Modeling a spring in SketchUp is actually pretty easy if you use the Follow Me tool. This video will dive a little deeper and help to make your modeling process as quick and easy as possible.
Awesome! I've been struggling at trying to invent this process for the last hour using tilted circles when the light bulb finally lit up and I realized I needed a helix. Thanks!
Awesome Teacher . Very moderate speed lets one digest before moving on. I love your tutorials kindly do one on Dynamic Components and formulas. Love from Kenya.
That was awesome! I love how seeing videos on how to do things gives inspiration on how to meld them together and do a new design or project. Now... if I can just do justice to the idea I have in my head... 😁 I know it won't be for lack of people showing *how* to do things.
Thanks for sharing. Great video. I am curious as to why the SketchUp developers didn't make a 3D rotation tool, do you know? For example, if you could rotate that "first line" so that the bottom end of the copy of the line meets the top end of the original, line it would make constructions such as the spiral a lot easier.
Great tutorial! One nit: You said "using only native tools," but you used Weld (not native). Weld is one of my favorite extensions though--probably because it's so simple, yet very useful!
Excellent Video Aron ;-) I've got a totally different question: Under Window/Preferences/Workspace I can select 'Use Large Tool Buttons' ! Is there a way to make these buttons even larger ? And that goes also for the measurements-box in the lower right corner ? Thanks in advance ;-)
Great tutorial, I managed to replicate it in my project, however, it seems like the online version of Sketchup isn't able to cope with this, it took a few minutes for my follow me tool to generate the spring and I feared it had crashed but decided to leave it for a while and sure enough a few minutes later the spring generated.
Great video :) I'm a Mac user. Now to my question. How do you do to change directions on your axis so quickly change to blue/green/red? The way you do at 4:30...
how did you smooth at 5:14? i don't have that many options in my entity info window? it just has the topmost simple pane? i right clicked and chose "Soften/Smooth Edges" but it did nothing?
around 4:33 , how did you draw that circle vertically ? i tried to press right/left arrow keys but still horizontal, tried up or down arrow keys too but "constaint is not appropriate at this time"
Excellence in teaching Would you be willing to do a video explaining how to convert XKP files from newer version to older one. For example version 2022 to 2021 ..and so on, Than you
I notice that on most tutorials, they always stress making objects into groups as soon as they are created. Your first circle, for example. I notice that on your tutorials you don't tend to do that. Is there a reason?
On my Mac I use the arrow keys to lock to axis. The up key for blue and either left or right for green- I can’t ever remember, but you can just toggle until you get the right one!
I am struggling with making a table leg that has a spiraled cove cut into it. The leg remains square at the top and bottom. The middle section has diagonal lines across it (3) each diagonal line is a groove or cove. I can build it in shop but struggling to model it. When I use follow me starting with taking a semicircle across the diagonals it works great on first face but it rotates 90 on second face and 180 on third face etc. I will keep looking.
The more you fiddle with that kind of software, the faster you think on solutions, specially if you master most tools the software has; you even find the same results in different approaches. Modelling is life
1:40 I'm on Windows using SketchUp Pro 2018 and i keep getting invalid angle at that point x23 is put in, i resorted to selecting groups i copied and copying them over then selecting larger and larger groups lol Spring i ended up making had 200 sides :-) but i first tried it with the default 24 sides Edit: Never Mind! figured out that after you copy you have to select in the area you want to move it next for the first copy THEN punch in x23, had fun either way! and thanks Double Edit: Also, what i did to easily delete the extra lines was just delete the base parts of the cercle only next to the ones i wanted to keep then triple click the sections that were still connected. Made quick work of it.
I know this is hard to diagnose without viewing my sketch, but when I try to use the follow me tool on the circle I receive the message "this does not appear to be a valid path." I've tried just lining it up with the spring as well as pressing the right arrow key so it aligns on the red axis. Any idea what'd cause this?
As you said, this is hard to figure out without seeing the model. Are you selecting lines (as opposed to a surface)? If you have not figured it out, you may want to head over to our forum (forums.sketchup.com) and post a picture of your issue... As you eluded to, it's tough to troubleshoot modeling issues in YoutTube comments!
It's clean modeling practice to have the Front faces facing out, but it's especially important when you render a model. Some rendering engines interpret Back faces as transparent, which can lead to unexpected results.
A bit late, I know, but just in case you re-read this... I suspect you are using Windows, in which case you may find that the * (asterisk) works rather than "x". Works for me, anyway!
PLEASE HELP: I need to 3d print a 1m long, 50 mm inside section (1 mm wall) spring. All the segments must be printed separately and i they must fit one after the other... Any ideas? I cannot make the "fitting" since the sections are not aligned.. they all have a certain angle between each other. This will be a squash ball machine that originally has only a 5 ball feeder. This spring will allow me to feed dozens every time... Thanks everyone
Hello! I have a question and I need help! When I download a 3D Warehouse object, I copy it and paste it several times, when I want to edit it, ALL the copied elements are edited when in reality I only want to edit one of those because I need the others as the original, how can I do it? Thank you very much and I hope you will respond soon!
Julia Berenguer It sounds like you downloaded a component. Just right-click on the copy you want to edit and choose “make unique” before editing. In the future, try our forum for quick answers for questions like these (forums.sketchup.com).
OK i know I am 3 years late here, but I'll try anyway. I am at 4:51 in video and so far everything goes good. Now when I have drawn that small circle, selected the spring line, click on "follow me" and then I click on the circle, it just instantly disappears without following the spring line. Anyone know why?
@@SketchUp ok, that work. Thank you! But now I have to figure out how to change the size of the whole model If I cannot create it in the real size :D But that should not be too hard :)
@@SketchUp thanks for the reply! It's very strange, the lines are the only thing selected (blue) but no matter what the entire shape gets resized. I can't even copy it. Is there a setting I need for the move tool? I've noticed it can be locked to axis. Thanks again
Fine tips! But I have one question: You know that the circle is not perpendicular on the first segment of the spiral. Can you recomand a tool or an extension to fix this?
If you use the axes tool from the large tool palette and align the red, or green with the direction of the first part of the line and the green, or red with the face of the circle the circle is orientated at 90 degrees to the path.
im using sketchup free (browser) to do this... at 4:43 the circle is created on the green axis that essentially creates the spring. my "circle doesn't flip to follow the coil; it stays on the green axis. help?
Very nice, however not perfect, technically speaking. The circle that start the follow up comand should be drawn perpendicular to the first segment, which is rotated 7.5º from the green axis plus the angle on the vertical plane, and not on the blu-green plane. But, the proposed solution in this video is quite sufficient for general use.
Laurent if you use the axes tool from the large tool palette and align the red, or green with the direction of the first part of the line and the green, or red with the face of the circle the circle is orientated at 90 degrees to the path.
as an engineer . it is not convinient to the beginners. it is too complex and primary. i have another method more simple and short , logically. i used it now while i was watching you. 1- draw 4 vertical lines in 4 sides of a circle in different hights from 1,2,3,4(0) units.. ie(1/4...1/2...3/4....4/4) of the hight of the turn. 2- draw a 3 POINT ARC between first three virtical lines (0,1,2). 3- draw a second 3 POINT ARC between second three virtical lines (2,3,4). 4- this will make a first turn. 5- coppy turn. thanks.
