sketchUcation

Overview of Fracture for SketchUp

Fracture for SketchUp allow to slice solids into numerous pieces creating a further collection of fractured solids. In the image below you can see the result Fracture has on a simple cube.

Usage: Plugins > TIG-Fracture or with a suitable selection use the Context-menu > TIG-Fracture
For Pro >=v.8 only...
Preselect a 'solid' object [group or component_instance]. and activate the tool via the context menu or Plugins menu

In the dialog: Enter the number of "Iterations" - 1 to 10.
Default = 4 [~16 cuts, ~32 parts]
It must be at least 1 [~2 cuts, ~4 parts], 8 is slow [~128 cuts, ~256 parts] etc!
It can't be more than 10 - otherwise SketchUp will die under thousands of bits!

Enter the "Size" - 0.01 to 0.5.
Default = 0.25
This is the minimum size of the smaller piece of each cut part 25:75 -
at 0.5 all parts have ~equal overall dims, smaller % gives more variety of sizes.

Enter the "X Variance" - 0.0 to 1.0, which constrains splitting around X axis.
Default = 1.0

Enter the "Y Variance" - 0.0 to 1.0, which constrains splitting around Y axis.
Default = 1.0

Enter the "Z Variance" - 0.0 to 1.0, which constrains splitting around Z axis.
Default = 1.0

If all three variances are set to 1.0 the 3d-splitting is entirely random.
If variances nearer 0.0, the 'flatter' the split-plane is in that axis.
Setting all variances to 0.0 produces all cuts parallel to XYZ.

Enter "Jitter" - 0.0 to 1.0
Default = 0.5

This sets how much the cuts might be skewed from the XYZ axes.
Values nearer 0.0 give less skewing.
Using 1.0 makes it entirely random.
If the XYZ Variances are all 0.0 then "Jitter" is ignored.

Choose the "Form" - Stacked|Exploded|Scaled
Stacked == Parts stay stacked in place. [Default]
Exploded == Parts are exploded away from the center.
Scaled == Parts are scaled to ~90% to leave gaps between them.

The original solid is 'fractured' into randmomly 'split' pieces.
Each is named 'GroupName-FracN-00C', where N is the number of iterations, and
00C is the 'counter' of the split part.

The 'fracturing' is one step undo-able,
with an initial separate undo for the explode/scale [if done].

It is faster/safer if the Outliner window is rolled-up [closed], the Shadows
are off, no Textures, the Style is simple etc.

1.0 20130213 First issue.
2.0 20150426 Full issue, including Size % and Explode options.
3.0 20150429 Undo limited to whole fracture and any Exploded/Scaled, which are now incorporated in dialog. Constraints on XYZ axes included.
4.0 20150430 Now recast as XYZ 'Variance', at 0 now makes orthogonal cuts. Skewing 'Jitter' option added. 'Size' now in range 0.0 to 1.0.
5.0 20171016 Made v2017 compatible, made into an extension, signed.