Category Archives: Sketchup

Sketchup

Sketchup – Edge Tools plugin

Leave a comment

Hello & welcome,

Today I’ll present another set of usefull tools incorporated into a plugin called Edge Tools but in detail I will present only two of them.

You can download the plugin registering at SketchUcation from here.

First tool allow you to split faces into multiple peaces with parallel lines.
You can use the array commands with that tool.

Edge-tools

The second tool I also use a lot erases stray edges.

Edge-tools_stray-edges

This are great useful tools which can help you to do things much quicker.
Have a good lack with them.

Sketchup

Sketchup – Move on specific axis

Leave a comment

There are times when you want to move a selection in a specific direction – and there are ways to do that with:

1. Shift key –  Press and hold the Shift key, while the move you are performing is the specific color of an axis, to lock move operation to that axis (the inference line will bold).

2. Arrow keys – You can force SketchUp to infer parallel to a specific axis by pressing one of the following keys while using the Line tool, Move tool, or Tape Measure tool:

  • → Right arrow key = red axis
  • ← Left arrow key = green axis
  •  ↑  Up or down arrow keys = blue axis

3. Alt key – use it to force a free movement of an element constrain by the geometry it is a part of. You can combine it with a Shift key.

Additional info on Sketchup Sage

4. Entering a 3D Coordinate – SketchUp can move your entities to exact (using [x, y, z ]) or relative (using <x, y, z >) coordinates in 3D space. Type it in and you will see it in The Measurements Toolbar at the bottom right corner of the SketchUp window.

Sketchup

Sketchup – Soap Skin & Bubble plugin

7 Comments

Hello everyone,

Today something exiting and extraordinary for all fanatic of Sketchup and especially for those who love to build organic and non-linear structures.

This plugin will throw you from your seat !!! 😉

Soap Skin & Bubble

You can download it here: Software download page

It allows you to span membrane-like surfaces between any kind of edges* in closed loop and then…
BLOW THEM UP !!!

Soap-buble-tool-anim1

*some restrictions apply: Lines can not overlap!

There are 6 buttons in a toolbar:

  1. Skin – allow you to create a surface (look below how).
  2. X/Y – allows you to stress the surface between X or Y direction.
  3. Bub – allows you to blow up a surface in both directions.
  4. Play – allow you to resume modification process after Stop.
  5. Stop – allow you to stop  live modification process.
  6. Help – it’s a link to a developer website.

I created small tutorial explaining how to create a surface:SOAP-BOUBLE-SKIN

 and an explanation what impact have X/Y Ratio on the membrane:SOAP-BOUBLE-SKIN-TENSION-X-Y

It’s definitely an inexhaustible source of ideas for creative people. Moreover after you create a structure, after you play with it, you can modify it with other Sketchup tools and plugins and still be able again to blow it or tense it up!

Here you can see how behaves a previous surface after inflating it, moving half of it and deleting some faces:VOULT1

TIP: You can blow up a surface using ether positive (+) or negative (-) values. Positive values will blow up a surface from a back side of faces. Negative from it front side.
What will happened when reverse normals only on a part of a created surface?

EXPERIMENT!!! 🙂

Sketchup

Sketchup – Creating Arrays

Leave a comment

Today something basic – You all should already know that but I there is always someone knew who needs some knowledge 😉

Arrays in Sketchup we create with a Move tool for Creating multiple copies (linear arrays) or Rotate tool for Creating multiple rotated copies (radial arrays).

Procedure is simple. Create a copy of an object and after that type a multiplier value to create additional multiple copies after the copy or a a divisor value to create additional objects between the copy and the original object.

For example, typing in 2x (or *2) will create one additional copy (or 2 copies total, the one you manually copied plus one you automatically copied using this step) instead of just one.

For example, typing 5/ (or /5) will create five copies evenly distributed between the original and the first copy. You can enter distances and multipliers until you perform another operation.

This is the trick.

Here is a nice tutorial presenting how to create a screw with a use of this trick.

Sketchup

Sketchup – Isolate Selection

Leave a comment

Are you missing that option in Sketchup – Isolate Selection. You can hide something but not the rest of the model. So good news. There is a simple plugin which adds another position in right-click menu.

You can download it from that web page or directly from here: isolateselection_1.zip

To instal any Sketchup plugin you need to copy it (extracted) to a Plugins folder in Google Sketchup main directory. Usually in Windows 7 it is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google SketchUp 8\Plugins

isolate selection

I know. My right- click menu is quite extensive 😉

They are other ways to hide automatically not edited objects.
Go to top main menu View –> Component Edit –>…

hide rest of the model

Sketchup

Sketchup – Joint Push Pull Plugin

1 Comment

In previous post about I miss out one very interesting plugin made also by Fredo6. It’s called Joint Push Pull – v2.0b – 17 Jul 11

Check the link. It allows to extrude ANY surface (or offset) No mater how bended it is.

I will just say AWESOME!!! 🙂

This way with free Fredo6 plugins we can do any shape and deform nearly anyhow. Type TAB to access options (thickening, continuity parameter, etc…)

joint push pull

 

(How to deform something anyhow I will write another time :))

Sketchup

Sketchup – My best plugins by Fredo6

Leave a comment

Sketchup itself is a great program but lacks many features. Fortunately there are thousands free plugins on the Internet which easily allow you to do nearly everything.

There is one plugin creator which deserve a special mention – Fredo6

You can find his latest plugins on sketchucation.com (you need to register there).

First you need to download a common library and instal it like a normal plugin.

[Plugin Library] LibFredo6 – v4.7c – 09 Apr 13

Next you can instal any of the following plugins:

In my opinion the best one are FredoScale, then Curviloft, RoundCorners, ThruPaint from FredoTools and GhostComp to handle heavy skp models.

Fredo Tools

 

 

Now you can do what Rhino can do or 3DS Max but easier and in more friendly environment. Good luck and have fun 🙂