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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → 3D Modelling/Scanning/Design → Creating inward 45 degree angles???
Well like I showed above an object that doesn't have equal side and point distance from a center like a circle, square, or hexigon than the inner shape must be a different verzion of the shape. Kind of morphed into a more circular shape so the path between the inner and outter shape doesn't change width.
Scaling the object wont work - as you found out.
in 123D Design you would need to use the "offset" function - sketch out your shape, then offset it by X mms - that would give a uniform distance all the way around for an irregular shape...
not sure about other programs, but I would imagine there is something similar.
I have succeeded at using Sketchups offset function but it created a lot of extra lines I needed to delete afterwards and I extruded as needed. I haven't been able to do a thing without first exploding the entire object. And even after exploding I don't know exactly how to use the follow me tool. Any detailed instructions?
I'm going to attach the file if anyone else would like to see if they can make it work with Sketchup. I have a bad feeling it is lacking something to make the 45 degree wall possible.
Conversation always drops off by the 2nd page. I hope I won't need to repost this topic.
I'd like to help you, but I'm not sure what you're doing. I though my explanation on how to do the bevels was pretty clear. I'm not sure where the "exploding" of the object came from, it's not necessary, unless it was imported as text or as a bezier curve from something like Adobe Illustrator.
Anyway, if you follow my example, you should be able to successfully apply a bevel to the inside of that badge. It takes some practice, so I suggest you do something simple first, like a square, before you tackle the more complicated surface.
I suppose I could do it for you, but you wouldn't learn anything, and besides, I did download your model, and unfortunately it's in a much newer version of SketchUp that the one I have, and I'm not ready to update yet.
afraid I am not much help either, I dont know anything about sketchup as i dont use it.
I installed the latest SketchUp Make on my work PC, and loaded this model.
First of all, let me say that I would try to re-draw this manually, because whatever it was imported from did not have very clean outlines. What it looks like in fact is a poorly auto-traced Illustrator outline.
Never the less, I was able to open it, and using the technique described before, I drew a profile on the side of the inner wall, the using the FollowMe tool, it created the bevel.
The problem is, it also created many intersecting faces, due to the fact the outline of the wall is jagged. As I mentioned earlier, the outline is not a clean curve, rather it's made of many straight lines, that more often than not zig-zag. Especially the corners overlapped each other.
Anyway, here is the badge, cleaned up as much as possible. However I still think you should try drawing this again.
I installed the latest SketchUp Make on my work PC, and loaded this model.
First of all, let me say that I would try to re-draw this manually, because whatever it was imported from did not have very clean outlines. What it looks like in fact is a poorly auto-traced Illustrator outline.
Never the less, I was able to open it, and using the technique described before, I drew a profile on the side of the inner wall, the using the FollowMe tool, it created the bevel.
The problem is, it also created many intersecting faces, due to the fact the outline of the wall is jagged. As I mentioned earlier, the outline is not a clean curve, rather it's made of many straight lines, that more often than not zig-zag. Especially the corners overlapped each other.
Anyway, here is the badge, cleaned up as much as possible. However I still think you should try drawing this again.
I outlined the shape with inkscape by hand using 60% smoothing as someone suggested and sent that file to tinkercad to add depth and exported a .stl. Then used either meshlab or meshmixer to convert to .dae so I could open it in Sketchup to do the offset and hopefully 45 inlets. I don't know how to do it better.
pirvan wrote:I installed the latest SketchUp Make on my work PC, and loaded this model.
First of all, let me say that I would try to re-draw this manually, because whatever it was imported from did not have very clean outlines. What it looks like in fact is a poorly auto-traced Illustrator outline.
Never the less, I was able to open it, and using the technique described before, I drew a profile on the side of the inner wall, the using the FollowMe tool, it created the bevel.
The problem is, it also created many intersecting faces, due to the fact the outline of the wall is jagged. As I mentioned earlier, the outline is not a clean curve, rather it's made of many straight lines, that more often than not zig-zag. Especially the corners overlapped each other.
Anyway, here is the badge, cleaned up as much as possible. However I still think you should try drawing this again.
I outlined the shape with inkscape by hand using 60% smoothing as someone suggested and sent that file to tinkercad to add depth and exported a .stl. Then used either meshlab or meshmixer to convert to .dae so I could open it in Sketchup to do the offset and hopefully 45 inlets. I don't know how to do it better.
