Thread: Exploding a drawing

Originally Posted by silentC

I've got a couple of examples at home. I'll try to remember to grab them at lunch time and post them for you.

That would be great Silent.

Thanks
Geoff'

Sorry, better late than never.

The first pic is just a cut away thing that I'm working from at the moment. Instead of exploding it, I just hide the bits I don't want to see and put in some dimensions. It's not very sophisticated. I do this at different stages to see the bits I'm working on at the time and to read dimensions off and get joinery right. I'm not in mass production mode for this one, just making the bits and assmebling things as I go along.

The second pic is an exploded view of a different cabinet that I made a few months ago. The third and fourth are the cutting lists I made. For this one I cut all the components first and then assembled.

Hope that helps a bit.

Forgot to say how I did the last two: I opened a new document and just copy and pasted each component in, then aligned them all in the same plane and added the dimensions.

Hi Garfield, Silent,

Looks great Silence! You are probably aware that if you set the camera to parallel projection you don't have to orbit around to have a good view of your layout (the last 2 pictures) They look good the way they do but it just is an easy way

Since I posted my remark in your thread Garfield I bought the plugin I mentioned.
The price was US $ 20. Played around a bit and it works great. You select the parts (or the whole design) you want to explode, give the distance and direction and there you go!

With one click you can put the parts back again!!

An other nice plugin for Sketchup is Cutlist 4.0.
With this plugin you can lay out your parts on your lumber in the most efficient way. You can use solid wood and ply or a combination of it.
It produces a cut list and an graphic representation of your lumber and sheet material.

The place to download it is here http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/daltxguy/blog/5143 and the best part it is free!

I can post some pictures if you like, but I ordered some wood today and I hear the truck coming, so I got to give them a hand.
Let me know.

Kayu

Originally Posted by silentC

Sorry, better late than never.

The first pic is just a cut away thing that I'm working from at the moment. Instead of exploding it, I just hide the bits I don't want to see and put in some dimensions. It's not very sophisticated. I do this at different stages to see the bits I'm working on at the time and to read dimensions off and get joinery right. I'm not in mass production mode for this one, just making the bits and assmebling things as I go along.

The second pic is an exploded view of a different cabinet that I made a few months ago. The third and fourth are the cutting lists I made. For this one I cut all the components first and then assembled.

Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks very much for that Silent. much appreciated and gives me something to work off. I must also ask though - what;s the best way to line all the little pieces together... like say a tenon joint, when you want that that to go in the whole is it hard to line up?

Geoff

Originally Posted by kayu

Hi Garfield, Silent,

Looks great Silence! You are probably aware that if you set the camera to parallel projection you don't have to orbit around to have a good view of your layout (the last 2 pictures) They look good the way they do but it just is an easy way

Since I posted my remark in your thread Garfield I bought the plugin I mentioned.
The price was US $ 20. Played around a bit and it works great. You select the parts (or the whole design) you want to explode, give the distance and direction and there you go!

With one click you can put the parts back again!!

An other nice plugin for Sketchup is Cutlist 4.0.
With this plugin you can lay out your parts on your lumber in the most efficient way. You can use solid wood and ply or a combination of it.
It produces a cut list and an graphic representation of your lumber and sheet material.

The place to download it is here http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/daltxguy/blog/5143 and the best part it is free!

I can post some pictures if you like, but I ordered some wood today and I hear the truck coming, so I got to give them a hand.
Let me know.

Kayu

Hi Kayu, Thanks for your input in this matter as well. I sure wouldn't mind seeing pictures mate if it's not too much of a hassle.

Thanks
Geoff

what;s the best way to line all the little pieces together... like say a tenon joint, when you want that that to go in the whole is it hard to line up?

If you make the items as components, you can get them to snap together just using the move tool. It seems to know what you want to do and aligns the faces of the tenon with the inside of the mortice. Really very easy. You can also get points to snap together by selecting one with the move tool and then dragging towards a point on the other object, like a corner or a centre line or dimension line. You'll get a feel for it after you've had a bit of a play.

Originally Posted by silentC

If you make the items as components, you can get them to snap together just using the move tool. It seems to know what you want to do and aligns the faces of the tenon with the inside of the mortice. Really very easy. You can also get points to snap together by selecting one with the move tool and then dragging towards a point on the other object, like a corner or a centre line or dimension line. You'll get a feel for it after you've had a bit of a play.

Ok, thanks heaps for your help Silent. much appreciated.

I've downloaded the free Google Sketchup for my work computer (SSSSShhh) but it's showing the dimensions in feet and inches, how do i change that to metric please?

Window | Preferences | Template then select one of the metric ones.

Originally Posted by silentC

Window | Preferences | Template then select one of the metric ones.

Thanks Silent. If I could I'd buy you a beer

Hi,

Sorry for the delay, but Internet was down most of the time and when it was up, so slow that I could not post pictures. Any way here they are if you are still interested.

First picture:
A chair and an exploded copy done with the plugin I mentioned.

Second picture

A screengrab from the output by the cutlist plugin showing the boards and the parts of the chair laid out on the board.

Third:

A list with parts of the chair. The list is generated by the plugin as a csv file wich means you can import it in a spreadsheet and eventually manipulate it (sorting ?)

The cutlist-plugin is not yet finished and has some issues. Printing is troublesome but overall it helps a lot


Kayu

Originally Posted by kayu

Hi,

Sorry for the delay, but Internet was down most of the time and when it was up, so slow that I could not post pictures. Any way here they are if you are still interested.

First picture:
A chair and an exploded copy done with the plugin I mentioned.

Second picture

A screengrab from the output by the cutlist plugin showing the boards and the parts of the chair laid out on the board.

Third:

A list with parts of the chair. The list is generated by the plugin as a csv file wich means you can import it in a spreadsheet and eventually manipulate it (sorting ?)

The cutlist-plugin is not yet finished and has some issues. Printing is troublesome but overall it helps a lot


Kayu

Magic!! thanks Kayu