This is probably really basic but I'm stuck. I've added the CutList plugin to SU and can't figure out how to get CL to recognize that I'm using sheet goods. I know it expects each components material to have sheet/mdf/etc in the name - but how do I assign a material to a component? Art
Assign a material to a component by "painting" it with a material. select the material, click the little paint bucket and click on the component. Then rename the material, panel, plywood, sheet, etc, the suggested name by the plug in program. You could rename the material oak plywood for instance. You can have several different materials in a drawing.
FWIW you can use the cutlist plug in to generate a file to import components into CutList Plus also.
That did it! Thanks. Any idea why some of my components are showing up in CL with the wrong thickness? All other dimensions seem to be correct. All components are aligned orthogonal with the axis. Art
How far off are the dimension thicknesses? I can tell you that if planes are not parallel, although they might appear to be, they will be imported at the larger dimension. For instance if a
3/4" thick panel is accidentally drawn thicker on one end say 13/16" it will be imported at that thickness. The thickness might be fine on one end but not the other and may be hard to notice visually.Sometimes the cure is to delete the suspect component and try importing again.
A bit more here.. For 6 sided components, a typical piece of wood or panel, draw a single surface with 4 lines. Give it thickness using the push/pull tool. Still better is to use the rectangle tool to form a side and then use the push/pull tool to add the other 5 sides to the object. These steps speed drawing and help to insure that opposite side/planes are parallel. Lastly use your mouse to begin lines, rectangles, and to push or pull and then type in the exact distance.
The offending parts are 6 sided and I created them as you suggest.
After playing around I discovered that if dimension lines (not sure if that is the right name for the arrows and number that show length) are part of the component and not on the face(i.e. perpendicular to it), then the distance it stands off the face will be added to the thickness of the panel by CL. Art
That is probably correct. The import takes the entire component into consideration. The dimension lines should be added after the object is made into a component and not be a part of a component. I like to also add dimensions on their own layer so that I can hide them. And yes the lines with arrows are dimension lines, the lines that associate a dimension line to the object typically at a 90 degree angle at each arrow are dimension extension lines.
I have a handy plug- in that lets me select a component on the drawing and running the plug -in brings a pop up window that tells me all dimensions of the component. Handy to verify dimensions with out having to actually dimension the component.
Solution:
Double click on the component|Hit Edit|Select the offending dimension|Choose Edit/Cut|
Close the editing of the component (just use Select tool somewhere on the background)
Then choose Edit/Paste In Place
Now your dimension will no longer be a part of your component, but will still be in the proper location.
As you've noticed, making your dimensions part of your components is a bad idea.
Ideally you want all dimension on a "Layer" of their own (and then assigning said Layer to a "Scene"), but that will come after you get a bit more proficiency with the program.
When I hit reply, your reply was not yet there. You must of walked out of the shop the same time I did. :)
Sounds like I need to get up to speed on layers. Do you have a link to that handy plugin? Art
So sounds like a lot of your organization is like autocadd where you use layers ect. Your trying to track things in your drawing in the smallest possible component so when you discover an error the correction hopefully is a simpler correction.
I'll take a look for it. Once I add a plugin to the plugin directory I forget about it. Let me take a look for it. I probably got it from smustard.
My shop is closer,
OK this refers to the plugin, Get Dimensions. This link however has a plugin tool bar with a tool that serves the same basic function. I have not tired it yet but will shortly.
That said the one I am using is getdimensions.rb .
I could not find a link to it but I could email the file to you if you wish. Or try out the on in the link, it is probably better.
The getdimensions does not have an icon but shows up in the Plugins drop down menu. I assigned a short cut key to access it using CTRL D.
I assigned D to start the Dimension command, it think,,, maybe it was already a short cut.
Might have been nice had I provided the link.....
to get the basics down.
Mike M
Yep ... 20' door to door, through ice, snow and uphill both ways.. LOL
Have heart ... you really only need to know about 30%, or less, of SU's capability in order to fully utilize the program for woodworking projects.
Many folks simply miss the reality of learning software that can increase your productivity, thinking that you have to become a proverbial "expert" with the software to get any benefit.
That is simply not true ... all your need to do to is master those elements that allow you to use the software to suit your particular needs.
Just learn to draw the damned parts to your project individually ... a woodworking project is mostly nothing more than a collection of simply "boards", after all.
That perceived "uphill battle" is not nearly as challenging ... IOW, learn to draw a damned tubafour and you're 90% there. :)
To add to what Swingman is saying about drawing the parts, typical 2D CAD is not much different than drawing with paper and pencil. Nothing is going to be separated and moved around so it does not matter if incomplete components of the drawings are attached to other incomplete components of a drawing.
With Sketchup all parts are going to stick together until you make a group of lines into a component/part of the project. Once those lines are made into a component nothing sticks to them any more. If other lines touch the component and you move the component the other lines do not move or stretch with the component. But until you make a group of lines into a component all lines will move and or stretch with other attached lines.
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