Replies

1. 
   daverichards | Feb 23, 2013 08:02am | #1

   First of all, don't use Follow Me for this. Unless the hole is fairly large, you'll probably run into the tiny faces issue.

   Here are the steps to create the countersink manually:

   1. Draw a circle the size of the outside of the countersink centered on the hole. You can use inferencing to guide the Circle tool to the center or you can set a couple of crossing guidelines or you can use Point at Center to identify the center.

   2. Select the edge of the hole.

   3. Get the Move tool and hold Alt (or Command on Mac) to invoke AutoFold.

   4. Move the edge of the circle inward the desired distance.

   Presto! A countersunk hole.

   If you really must have the countersink angle accurate, you can setup some guidelines to help identify that.

   If you have a lot of countersunk holes to draw perhaps you should look at the Wudworx plugin. It'll draw the whole countersunk hole with a single click of the mouse. See my recent blog post in Design. Click. Build.

   Maybe I can do a blog post to show the steps I outlined above.

1. 
   forrestb | Feb 23, 2013 01:22pm | #2

   ooops!

   I guess that I should have stated that I have the free version of Sketchup 8, not Pro.  So it appears that I have no "AutoFold" function using the Move/Command key on my Mac.

   I did find a technique on the web at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAro_u1Wv00 that uses the Scale function.  I can get the proper countersink following that but I have to do each axis direction separately instead of what appears to be one move on the video.  I have tried Shift, Option, & Command but still can't use one move.

   Is this a limitation of the Free version or is the author doing something else?

   Thanks for the help.

   Forrest

1. 
   daverichards | Feb 23, 2013 01:37pm | #3

   First of all, Autofold is not just a pro feature. The free version has it too. Get the Move tool and look at the bottom left of the drawing window. It'll show you the modifier keys for the tool.

   As to the video, it seems like a lot of unneeded work to me.

   If that's your preferred way to do it, grabbing a corner scale handle and hold Option to scale about center, you can do it in one move. Again, pay attention to the hints in the lower left corner of the screen after you've gotten the tool.

2. 
   daverichards | Feb 23, 2013 07:03pm | #4

   Forrest, check out the Design. Click. Build. blog. I did a little demo video to show using Autofold to create countersunk holes. Maybe it'll help.

   -Dave