Sketchup

[jsp3970]

So I have been doing a drawing in sketchup of a locomotive bogie for a model I am working on. I have been working on it in OO scale which is proving to be very frustrating. The software doesn't allow circles to be drawn at that size and it seems when drawing a line close to another line it gets grabbed and makes contact which distorts the surfaces.

 

I have seen mention of being able to resize drawings but can't find how to do that, I am using Sketchup 2014 free version.

 

Can someone tell me how to resize a drawing?

[69843]

There is a scale tool ('S' on the keyboard) that will take you to a scale tool. You can use this to resize the drawing as required

 

The other option is to, after selecting the circle tool, without clicking, drag the line along the axis, and type in the required radius. This can go down to increments of a mm/in, so is quite accurate.

 

 

A picture of the bogie might help

Edited November 4, 2014 by 69843

[Marbelup]

Many Sketchup users do their drawings at 10 or 100 times the size of the model, then scale the resulting STL file by the inverse amount for 3D printing.  Software such as NetFabb can easily scale STL files.

 

Because Sketchup was designed for drawing buildings at 1:1 scale (for Google Earth), it doesn't handle tiny measurements well.

 

I am not a Sketchup user so feel free to seek other opinions.

[jsp3970]

Thanks guys, found the scale button so that helps.

 

Its an AL1 bogie, just playing with sketchup right now but hope to make a copy that I can print and, along with a chassis, insert into a AL1 that I have.

 

 

[Quarryscapes]

I personally work at 10x, then export the STL in cm as opposed to mm which gives me the correct size finished article. Sometimes however complex curves need even more resolution, in which case I'll scale the model say another 5x, and rescale back down 0.2x when finished. Doing this too much can lead to distorted flat surfaces however so it's best not to get too trigger happy with the scale tool if it can be avoided. 

[Shadow]

Don't know if this will help, but you may not have the best template/options selected.

 

If you go to the "Window" drop down menu at the top, select "Model Info" and then select "Units" you can set up the precision for the units.

 

 

Also, I use the Woodworking Template settings, this uses millimetres as it's base unit.

 

 

Hope this helps

 

Dave

[Rabs]

Unfortunately I'm fairly sure that the 'precision' setting in Sketchup just affects the display of numbers, not the precision that it actually performs the computations to.

 

I do the same as Quarryscapes but at 1000x times (draw in meters with 1m on sketchup = 1mm on the model) then scale it down with netfabb after exporting from sketchup.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Rabs

[3rdboxcar]

Correct about sketchup not handling small dimensions well.

 

My work around is to draw 1:1 scale, export as a stl, then rescale in netfabb, never failed yet and you then get the advantage of the netfabb checks at the same time.

 

I have heard that sketchup scale tool can be a bit of hit and miss but unable to verify this since I never use it.

 

Another advantage in drawing 1:1 means that when appropriate your drawing can be easily rescaled if required, note that one drawing for all scales is not normally a good idea as wall thickness's can catch you out.

[Vonzack]

I find the only real limitation in sketchup is the inability to draw circles, arcs and polygons with a radius of less than 0.5mm. If you need to do this then you have to scale up and then it's better to keep drawing at that scale. If you reduce the drawing back down again, you can lose parts of your model or parts of it can become non manifold.

[jsp3970]

Based upon the helpful information above I have decided to restart my drawing in a larger scale. Hopefully when I rescale the drawing it will work!

[Bluebell Model Railway]

I also use sketchup for a few things, I find like you its not a program for these small scale items, what I tend to do is double the size, then re-scale / resize in netfabb this works fine for me, and I can get what I want out of it.

[RAF96]

Sketchup and Sketchup Make 2015 is here, but users will already know that.

[jsp3970]

Well spent the last few hours learning and drawing and came up with tanks for the roof of an AC electric.

 

This drawing is still 10 x too big for OO gauge but before I attempt to shrink it I would be interested in hearing what others think. There are still a couple of things I need to do but at this time of the night I am calling it a night.

 

[Vonzack]

Looks good, the pipe running away from the tanks needs it's surface reversing, it's inside out

[jsp3970]

Looks good, the pipe running away from the tanks needs it's surface reversing, it's inside out

Yes, I am not happy about the distance that pipe is away from the tanks, so that is one of the things I want to do.

 

When I am creating the pipe's it seems that if I don't draw the curves at less than a certain radius then the inner part of the curve doesn't draw in. Not sure how this will work out when it gets shrunk. I added that pipe to get an idea of how it would look so I wasn't concerned that it was inside out!

[rovex]

Looks good, the pipe running away from the tanks needs it's surface reversing, it's inside out

 Would that be why on some of my drawings, some surfaces are different colours even so in the same plane.

 

It doesn't seem to affect the "printability", tho.

 

How would you reverse the direction?

[Multiple identity account]

 Would that be why on some of my drawings, some surfaces are different colours even so in the same plane.

 

It doesn't seem to affect the "printability", tho.

 

How would you reverse the direction?

Right click on the surface and then flip faces

[jsp3970]

Right click on the surface and then flip faces

Thanks that did the trick!

[Multiple identity account]

You're welcome

[St. Simon]

I find the only real limitation in sketchup is the inability to draw circles, arcs and polygons with a radius of less than 0.5mm. If you need to do this then you have to scale up and then it's better to keep drawing at that scale. If you reduce the drawing back down again, you can lose parts of your model or parts of it can become non manifold.

 

Hi,

 

I've found if you draw a shape at 0.5 mm radius and then use the offset tool to create a smaller circle.

 

Simon

[jsp3970]

Ok then, downloaded Netfabb basic, because it was free, but have not been able to export the file into Netfabb. I am starting to think I have downloaded the wrong version!

 

Suggestions anyone?

Edited November 29, 2014 by jsp3970

[Multiple identity account]

Even I had that problem. So this is what I do:-

- Export file from Sketchup in .DAE format
- Import file into Meshlab (it's free) and then in Meshlab "EXPORT MESH AS" a .STL format.
- Import your new .STL file into Netfabb and then convert the units.

PS: That is just my way, I'm not sure if you can have Netfabb import and then convert the files. If it is possible then step 2 can be omitted.

Cheers!
Jeff.
(AJA Models)

Edited November 29, 2014 by AJA Models

[jsp3970]

Jeff

 

Thanks will give it a try. Did export as a DAE file but netfabb didn't open it when I selected 'all files'.

 

EDIT

 

IT WORKED! If I could hit the thanks button a thousand times I would for that advice.

 

When I got the tanks into Netfabb I had a nice red exclamaition mark so obviously something isnt right. Anyway now that I can get that far I can start to play with the drawing. Thanks again Jeff!

Edited November 29, 2014 by jsp3970

[Multiple identity account]

I'm looking for a "WELCOME"  button...

[big jim]

I downloaded sketchup 8 and had a play, really confused me so just gave up, i left the computer on and by the time i came back to it half hour later my 10 year old had made a 3D empire state building complete with an interior!!

 

Told him it was for grown ups and not to be so smart!!