(Working with groups is much easier than simply drawing in the window each time you want one. In the following example there is now a second solid group introduced into the previous solid group. Of course structures are rarely as simple as the examples above. It will become apparent why this is important, shortly. Of course, it’s much easier to avoid getting into this kind of tangle in the first place!Īlthough Sketchup allows for many levels of nested groups (that is a group containing another group) it is not possible to select two groups at the same time if one is nested inside another. Here’s a model almost totally obscured by problems found by Solid Inspector. In practice, structures are usually much more complex and can generate multiple problems of solidity. Obviously these are very simple examples. Now the Entity Info box shows “Solid Group (1 in model)” as before. (If only all solid problems were that easily fixed!) In our example this simply means deleting the hole and the line to return the structure back to being solid. This version of Solid Inspector is not able to fix the problem although the newer version, apparently, can. (The grey area visible through the hole is the back face of the rear surface of the structure. Clearly, water poured into this structure would now leak out through the hole. There is also another problem outlined in yellow relating to an isolated line. In the example these relate to a hole that has appeared within the previously solid structure (outlined in red). One or a number of circles will appear on the group identifying the problem areas. Select the group then select Solid Inspector. Once installed Solid Inspector is accessed from the Tools Menu. This has more features than the version discussed here.)
(At the time of writing – December 2014 – a new version of Solid Inspector has just been released. In order to investigate further a plug-in tool called “Solid Inspector” provided via the Extension Warehouse will inspect the group and highlight problem areas. The Entity Info box simply declares it a “Group” not a “Solid Group” as it was before. In the example above the similar structure is now not solid. In the course of designing a structure a group may go from solid to non-solid and back again several times as its make-up changes. As their extent is not limited, their volume would be infinite.Īlthough Sketchup will tell us if a structure is solid or not, it does not tell us why it’s not solid. Non-solid structures cannot have a volume. It also has a volume – in this case 2.5m3.
In the example below, the group outlined in blue is solid as indicated in the Entity Info box – “Solid Group (1 in model)”. In the Window menu, ticking the Entity Info command and then selecting a group will bring up the Entity Info box and details of that group. Sketchup provides a tool for showing if a group is solid or not. (As far as this tutorial is concerned, components are the same as groups.) This happens when the entities are grouped. Although it is possible to create a structure that obeys the two rules above and that consists only of a number of surfaces, it will remain merely a collection of entities until Sketchup recognises it as a single object. Must not contain any extra lines or surfaces – since lines are only of 1 dimension and surfaces are only 2 dimensions, you cannot 3 dimensionally print them.įor a structure to be “solid” it must first be grouped. Like the bucket your structure must not “leak” – that is if you imagined pouring water into it, the water would be contained within it.Ģ. You could think of your structure in terms of a bucket. Must be formed from one continuous surface with no breaks or holes. If, however, you want to print your images using a 3d printer then it becomes necessary to ensure that the structures you create are “solid”.ġ. If you only use Sketchup to produce images on a computer, then it does not really matter whether the structures you generate are solid or not. The paid-for version (Sketchup Pro) is essentially the same but has some additional tools for dealing with solid structures.
#SKETCHUP MAKE AN OBJECT SOLID FREE#
The information in this tutorial relates specifically to the free version of Sketchup. My name is Paul and I’d like to share some of the things I’ve found out about making solid structures using Sketchup. Hello and welcome to this short tutorial on Making Structures Solid.
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