Sketchup peeps

[Chris333]

Any clue what to do in Sketchup to join the stack base with the smokebox so that the profile follows the smokebox?

I'm so close. If I can just figure that out

[Chris333]

This is what I'm talking about

[AlwaysSolutions]

In my software I might bend the discs to the contour of the smokebox.  Would the "TrueBend" plugin for Sketchup accomplish what you need?

-Mike

[Chris333]

I don't have true bend so I'll have to give it a try. Yet another plug in to get it to work.

[bbussey]

There is no fillet feature in Sketchup?  A fillet would simulate a welded joint.

[Chris333]

There is no fillet feature in Sketchup?  A fillet would simulate a welded joint.

Well lets just say this. When you join just the smokebox and stack together... sometimes Sketchup had problems with only that much. Sometimes small pieces of segments are missing when you join them and you have to go in and find the missing tiny piece to add it manually.

There is a way to round corners and fillet, but I've never tried it on such a complex curve.

[bbussey]

If the seam is intact where the stack meets the boiler and they comprise one solid object, applying a fillet shouldn't be an issue.

[Chris333]

The fillet tool won't even select the seam. I just tried on a much simplified model.

Well I was able to click on every single segment to select the whole "ring", but Sketchup did this to it.



And I tried it with 2 cylinders that had 24 segments to them. I usually use 100 segments so it doesn't look like a stop sign. The more segments the worse Sketchup is a dealing with them.

[Lemosteam]

This is what I'm talking about

In this case only a variable fillet will work; as it tries to complete the fillet up front it will choke on the OD of the smokebox, unless you can reduce the fillet radius at the top and increase the radius as the fillet extends to the sides of the stack.

Can you extend the stack cylinder to make sure the boiler diameter and stack diameter intersect fully? 

Fillets can be finicky if there is not a consistent intersection that it can follow as it fills the corner.

[Sumner]

I use SketchUp some projects but Fusion 360 for all my 3D printed stuff.  Not sure if one of these is what you are headed for...



but did them in a few minutes with Fusion 360.  If you aren't going to use it commercially you can use the personal (non commercial) version free and I love it...

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

Sumner

[bbussey]

With Fusion 360 having a hobby/personal version that is free, that is the best option for more complex designs.

[Chris333]

In the Fusion 360 images above. What was the name of the operation that did that? I'll try to look it up in Sketchup.

I figured it was a complicated operation, but knew it could be done.

[Sumner]

1.  I did a circle on the vertical X-Z plane and extruded it to the shown length. 
2.  Then drew another smaller circle on the X-Y plane above the first cylinder and centered on it. 
3.  I extruded that circle down into the larger cylinder. It then became one body.  I didn't have to use the combine command in this case.
4.  Then clicked on the line where they intersect and on the 'Fillet' command.  That made the fillet to whatever I wanted it to be, either negative as in the one or positive as in the other.
5.  Using the circle command I could then make different size cylinders above the first any diameter needed and used the fillet command on them as needed.

You can do it in about the amount of time it took me to type this out.  So 'Fillet' was the command. 

There are great YouTube videos on Fusion.  This one got me started....

.... and when I'm stuck I find another one to help me.  I probably use/know less than 5% of what fusion is capable of.  I'd look into it as it won't cost you anything unless you are doing this commercially.  If I was or even if I wasn't I'd probably pay the yearly subscription fee as I'm hooked on it.  But don't have to do that as you can renew the personal license when needed ....

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-renew-your-hobbyist-enthusiast-license-for-Fusion-360.html

Sumner

[cv_acr]

There are great YouTube videos on Fusion.

This is a good channel too, he has a number of series where you can follow along on some involved project, but he had a really good set of tutorial videos which go over the basics of using Fusion, and since it's a model railroads specific channel, provides the concepts using useful model examples, and shows show techniques for instance making a small brick building, brick arched windows, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO6U0E0fVTEm9RUQMRtKVKQ

[Chris333]

This particular model took a bad turn. Seems when I initially scaled the drawing it was wrong, too small. So it is easy to resize up bigger, but then the chassis I was going to use no longer is dead on.