Have you looked on thingiverse? There are blank stl files of badges already there. You could use one of those and add your own graphics.
I didn't find any modern police badges. Just old western badges on thingiverse. As for exploding objects in sketchup I find it doesn't let me touch individual surfaces of objects unless I do.
Here is your badge. If you want to try this yourself, you shouldn't "freehand" it, you should try to use lines and arcs.
The drawback to Sketchup is that it doesn't really have a spline tool. A spline tool lets you create curves with variable radii, and each end point has a control handle that lets you adjust the radius of the curve, but in a pinch you can do almost the same thing with arcs, you just need to segment a curve into multiple arcs.
I'm not a SketchUp user, I work primarily in Solidworks, but with a bit of trial and error, I figured it out. This took me about 1 hour to figure out how to do correctly, but as you can see it looks pretty good.
Nothing is easy the first time, you just need to work at it. Keep practicing. 
Update:
I did a search for Spline/Bezier curve as it pertains to SketchUp, and Trimble (the developers of SketchUp), have an extension available that does just this:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/cont … curve-tool
You simply download and install the extension, then you can draw using the Bezier curve tool. This should simplify and dramatically improve your ability to trace outlines like the one on this badge.
Update:
I did a search for Spline/Bezier curve as it pertains to SketchUp, and Trimble (the developers of SketchUp), have an extension available that does just this:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/cont … curve-tool
You simply download and install the extension, then you can draw using the Bezier curve tool. This should simplify and dramatically improve your ability to trace outlines like the one on this badge.
You didn't need to spend an hour doing it yourself. I appreciate it though. I would have taken the time to do it myself. I didn't trace the object in Sketchup though. I used Inkscape. Sketchup was just to offset and try to add the 45 degree rim. For Inkscape would you imagine I should crank the smoothing out to 90 percent or so?
pirvan wrote:Update:
I did a search for Spline/Bezier curve as it pertains to SketchUp, and Trimble (the developers of SketchUp), have an extension available that does just this:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/cont … curve-tool
You simply download and install the extension, then you can draw using the Bezier curve tool. This should simplify and dramatically improve your ability to trace outlines like the one on this badge.
You didn't need to spend an hour doing it yourself. I appreciate it though. I would have taken the time to do it myself. I didn't trace the object in Sketchup though. I used Inkscape. Sketchup was just to offset and try to add the 45 degree rim. For Inkscape would you imagine I should crank the smoothing out to 90 percent or so?
Actually I think the issue is inkscape. You need a program that makes lines as solid an uniform as possible. Inkscape is freehsnd and so thr lines will have jagged artifacts that will affect other programs you try to import to. You really should use a program such as sketchup full time.
pirvan wrote:Update:
I did a search for Spline/Bezier curve as it pertains to SketchUp, and Trimble (the developers of SketchUp), have an extension available that does just this:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/cont … curve-tool
You simply download and install the extension, then you can draw using the Bezier curve tool. This should simplify and dramatically improve your ability to trace outlines like the one on this badge.
You didn't need to spend an hour doing it yourself. I appreciate it though. I would have taken the time to do it myself. I didn't trace the object in Sketchup though. I used Inkscape. Sketchup was just to offset and try to add the 45 degree rim. For Inkscape would you imagine I should crank the smoothing out to 90 percent or so?
Unless you have a bionic hand you probably won't be able to draw a perfectly smooth line.
I am not familiar with Inkscape, but without tools that allow you to draw Bezier curves, or arcs, you won't achieve a clean model. You should look elsewhere if you're seriously interested in doing 3D modeling. SketchUp is a good beginning, although even that leaves a lot to be desired.
Rocketman wrote:pirvan wrote:Update:
I did a search for Spline/Bezier curve as it pertains to SketchUp, and Trimble (the developers of SketchUp), have an extension available that does just this:
https://extensions.sketchup.com/en/cont … curve-tool
You simply download and install the extension, then you can draw using the Bezier curve tool. This should simplify and dramatically improve your ability to trace outlines like the one on this badge.
