zoom in closer to some areas to make sure there aren’t any small lines left over.

 

Tip: Since this technique is not restricted to just one cutting plane, you can use as many as you want to create stepped-sections (when parts of the model are cut through in different areas). Example here (profile view of a cut of a floor plan)

4. Now that the model is cut at the right spot, it’s time to export it to AutoCAD. Your view should be set to one that shows the model in a head on orientation, and make sure the camera is set to parallel projection. If the cut is a floor plan, you’d select top down view in the camera menu. If it is a section, you’d switch to one of the side views to get the right angle.

  

5. Center the model in the view, and then go to file > export > 2d graphic, and select AutoCAD DWG file in the export type drop-down menu. You may have to adjust the AutoCAD version in the options menu depending on which one you have installed. Make sure that the full scale option is checked, assuming you want the scale of the drawing to stay the same when exported.

 

6. Save and then open up the file in Autocad. You’ve successfully exported a section or floor plan from your SketchUp model to AutoCAD. You can now adjust the line weights to your heart’s content.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Arka Roy

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

Street View Imagery added to Building Maker

Google recently create some vital updates for Building Maker. From now one can add street view photos to texture the sides of your buildings model. With this new feature the buildings will look much better in a higher resolution and with more realism. One is also able to use imagery directly from Street View on Google Maps!
Besides the new updates, Building Maker is now available in six new cities:• Edinburgh, United Kingdom• Florence, Italy• Vienna, Austria• Pittsburgh, PA, United States• Santa Cruz, CA, United States• Riverside, CA, United States.

MORE.............