Newbie Tutorial - How to close any face in Sketchup

[EarthMover]

This is a really brief tutorial to show a progression of steps that will allow you to trouble shoot why a face won't close and a guaranteed solution to close any face.

In teaching different people Sketchup, closing faces is one of the most frustrating things for some people...especially in the learning phase. Hopefully this simple troubleshooting method will help alleviate some headaches for new users.

Requires several plugins. If you have trouble finding them, let me know and I'll post the links.

http://www.screencast.com/users/EarthMo ... f0eed948c5

[d12dozr]

Good tut, Adam!

[xrok1]

you forgot freedo scale. scale to 0 in the z axis to make edges coplanar

[EarthMover]

Thanks Xrok1! Good suggestion....I never thought of that!

[Gaieus]

Cool video indeed. We all know that sometimes tracking down some tiny modelling glitches to find out why a particular face doesn't want to create is a PITA.

The projection tools you used last can also be "supplemented" by the Drape tool.

[EarthMover]

Thanks Csaba ...that's another good one. The drape tool is actually easier and quicker I think. I never thought of the drape tool to drape upward, but it indeed works well. The other difference of using the drape tool vs. using the projection plugin is that the drape tool will project the edges into a grouped face and put them inside the group. The projection plugin puts the edges onto the outside of the group. Drape tool will make the edges automatically into a face and the projection plugin has to be done manually by redrawing a line or running Make Faces 1.1. Man, I learn something new everyday!!

Xrok1 - I tried some experimenting with using the Fredoscale to make all edges co-planar, but had no luck. I used the scale to target, clicked on the Z handle, hit tab and tried to enter 0, but it doesn't seem to allow a zero input. Is there another way to work that?

[MercurialArts]

Why yes, this is frustrating! So, I am an artist making images in photoshop, using magic tracer 2.0 to convert from raster to dxf. Once I import into SU, I can't get a face on the outline, which seems to act as a component. The end result of this process would be dxf files a water jetter or laser cutter could use to cut metal and glass shapes, and the SU drawing being my working drawings. Stray lines finds nothing. But I still can't fill or extrude this shape. Where do I get the projection tools? I tried drape, it only takes the outline, and I have internal stuff as well. I have watched the video several times.... I don't have the bucks to buy more plugins, the software I have cost me my flex funding..

[urgen]

....and WELD

weld.rar

----------------------------------------
....and very simple-SUNDBOX+SKIN

sundbox.rar

[MercurialArts]

So, when I try weld, its says pick at least 2 edges, when I try the sandbox contour method, it says I must choose contours. When I select even one line of my imported dxf the whole thing is selected with a box around it. Every line is blue. What does this mean? It would seem that all the lines are connected... but again, not a solid, no extrusion... Wha?

[MercurialArts]

Ah, what a dork, yes, its a component, edit component, check for stray lines brought up 13 items, I am solid and extruded. Thanks for the tips, I just needed to figure out how to apply all those neeto tricks to my object! dxf gets imported as a component.
I had to
select component,
edit menu, component, edit component
then go through and use stray line tool and weld tool to fix it up. Tiny little problems that are super hard to see, but between repeated uses of both tools, wazambo!

[Gaieus]

You can also edit a component/group from the context ("right click") menu - or even better; just double click on it. If you triple click, you will end up "inside" its editing context PLUS all the geometry inside selected already.

[broomstick]

awesome video, man. You taught me something i did' nt know about stray lines, and you introduced me to projection tools

My I have your permission to do a similar video for my blog in Italian?

[EarthMover]

No problem Broomstick! Glad it was helpful. Feel free to use it as you wish.

Here is also a quick follow up video on Closing a face with the Drape Tool.

http://www.screencast.com/users/EarthMo ... 0632e204b7

[broomstick]

thanks you are very kind. I'll aknowledge you in the video, and post the link as soon as it is up

[mpkarch]

Earthmover,

I am curious to know where you got all the icons in your tutorial.

MPKArch

[brookefox]

I posted a link to this, Adam, and send along my thanks as well. Duh... 'stray lines' was sitting lonely in my PI folder unnoticed and forgotten by me...

[EarthMover]

No problem. Some new plugins have been released since this tutorial that change the technique a bit.

Particularly "Edge Tools" from ThomThom - viewtopic.php?t=24593 has the feature Close Gaps. This is much easier than "label stray lines" as it does the work of solving the gaps as well.

Also another one I find helpful with a stubborn face is "Flatten & Extrude" from ThomThom. -http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=23491. Once the gaps are closed you can group the edges and run the Flatten script and it will move all the verts to the same Z and close all the faces. (TIG's "Drop Verticies" will do similar on ungrouped edges but will not close the face automatically - viewtopic.php?t=39251)

Hope this helps.

[brookefox]

Great... but given the omnipresence of the issue your tut is good enough to warrant updating and sticking somewhere! (G man )

[pisosse]

Great... but given the omnipresence of the issue your tut is good enough to warrant updating and sticking somewhere! (G man )

CONCUR...!

[ScrubBrush]

you forgot freedo scale. scale to 0 in the z axis to make edges coplanar

I know this is way behind the curve, but could someone put this into english for us nubs?

[Gaieus]

Fredo scale is a plugin (a very complex and powerful one actually) that takes a lot of SketchUp's native tools to a next level.

I have been reading (and approving) your posts this morning as I got up and suggest to "learn how to walk before you start running" though but of course, learning how to install and use plugins should also be in your "curriculum".

In short, here is Fredo scale: viewtopic.php?t=17948

And what xrok meant here is that you can scale any loop of edges that is not co-planar to "Zero" which makes it co-planar then.

Here are some screenshots.

[mitcorb]

And this is a DUH moment for me regarding the scale to zero trick.

[Gaieus]

It was for me, too. Just checked it out after the question made me curious.

[ScrubBrush]

that cleared it up for me too. and looks useful, I'll add that one to my plugins.

I'm past the walk stage for the most part. just can't get past the jogging stage.