You didn't need to spend an hour doing it yourself. I appreciate it though. I would have taken the time to do it myself. I didn't trace the object in Sketchup though. I used Inkscape. Sketchup was just to offset and try to add the 45 degree rim. For Inkscape would you imagine I should crank the smoothing out to 90 percent or so?
Unless you have a bionic hand you probably won't be able to draw a perfectly smooth line.
I am not familiar with Inkscape, but without tools that allow you to draw Bezier curves, or arcs, you won't achieve a clean model. You should look elsewhere if you're seriously interested in doing 3D modeling. SketchUp is a good beginning, although even that leaves a lot to be desired.
What is a good all purpose pay software? I only use free but am thinking I should get something better. Preferably under $30. How do I trace with Sketchup? With Inkscape I know I can place the image I'm tracing below the vector layer?
Even with rigid lines maybe desolation to reduce triangle count could simplify it to better known shapes?
pirvan wrote:Rocketman wrote:You didn't need to spend an hour doing it yourself. I appreciate it though. I would have taken the time to do it myself. I didn't trace the object in Sketchup though. I used Inkscape. Sketchup was just to offset and try to add the 45 degree rim. For Inkscape would you imagine I should crank the smoothing out to 90 percent or so?
Unless you have a bionic hand you probably won't be able to draw a perfectly smooth line.
I am not familiar with Inkscape, but without tools that allow you to draw Bezier curves, or arcs, you won't achieve a clean model. You should look elsewhere if you're seriously interested in doing 3D modeling. SketchUp is a good beginning, although even that leaves a lot to be desired.
What is a good all purpose pay software? I only use free but am thinking I should get something better. Preferably under $30. How do I trace with Sketchup? With Inkscape I know I can place the image I'm tracing below the vector layer?
Even with rigid lines maybe desolation to reduce triangle count could simplify it to better known shapes?
Not sure I get the need to trace? If you have a program that can generate curved and straight lines of a selected length and it can make curves of selected radius then just measure the original and replicate it. Tracing will never allow you to gain any skills unless you want to go to work for the Asian black market.
You should really try to learn how to used more advanced programs anf options and then replicate the original through measuring it.
if you want to try another free program, try 123D Design by Autodesk. Not that difficult to learn, especially with some good tutorial videos like the series put out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TLalw3cQ08 (1st one of the series)
I use 123D for a LOT of my modeling needs because it is so simple to use once you understand the tools. You just need to think in the basic shapes and how to put them together to create what you are after.
It also has sketching abilities, both straight line and spline (curves), and an offset tool for shrinking/expanding unusual/odd shapes evenly. once you have your sketch how you want it, simply select it & extrude, then modify to suit your needs.
There are dozens of other free programs out there as well, google search and research are your friends.
There really aren't any modeling programs that will cost less than $30, sorry.
All the big names are thousands of dollars, unless you are "student" and qualify for a student version...(each has different requirements, so research)
the only "paid" one I have found that is pretty powerful for its cost is AC3D - under $100, but is really quite versatile. I am still learning how to use it and as yet, haven't really even scratched the surface, but I was able to modify an existing STL file to suit my needs using the free 14 day trial (bought it because of this), and I have successfully created a rather complex model by using a background image to "trace", and printed it. (ruger firearms logo - just the bird part - working on adding the "R" inset)
It does have a rather steep learning curve, but it isn't impossible (hey, if I can figure it out...lol) - doesn't have as many tutorial videos either, so yeah, a little more challenging.
What is a good all purpose pay software? I only use free but am thinking I should get something better. Preferably under $30. How do I trace with Sketchup? With Inkscape I know I can place the image I'm tracing below the vector layer?
I don't think there's such a thing as good all purpose software. There is specialized software, and that can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, then there's stuff like SketchUp, TinkerCAD, OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, 123D, MeshMixer, MeshLAB etc. Some do certain things better than others, and vice-versa.
But you first need to start with the basics, and learn the basic concepts of 3D modelling. SketchUp is good because it has a fairly shallow learning curve, it's free and produces some decent results. It can be frustrating at times, but there's pretty large community that can support you.
As far as tracing a drawing in Sketchup, it works just fine. In fact that's how I did the badge. Did you download the SketchUp model (skp file)? Look at the bottom of the model. You can still see the badge image under it.
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → 3D Modelling/Scanning/Design → Creating inward 45 degree angles???
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