sketchup blog 12/12/08

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:52 pm

I did several more parts this week so every time I do something I learn a bit more and sometimes get myself in trouble...

Case in point I just finished a spring. It is the one on the 520 rails so it was not only a spring but also a tapered spring. I was able to come up with a way of doing it by creating 144 guide points. While time consuming it is educational and since I can't be in the shop now anyway, why not spend a few hours on this project.

[ATTACH]2539[/ATTACH]

Now the problem, in actual use the spring compresses but I have no idea how to attempt to make sketchup compress something... I can scale it but then the wire shrinks as well as the spaces... I guess I've come to another dead end.

How are all the other new users doing? I'll try and post a few more of my projects a bit later.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:16 pm

Nice looking tapered spring.

As far as I know, there's no way to "compress" the spring without the round wire becoming an oval (using the scale function). I'd save a copy of the spring centerline BEFORE I did the "Follow-Me" on it, and you could scale THAT, then produce a copy of the spring relaxed and another one compressed.

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:51 pm

Hi,

I thought of that just after my post... I was showing SHMBO my spring and the couple of saved files leading up to the fifth version. One was of the spring as lines. Then it came to me that might be the answer, so I scaled that then did the extrude. Bingo!

I'm sure their might be easier ways but this was rather fun. Here is a saved step along the way which shows the layout before I started to add the lines.

[ATTACH]2540[/ATTACH]

I wasn't all that sure this idea would work and it would be a lot of work for nothing if it didn't. I used a spread sheet to generate the data then away I went. Trying to keep track of which line was which made it even more fun. If I do it again I'd do a line then put the guide points then the next line etc.

I had a feeling that "compression" would be a little to much to expect.

It is good to know we have a few users here who can help us out, thanks!

Ed

tom_k/mo wrote:Nice looking tapered spring.

As far as I know, there's no way to "compress" the spring without the round wire becoming an oval (using the scale function). I'd save a copy of the spring centerline BEFORE I did the "Follow-Me" on it, and you could scale THAT, then produce a copy of the spring relaxed and another one compressed.

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:25 pm

I have collect a few jpg's of some of the parts I have created (all in V7). As I get more made I'll update there.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/12199425@N02/sets/72157611121366519/
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Due to changes in my Flickr account this information has been removed 12/26/2008
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Ed

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:25 pm

Ed,
If you are interested, here is a tutorial showing another way to make a helix. It looks to be a little less time consuming...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... ebe72b5709

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:46 pm

curiousgeorge wrote:Ed,
If you are interested, here is a tutorial showing another way to make a helix. It looks to be a little less time consuming...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... ebe72b5709

Yeah George, I do it that way also, but Ed's is a tapered helix, and I've been playing around this evening, and I haven't found a way to take one made like that and taper it.

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:03 pm

This is not far from what I did how ever since the one I did has a taper you can't just do the copy thing... It took me a while to envision how to get the taper, my first start I just tried it with 4 guide lines in the blue direction and trying to use the arc tool, that didn't take long to find I wasn't getting what I wanted. At least it was educational to play with the tool and get something like I wanted.

It was interesting to see how someone else approached the issue, thanks for the tutorial link!

Ed

curiousgeorge wrote:Ed,
If you are interested, here is a tutorial showing another way to make a helix. It looks to be a little less time consuming...

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=da5a86fd8df8c8fc301d52ebe72b5709

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 12:07 am

OOPS! Yeah, I forgot about the tapered part. Chalk it up to old age, I guess.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:30 pm

Nothing to do tonight, so I thought I'd model another SS part. Here's the Jacobs Chuck and key. Boy, the teeth were fun... If anyone wants it, it will be up in SketchUp's 3D Warehouse.

reible · Post by **reible** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:13 am

Nice looking chuck!

I haven't got into gears yet but I'm guess that can be a little time consuming to figure out the first time.

One of my sons is now hooked. I showed him a couple of quick things and he managed to come up with a not to scale version of his new house that is under construction. Basement to roof top... we talked the night before and by 10:00 am he had learned enough to have a nice model ready when we stopped by.

I haven't done anything since the spring... I might get to watch a few more instruction videos yet tonight before bed. So much more to learn.

Ed