Sketchup Project questions

[osx-addict]

Hi all..

I'm in the process of building a Slant board for stretching my Achilles tendon like I do when I'm taking physical therapy.. I need a couple of these (one for home, one for work, etc) and each one if purchased is >$75-$120 depending on the model, capabilities,etc.. So, I modeled mine after one I've got access to at the physical therapy place but with a few mods for the angles provided.. So, yesterday I went through the Sketchup tutorial #1 without problems and started using those steps to make my design for the slant board. All was good and I'm about 90% there but have a few questions :

1. Once one or more items is grouped together, is there a way to modify the group characteristics without affecting other groups within the project? I found yesterday that one of my board sizes was wrong and needed to adjust by 1/2" but when I resized that board it resized everything else in the project as well which defeated the purpose.. Is there any easy way to do this?
2. Once one or more items are grouped, I tried to punch some rectangular holes though the boards that make up Group C (see attached) but can't get the extrusion tools (follow-me or push-pull tools) to work properly. Is this because the rectangular shapes are not part of Group C or something else?

I've attached my project drawing so you can see it directly along with a picture showing what I'm doing..

[ATTACH]8978[/ATTACH]

You can see that when I remove Group C from the rendering that the rectangles remain in place.. I suspect this is related to the problem.. Correct?

[ATTACH]8979[/ATTACH]

This is the goal I'm after with the foot board poking through the angled back board.. There will be several more holes in the back board to allow various angles for the feet..
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Here's the zip file with the project in it.. Let me know if you've got any suggestions! By the way, this is using the Shopsmith Tutorial template.
[ATTACH]8980[/ATTACH]

[tom_k/mo]

Rick yes, once you've grouped some entities, you are able to edit/modify that group without effecting everything else. You do that by double-clicking on the group, and it "opens" the group for editing, and everything outside that group is grayed out. Once you're done editing the group, just click outide the group to "close" the group.

To use the Intersect tool or follow-me tools to work on the grouped entity, you again, have to open the group for editing first.

If you have more detailed questions, and if you'd like some one-on-one help, if you have Skype, just chat me up and I can show you directly how to do it.

[tenbears]

Rick: Lots of ways to accomplish what I believe you are trying to do. My fast without a lot of thinking approach would be as follows based on your file which I used note all my steps. There are other methods that work but they also take a bit more time to get right. Using intersections and deleting things for instance. I use this method too, but then I usually delete one or two lines incorrectly and have to back track myself. When dealing with simple rectangles the rectangle and push pull is my go to approach for intersections.

Ungroup your groups and make components out of the two parts: (angled piece and vertical. Delete the second pair as we'll make a copy from the completed ones at the end.

Next rotate the angled part to horizontal, it was angled at 20º in your file.
Slide the horizontal to the intersection with the vertical part so the tenon extends through the vertical.

Open the vertical component, draw a rectangle around the tenon. Use Push/Pull and push the mortise through the vertical part.
Close the component.

Select both the horizontal and vertical components, and rotate back the 20ºs

Select the pair and using the move/option commands, make a duplicate in place of your second set of components, (your file)

You can clean up the ends with beveled cuts to complete a nice unit.

[osx-addict]

Thanks Tom! I wasn't able to double-click for some reason but was able to select the grouped items and right-click to do "Edit group" which then drew a bounding larger box around the entire group..

One more question if I could.. I have occasional trouble with the Follow-Me tool -- like now for these two extrusions.. I put a rectangle back in (I deleted the original ones) as part of the group. I then selected the Follow-Me tool and hovered the mouse over one of the rectangles and clicked when the pattern was in the right spot.. However, about 70% of the time it does nothing or generates a really ODD shape that is not the original shape to be worked on.. This one tool really drives me nuts and I'm sure it must be user-error.. Any suggestions for what I'm doing wrong?

[osx-addict]

Thanks TenBears too.. I'm still trying to figure out some of this stuff but at least I got past my last stumbling block when I tried this tutorial several months ago which was related to the guide lines.. I did end up getting the holes punched through that one board using the push-pull tool.. I think the follow-me tool wasn't happy because it didn't have a line to follow like I see used in the examples. I suspect it could still be used but as long as I'm able to get by for now I'm good..

[tom_k/mo]

Thanks Tom! ...One more question if I could.. I have occasional trouble with the Follow-Me tool -- like now for these two extrusions.. I put a rectangle back in (I deleted the original ones) as part of the group. I then selected the Follow-Me tool and hovered the mouse over one of the rectangles and clicked when the pattern was in the right spot.. However, about 70% of the time it does nothing or generates a really ODD shape that is not the original shape to be worked on.. This one tool really drives me nuts and I'm sure it must be user-error.. Any suggestions for what I'm doing wrong?

Rick check out Lesson 3 and Lesson 5. They both have videos on the use of the FollowMe tool. That should help you out. That being said, you can get unpredictable and sometimes undesired results if your pattern shape you're using for the follow-me function isn't perpendicular to the path, and/or if it's beyond the path. Just something I've picked up...

[tenbears]

I follow Dave Richards and Tim Killen on the Design Click and Build blog through the FWW. There are many other excellent discussions relating to Sketchup but these two are focused mainly on woodworking and using Sketchup related to woodworking situations. I've been using Sketchup for nearly four years now, Pro version and really starting to get into using Layout which comes with the Pro version. Very useful for flat dimensional drawings in the shop. From the 3D concept to the 2D printed page to work off of. It has really only been this winter that I've gotten to the point of not frequently retracing my steps within Sketchup but it has also helped with conceptualizing the end results and the step by step process of actually making complex projects easier to build.

BTW Dave just posted a new tutorial at FWW - "A Barley Twist". Great reading for this evening.

[osx-addict]

Thanks guys! I was able to get things in a pretty good shape for my first project! I'm attaching the updated version of the file for your reference.. Now to try scaled printing.

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Almost forgot the picture...
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[tom_k/mo]

Glad you were able to get it finished Rick, FYI, if you go to File/Export/2D_Graphic you can export a JPG that doesn't contain the axes...

[wa2crk]

Hey why such a big deal?
About ten years ago my orthopaedic surgeon suggested a method for stretching to remove heal spurs by standing in a doorway and putting your hands on the door jamb and while keeping your feet flat on the floor, lean as far forward as you can to stretch the tendon. Another is to stand on a step and with your toes on the step lower your heels as far as you can and hold for as long as you can. This is not an instant cure and it will take about thirty days but it does work cause I have not had heal pain in a very long time.
Bill