The Google SketchUp Thread

[marc_reusser]

IMO much easier for mirrored items/image, just select the object(s), or group that you want to mirror > right click >flip along (and choose the correct axis)     ....that pretty much does it. I use this all the time when doing my models and renders.

To do something like the end of your building for instance, you could draw only half (to the ridge center-line), make it a group or object...your choice, depending on what further you ant to do with it...copy the group/object then flip that copied one along the appropriate axis. Take the flipped item, and just move it against/in line with the original piece. You can then leave it ss is....or group these two pieces into a single group....or simply explode them, and they will blend together.

[kathymillatt]

Thanks Marc

My problem, which caused me no end of redoing things, was that when exploding components, they didn't intersect leaving me with dodgy mortar lines that wouldn't drop. 

It didn't help that when I had done everything, I realised that my ridge wasn't centred and I had to redo the top, again.

You live and learn.  I've learnt a lot but there is so much I don't know.

Kathy

[marc_reusser]

Kathy,

FWIW, when I do walls like yours, I draw them in CAD in 2D (all the bricks, mortar lines, etc) Then import them into SU, make them intu a surface by tracing a line here and there, and closing any edges that wont allow it to become a surface.....when that is done, one can then easily extrude/pus-pull the bricks and mortar to get the depths/offset as needed.

It can be done directly in SU as well, but what I find is that when shifting/off-setting/duplicating sections of things, like brick, it is sometimes easy o be just a bit off when copying, aligning and assembling them, and this will then creat problems when trying to do the things like the grout lines, offsets, and extrusions.


Another way to do brick walls like this is to do all the bricks spaced and set up as you need them (in 2d and then extrude as needed, or as whole bricks...whichever you prefer. Once you have them set and the wall built as needed, group the wall....than create a simple plane, that is the outline shape of the wall (sans the mortar depth you want,...at each side where the wall will wrap and at window openings)...make this plane a new object. then just push ot back from the face of the brick to the mortar depth you want....and done....the surface/plane will create the mortar, withouth theheadache of accidentall clipping a brick, or tiny edge and having all the mortar disappear.

I work with/use a lot in "groups" and "objects"....this allows me to assemble duplicate and modify individual aspects pieces, without accidentally affecting other parts of the model/piece/assembly. The only caveat with this, is that you have to be very aware and careful to make objects "unique" when you copy/duplicate them if you plan to modify them to create a different piece, or fit a different condition.......if you don't do this....every other one of the same "objects" will get modified.....this is of course also a benefit of an "object", where you need to do changes/correction/modifications to multiples of the same items in your drawing.

[kathymillatt]

Marc

That's really helpful. I tried dragging a plane at one point but because I had drawn in Sketchup, it didn't intersect properly.

I don't have a 2D CAD drawing programme. I have photoshop and Sketchup. Do you know any free 2D CAD programmes that would work well?

Thanks for all you guys help.

Kathy

[marc_reusser]

Sorry, I don't really have a free CAD program that I can recommend or am familiar with.

When you created the plane...before dragging it...did you make it a group or object?  Doing so should bake the plane very easy to move and shift, without any distortion or possibility of stretching/deforming/skewing it in any odd manner.

[marc_reusser]

The attached image shows what I was trying to explain. all the bricks are one group/object....while the plane is a separate object. This allows me to easily move and place the plane wherever I want to achieve the "grout" (in the image the "grout" plane is not slid all the way through all the bricks for illustration purposes.


This could easily be taken further from this point, doing such things as extruding the grout plane to create the rest of the solid wall thickness.....or both objects could now be exploded, and then "intersected" with each other to create a single surface piece, by trimming away the back of the extruded bricks (The bricks in the original drawing actually didn't need to be full thickness...I did that only for illustration purposes...it would have been just as easy to do them onto the thickness of the desired grout depth, and then simply set them ion top of the "grout" plane.

Note that the individual bricks can also be moved or extruded forward and back, to create some slight variation/texture in the overall brick layout.

[kathymillatt]

Marc

That's really clever and the picture helps tremendously!  I hadn't quite clicked what you were saying before.

I have been really worried about not filling the backs on the bricks in as I'm worried I could end up with a non-solid or some manifold problem when I make the wall full depth. I don't think the free version does a lot on solids. How would you trim the back of the bricks away?  I bet you have a better method than my click on each one version!

I still need to suss all the solid malarkey out on my current wall so I hope it passes muster...

Kathy.

[Bexley]

If I recall, Sketchup's solid tools are just boolean operations that preserve manifolds. Sketchup doesn't really do "solids" in the CAD sense.

However, if you are worried about manifolds in your end product, the free/basic version of Netfabb does a pretty good job of cleaning up and repairing .STL files.

[finescalerr]

Marc, I wish I had known that trick about grouping bricks and planes a month or two ago when I drew the house I grew up in. I had all kinds of trouble and redrew the brick areas several times before I half figured out what you explained. -- Russ

[mabloodhound]

Kathy, I use Double CAD XT free program for all my kit drawings http://www.doublecad.com/.   Although it uses it's own program you can save your finished drawing in a number of different formats like, .dwg or .dxf and .dwf   Read the 'learn more' info in the link I posted and I think you will find this program will meet all your needs.

[kathymillatt]

Thanks Dave

I will download it this evening and have a play.

I'm now torn on how to do the remaining sides. As the end is almost done in Sketchup I might reuse that for the other end and just change the two windows to one.

The sides though will be new...

Kathy

[finescalerr]

My workshop will be out of commission for a month or so as we paint the house but in the meantime I'm messing with some ideas. SketchUp is an excellent tool to help design and visualize a project prior to construction and the accompanying image is something I may build in 1:32 scale on an 8 inch square base. Its inspiration is a cabin in Wisconsin and "minimalist" dioramas by Chuck and Marc.

Russ

[Gordon Ferguson]

My workshop

There is an implication here, that can't quite get my head around 

[finescalerr]

Gordon, go stand in the corner. I would send you to a corner of my workshop but it currently is a storage bin and you can't even get to the corner. -- Russ

[kathymillatt]

Dave

Thanks for the DoubleCad - I've downloaded but now need to play - a lot!

Kathy