Ellipses in Sketchup

Member designs created in Sketchup or other cad program

Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby Corwin C » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:46 pm

Sketchup Noobie here. I have watched and practiced the you tube introduction videos and looked through some of the help files, but that is all the training that I've had.

After seeing all the great designs now being posted, I want to try to plan out my build in Sketchup as well. I'm functional in 2d CAD, but struggling with ellipses in the 3d Sketchup environment.

My design is a cub style with ellipses as the main geometric component, but when I try to take 1/4 ellipses, I loose my surface. I don't think that the ends of my ellipse arcs are matching up. I've been drawing circles and then using the scale tool (with [ctrl] to scale around the center) to make the ellipses. I hope that this is making sense and someone can advise me what to try next.

Thanks
Corwin
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby danlott » Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:07 am

You are thinking right on using the circles to make the ellipse.

The first thing to do is draw a rectangle that has the outside dimensions of your profile. This should create a solid surface.

Now make sure your circle has enough segments. Circles in Sketch Up are created from several short straight lines. I believe the default number of lines is 24 or less, so with larger circles the straight lines show. Click on the circle, then type "100s" for 100 segments or sides. This will make a smoother circle.

I then use guide lines to locate the center of the circle where the center of the ellipse would be. I then draw the circle to the edge of the profile rectangle where the ellipse would touch.

You then need to draw a short line dissecting the circle on the side that you want to stretch out to make your ellipse. You then erase the 3/4 part of the circle that you do not need.

Click on the scale tool. Then click on the circle arc. This should highlight it to allow you to scale it. You then click on the side of the highlight outline and drag the highlight outline to the edge of your profile rectangle.

You can now erase the short line you created to originally dissect your circle.

After you have drawn all of your ellipses and connected all your profile lines you can then erase the outside straight lines of the original rectangle box that you created that you do not need. This should allow you to keep your solid surface. If your surface goes away, then you are not connected somewhere.

Good luck and I hope I explained it well enough.

Dan
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby mikeschn » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:05 am

I'll be trying that today for sure!

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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby mikeschn » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:54 am

Hey, that's pretty easy!!! :D

http://screencast.com/t/ed4LdD4JE6

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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby mikeschn » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:04 am

Also learning Youtube this morning...



This one is much clearer than youtube!

http://screencast.com/t/dWO7OWGHkC3



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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby danlott » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:43 am

That is it exactly Mike. Pretty easy.

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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby TJinPgh » Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:38 pm

Wow.
I'd been wondering about that myself.

Great vid!

Thanks.
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby Corwin C » Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:56 pm

Thanks Dan ... I'm used to being able to snap to tangents and construction lines. A little bit of a learning curve here. I'm still working on it, but having more success than before. Adding segments to large circles helps tremendously (both in appearance and in accuracy.)
Corwin
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby SteveW » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:05 pm

danlott wrote:Now make sure your circle has enough segments. Circles in Sketch Up are created from several short straight lines. I believe the default number of lines is 24 or less, so with larger circles the straight lines show. Click on the circle, then type "100s" for 100 segments or sides. This will make a smoother circle.

Thanks for this gem!
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby SteveW » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:13 pm

Mike, thanks for posting those vids. Being a visual person, that's all I needed. So much easier than the mess I was attempting with my earlier ones.
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby kludge » Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:37 pm

Wow, that beats my old method!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34110&p=614778#p614778

Now... how do you draw curves that aren't "ellipses"?
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby SteveW » Mon Mar 05, 2012 8:22 pm

kludge wrote:Wow, that beats my old method!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34110&p=614778#p614778

Whoa, haven't done those in ages!
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Re: Ellipses in Sketchup

Postby Andymanout » Fri Mar 11, 2016 5:46 pm

Thank you guys for posting this! It is just what I needed today.
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." I'm gonna do it in a teardrop.
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