I find it a bit frustrating trying to learn the ins and outs of Sketchup Pro for my more complex projects.
After two days, I managed to build this. it’s not perfect (I’d really like to learn how to make the shapes I need to make the card holder on the front of the box look better. It should be more rounded when pulling. Similarly, the card follower parts of (Index are not exact, as I still don’t know enough about making shapes, and I couldn’t figure out the best way to make the “hooks” on the bed rail. Course recommendations? Books?)
Anyway, I noticed when I grouped everything into one component (Zettelkasten drawer) that there is extra space on one side. I don’t know why This component is made up of other groups and components. Could it be because there is something invisible in one of the subgroups/subcomponents?
Upload the model here. So I’m sure one of us can figure out what’s going on.
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Most likely you have included some hidden geometry in the group with the visible stuff. As @slbaumgartner suggests, we can help you pinpoint the exact cause by uploading the .skp file.
It won’t let me upload it. She says it’s too big.
Upload the file to DropBox or Google Drive and share the link.
Well let’s see if this works…
Small small border in the lower left front corner of the component. Turn on Hidden Geometry, open the component for editing, and drag a selection window from left to right around the corner of the bounding box. Then press Delete.
Some other observations about your model.
The track for the divider thingy has exposed back faces. That should be corrected.
Some incorrect label usage in the model. All edges and faces must be untagged. Only components and groups should get tags.
It’s a good idea to purge unused stuff from time to time.
That reduced the file size by a little over 90%.
Zettelkasten 20230318A purged.skp (1.8 MB)
Do you have any pictures of the drawer pull or maybe you have a real one in your possession that you can get the dimensions from?
Thank you! Any recommendations on courses/books/videos to learn? I have other questions, but I don’t want to start posting dozens of posts and maybe irritating people.
For basic information, you can refer to learn.sketchup.com. I’ve done a few things for FineWoodworking.com on woodworking issues with SketchUp.
Yes. I have all the hardware. I used rulers and calipers to get the width, but couldn’t due to lack of ability to model them correctly.
OK. I did the purge. And that’s great! Thank you.
I don’t know how to find the things that are tagged that you said shouldn’t be tagged. I thought it was just tagging components. I didn’t know I even tagged groups, let alone faces or edges.
And I can’t see the open backs you mentioned either.
Can you tell me how to find/fix those things?
I’ve seen a lot of videos, but I can’t seem to find something more “systematic” to teach the use of the program for general woodworking. I did see a training course that I found, but it was pretty basic and didn’t include some of the more complex stuff I’m trying to do. I bought Taking Sketchup Pro to the Next Level, by Aaron Dietzen, and I’m halfway there, but it also doesn’t seem to explain how to do any of what I want (eg how to make it pull, or any other hardware).
I couldn’t figure out the correct way to make the “dimples” on the track, so I circumvented it. I figured it didn’t have to be perfect for me to know how to build it. But he did want the model to be as complete and accurate as possible.
I don’t know if this is the right place to put this, but I’m very confused about the axes. I am trying to draw tables for the various sides. So I figured I should hold down the right arrow key while using the rectangle to constrain the green axis. But it looks to me like you’re drawing it under the box, instead of next to it. So I thought, “well, maybe it has to be the blue one, since it goes up the side,” but that puts the rectangle under my box.
So… that’s why I want to find a complete course.
Thanks for your help so far! I appreciate it!
How will you use them in your model? Are you planning to build the drawers to include the hardware you have? Unless you plan to create drawings to fabricate the hardware, I suggest only detailing important items like mounting holes and leaving out details that won’t affect the build. That being said, you can improve the appearance of things. For example, the tab on the drawer pull could be done as shown here.
In this case, I drew the finger tab sticking out of the back plate. Then I use Radial Bending from an extension called FredoScale to bend it.
That is beautiful. She wishes she could have done that. I’ll look up the extension you used and try to find out.
I’m just building this for myself, basically I could share it with some people in the zettelkasten community who want to build their own.
But I’m just trying to learn how to make things look as realistic as possible for my plans. Maybe I have a little OCD, I don’t know. (I know I have ADHD and I tend to go very deep into things that interest me.)
How hard was it to do that pull? I’ll get to work right away!
I understand. I have done excessively detailed models although I tend to reserve it for models where the detailed model is the final product. I don’t go crazy with excessive detail for things like furniture plans. If you look at the link in my profile you will see both.
The jerk isn’t really that hard to do, but it does require a reasonable knowledge of tools. FredoScale is available in Sketchucation. There are other extensions that could be used with the correct configuration. Examples would be Shape Bender and True Bend. It might also be a good idea to use The Dave Method and work on a larger scale for the hardware, although I didn’t do that here.
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Thank you. I’m going to investigate all of those.
I still can’t find those open faces, or the tagged things that shouldn’t be tagged. I guess right now that’s above my level of knowledge on how to find them.
No open faces. Inverted faces. Set the Face Style to Monochrome so that you can see the faces without the materials.
Fixed wrong label edges and faces before purging the model of unused stuff. It may be that the correct tagging is actually on some unused components.
I used a plugin called Default Layer Geometry to fix the labeling. This is available on Sketchucation. I used TIG Purge All to purge the unused stuff from the model because it gives the report I showed. You can do the same purge without the report via Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused.
Oh rats. I’ll have to look at your model and see if that helps me figure things out, or maybe try to go through the procedure after getting the stuff you said you used.
I was working on my model while you and I were talking and I’ve already added a few things. I went ahead and did the purge myself and like you said it was down by about 90%!
EDIT: I probably need to learn more about faces. I don’t know what an inverted face is.
You might want to check out the fundamentals at learn.sketchup.com
I bet that flip-face thingy must be because of how I built it. I drew a line in the shape of the side profile. But I couldn’t figure out how to extrude a line. So I made a copy 1mm apart, and then drew lines to connect them at the top and bottom, and then extruded them to the width of the object I needed.
It’s probably that. If you draw the end profile instead of the side, you can use Push/Pull to extrude it lengthwise.
