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

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

Ron Paulk's Super Mobile Woodshop is Complete, and He's Posted the Sketchup Plans for Free Download

When last we looked in on Washington-based builder Ron Paulk, he was on the verge of completing his kick-ass Mobile Woodshop. Contained inside a 1,000-cubic-foot box truck, Paulk's comprehensive design ingeniously incorporates every major power tool a contractor would need, features copious parts-and-materials storage, and is loaded up with a plethora of clever design solutions.

Since our initial coverage, Paulk's uploaded a video tour of the completed project:

Even better, Paulk has uploaded his complete Google Sketchup plans free of charge. We admire both Paulk's design ingenuity—as one example you can see in the video tour above, he wisely eschewed expensive drawer slides and found simple dados in plywood to be a superior solution—and his generosity in sharing the final design, which is the result of not only the several months he put into drawing up and constructing the project, but of his decades of experience in building things. The plans are available here, and our thanks go out to Paulk.

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

Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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

Flowing surfaces without plugins!

If you want to make a curved surface in SketchUp, in can be a difficult process to get it just the way that you want it. You can draw it manually line by line, by this is very time consuming and it is very hard to make it look good and smooth. There are plugins that make this much easier, but I’ve discovered a way of getting smooth rounded shapes just using basic SketchUp.

There is a method that I call “Pull and Scale” that is an easy way to make almost anything that you can think of. Here are some examples of models that I’ve made using this method.

For this tutorial, I will show making the front part of this space shuttle:

The easiest way to start is with images or line drawings of the front, side and top. These are easy to find online for almost anything you want to make.

Of course, reference drawings aren’t necessary for this procedure, but I like having them to make sure that the model I draw is in scale. I typically trace over the drawing to get the overall shapes that I want to work with. Also, since the shuttle is symmetrical left and right, I make trace half shapes. This way you can mirror it over in the end and your model stay perfectly symmetrical.

So choose the starting method that you like best. For this tutorial I setup the images as follows, and trace over them. Notice the only one of the shapes is filled in. This is the face that we’ll be working with. The face of the others has been deleted so it’s just linework. This makes it easier to see what you are doing. Make the line work groups, so you don’t accidentally change the shape of it while modeling. If also helps to lock the object so you can’t move it at all.

Using the Pull tool, pull the face out a bit. The smaller you pull it, the smoother the final shape will be. For a more complicated shape, or for parts that are much more curved, use a very small pull distance. For this relatively simple shape, I can use a larger distance.

Select the new face on the end and using the Scale tool to change its shape. Be sure to not scale the shape using the grips in on the left side of the shape. This will make an uneven surface to mirror the shape in the end. This is where the reference line drawing come in handy. You can snap to them to make sure that you are getting the correct shape.

Continue this procedure for the entire shape. Notice that for the front tip of the shuttle, I used a smaller pull distance because I wanted a smoother nose.

Highlight the entire model and go to Window -> Soften Edges, and set the slider to around 45 degrees. This will makes the shape look much smoother.

When the shape is complete, delete in inner and back faces and lines, so you are left with the shell only.

Now using the move tool select the model and press Ctrl to make a copy. Place the copy next to the original shape.

Right click on the new shape and choose “Flip Along… -> Component’s Red” (or Green depending on how your model is oriented)

When you move the shapes together, the edges to fit perfectly.

If you see any of the following on your model, it means that at some point in the process you either scaled incorrectly, or you accidentally changes one half and not the other.

Once done correctly, you should see this:

Select the whole model again, and open up the Soften Edges dialog again, and smooth the new edge. For this, make sure the “Soften coplanar” option is selected

The basic shape is done!

Now you can further add things like windows, by tracing the line drawings, extruding and moving the shapes so they intersect the shuttle at the correct places. Like this:

Right click on the hull and choose “Intersect face… -> With model”. Now when you delete the shapes you just created, you will be left with the shapes “stamped” onto the curved hull.

From here you can use the paint bucket to colour the windows separately from the rest of the cockpit. Using this method, you can complete the rest of the cockpit. I’ve developed this one a bit further:

Now that you know this method, the only limit is your imagination!

