Hi Every one. I am new to the knots forum and I am starting to learn Sketchup. I stared to use the tutorials in the “design, click, build blog since they were relevant to what I want to do.
I started with Bob Babcocks tutorial on box joints. It took a little while but I was able to make some box joints. I was not able to use Sketchup for a few days and when I came back a few days later I tried to do the dovetails. No mater what I did the intersect with model part didn’t work. Since I had success with the box joints I tried to do those again. The same problem with the box joints.
I am doing everything exactly as in the video tutorial. My two pieces of wood are 3/4″X6″X12″. These measurements are typed in. The fingers for the box joints are done exactly as in the video. I make the board with the fingers a component and then try to drag it into place and while the blue lines look like they line up (to me), they due not.
I usually end up with one of two problems. problem 1: the fingers are not transcriped to the outside or end of the board and a solid scribe line on the inside. Problem 2. the fingers are transcribed to the outside and the end but there is still a solid scribe line on the inside. Whith the push pull tool the fingers are in the same plane
I have spent two days trying to figure out what the problem is. Obviously things aren’t lining up correctly when I move the component into place. After two days of trying over and over I have not been able to get it to work. If I zoom in on the fingers it looks like the ends of the fingers are are always just a little shy or a little proud of the outside of the other board.
I would like to know what I am doing wrong when I move the component into place. Is there a guaranteed method of alignment that I need to try? If I over size the fingers I can do make it work, but I do not think I should have to oversize and then resize everything I am designing
In case it helps I am running Sketchup 6 on on a three year old Mac Ibook. I have tried working with inches and centimeters with the same results.
Thanks for your help,
Mike
Replies
You need to let the inference engine do the work for you:
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-Steve
Hi Steve,Thank you so much for your reply. That was one of the things that I was doing wrong. I watched Bob's video for what must have been the twentieth time and while that is what he does it goes by so quick it is kind of hard to see. I also saw something else I was doing differently. When I was selecting the "intersect with model" option I had the blank board selected, not the fingered component.I just did a box joint and a set of dovetails. It turns out that is where the problem was. I have to have the component selected selected when I click "intersect with model". With the blank board selected I was doing it backwards! No wonder it didn't work. Do I feel silly now.I have been looking at the design, click, and build blog for a while now and am very impressed by what they those guys can do and it is because of them that I decided to give Sketchup a go. Since I am in a situation where I won't have shop access for a while I thought it would be a good way to work on designing as well as figuring out how to put things together without having to spend a lot of time on prototypes and materials.I feel a little embarrassed that I was making such a basic mistake. It never occurred to me that I was selecting the wrong piece. Mike
Edited 4/18/2008 10:48 am ET by mrawl
Dear mrawl,
I urge you to look through the entries in our blog devoted to SketchUp, called "Design. Click. Build." Tim Killen and Dave Richards, our two bloggers, are nothing short of wizards with SketchUp. I started with the tutorial that's part of the SketchUp application, then spent lots of time just messing around trying different things. Now, I'll see what Tim and Dave are up to. Both are also very generous with their time, trying to answer questions from other users. As you can imagine, they're quite helpful.
In my own experience, I've found SketchUp easier to use than, say, Adobe Illustrator or similar 2D drawing programs. I'll noodle something in SketchUp first and seldom use the other programs. Like Tim, I work out a piece in SketchUp first, then head for the shop.
Best of luck,
David Heim
Managing Editor
FineWoodworking.Com
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