Raylectron Textures Exporter...

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

Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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

Rotary Lift expands digital offerings for facility planning assistant program

Rotary Lift is expanding the digital offerings available through its free assistPRO professional facility planning assistance service.

The program offers Rotary Lift customers assistance in designing new or remodeled shops. AssistPRO helps maximize shop efficiency and technician productivity by determining the optimal number, placement and arrangement of vehicle lifts. Rotary Lift’s in-house assistPRO team works with individual customers and architects to create custom facility layouts.

The new digital offerings include 3-D SketchUp models of Rotary Lift vehicle lifts. The models will be available for download through SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse athttps://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/ later in 2014. Rotary Lift currently offers CAD blocks, 3-D BIM models and written specifications for its products through ARCAT, and the SketchUp models will give architects and distributors an additional easy-to-use resource for helping customers.

“Dealers and independent shops have recovered from the recession and are starting to invest in their facilities again,” said Larry Kendall, assistPRO technical information specialist – facility planner for Rotary Lift. “No matter if they are expanding, moving into new buildings or just upgrading old equipment, it pays to utilize assistPRO. When you include lifts in your shop layout upfront, there is less of a chance you will need to go through a costly redesign and delay the project.”

After determining a facility’s intended use, the assistPRO team draws a floor layout with lifts placed for maximum productivity. Turning radii and traffic flow are matched to the types of vehicles serviced so technicians will be able to quickly pull into and out of the bays. Rotary Lift provides assistPRO layout drawings in CAD or PDF electronic formats or as color prints, based on customer preference. Turnaround is fast (usually seven to 10 days), so users can get to work on their new spaces as soon as possible.

  

 

  

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

Published By

Arka Roy

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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

Mini film made ​​on Google Sketchup and a 3D printer

The small world of animation seen 3D printing with kindness. Gradually emerging projects and the web will quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the possibilities offered by these new tools of choice are 3D printers.

Amateurs and professionals of animation will be able to express themselves without having to deploy large financial resources .

Disney and Google with the animated film Blank Vynilmation Love Story, the musical clip Cut / Copy or last month, hypnotic work of this bear on stairs : Bears on Stairs are all feats that give 3D printing , its pedigree in the world of Stop Motion ( motion animation ).

Today is " Paradise Found " created by Jon Patrick Barry and Jenny Chen is honored. All the accessories and the puppet present on the screen were modeled with Google Sketchup and are straight out of a 3D printer.

If you want to try 3D modeling and subsequently the animation , you can download Google Sketchup.

  

  

The Video Link is http://www.sketchup-ur-space.com/2014/april/mini-film-made-on-google-sketchup-and-a-3D-printer.html

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

Published By 

Arka Roy

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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

 

Some exclusive workshops on digital manufacturing with sketchup

Some exclusive workshop will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on June, 2014 to discuss and practice how to utilize a CNC milling machine, 3d printer & PLA rapid prototyping, rapid 3d modeling with sketchup. The attendees will be provided a tailored 3d printer having a milling head to slice and form several materials. There will be practical training to accomplish small projects. Some open source software and machineries will be utilized in this workshop

By participating with this workshop, all the participants will be familiar with the fundamentals of digital fabrication and adopt all the essential knowledge required to produce simple 2d models to cut and shape.

The workshop will be very useful for Tinkerers, makers, product and industrial designers; architects, carpenters, engineers as well as any other professionals or individual prefer to put their steps in the enthralling world of digital manufacturing.

The workshop will be conducted in English language with Slovenian speaking assistant.

The attendees have to bring their individual laptop with SketchUp installed.

·         COURSE OUTLINE:

·         Begins with the CNC mill parts

·         The software tool-series

·         Where to find ready-made 3d models

·         Build up your project with basic sketchup tools for digital model customization

·         From .jpg to .stl

·         Modify .stl files

·         Project Milling

·         Fundamental of digital fabrication and the 3^rd general revolution

Fees for workshop

Register online

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

Published By

Arka Roy

www.sketchup4architect.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

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