How about roundovers on SU?

[Michael Adelong]

Hello,

I'm trying to learn SU by drawing a few simple magazine projects.

The plans show a 3/4" thick board and specify a 1/2" roundover bit set to 3/8" cutting height. The board is rounded over on both sides on 3 edges.

What is the shortest method in SU to do this? It is difficult because the roundover bit size does not match the stock thickness.

thank you

[Dave Richards]

Michael, Follow Me would be the tool to use for this. The hardest part is figuring out the part of the profile you want. In the attached you'll see a profile drawn to the side of the first board. I basically laid out the shape of the router bit at the height as specified. I then drew line level with the edge of the board. The part of the profile in red is not used. I copied the other tan part of the profile into place on the board. I also made a copy of the profile and inverted it for the other side of the board. I also got that same profile by drawing a half circle 1" in diameter and adding the the part to be cut away. It just depends upon the way you want to think about the cut.

After that it is just a matter of selecting the three edges to be profiled and running Follow Me. You'd end up doing both the top and bottom in separate FM operations.

[Dave Richards]

So, did this help any? 34 views and not one comment?

[Aaron Beaver]

yep sure did, I tried something myself before I saw your post and may have got it, but once again it was more complicated than the way you did. I save the file in my tutorial folder for future reference.

[Jamie Buxton]

So, did this help any? 34 views and not one comment?

Dave -
I attempted to look at your example, but my SU 4 won't open it.

Jamie

[Marion Rood]

I would like to know how you make the construction lines. I can't seem to draw them. I can make the lines in your drawing turn on and off, but I can't get any lines in mine.
Thanks,
Marion

[Michael Adelong]

So, did this help any? 34 views and not one comment?

Yes sir, it did.

I also didn't know about the construction lines. After learning that, I was able to make your method work. Not only that, I undertand it.

I got twice my money's worth!

Thank you very much, Dave.


I also found this link to be very helpful...

[Dave Richards]

Jamie, I wonder why it won't open? Part of me wants to suggest that you get GSU but you have a couple of things with your version that GSU doesn't have so I hesitate to suggest it. I'll make a JPG of it and post that.

Marion, the construction lines are made with the Tape Measure tool. You click on a line (including an axis line) you want to reference off of and then drag out the line parallel. If you click on an end point or midpoint you'll get a construction point instead of a line. The protractor tool can be used to create construction lines at angles. These construction lines can be thought of as layout lines such as you might draw on your wood with a pencil. Of course you can also draw them out in space which is cool.

Michael and Aaron, I'm happy it was instructive.

[Dave Richards]

Look at the description I wrote before.

[Chet Parks]

So, did this help any? 34 views and not one comment?

Helped me, Dave, and I didn't ask the question.

What I have been wondering is there any easy way to show small rounds and fillets in SU, especially ones that are about 1/8 to 1/4"? I have just been using the sharp 90 Deg. intersetions and adding a note.

Thanks,

Chet Parks

[Dave Richards]

Chet, glad it helped. As to your question, yes, there's no reason you couldn't draw an 1/8" roundover the same way. There are a couple of things to concern yourself with, though.

First, SU doesn't make real tiny faces so you could wind up with some gaps in the surface. This would be more likely to happen if you ran the radius around a rounded corner. The easiest way to get around this issue is to scale the model up by, say, a factor of 10. Run the radius around the edge and scale back down. The faces will remain when you scale down.

If the part you are working on is difficult to scale up, i.e. it is in the middle of some other geometry, make it a component and copy it. Move the copy away from the rest of the model, scale that up, edit the component and do the radius. The faces will be formed on the small original as well. After you have completed the editing on the large version, simply delete it. The original will get all detail you applied to the big one.

Another thing to consider with radiusing corners and other curves for that matter is that file size can increase very rapidly. Remember that a curve is made up of short segments. Those segments create faces and all that adds up to data.

In the example here, the piece on the left was drawn using the default 12 segment arcs for the rounding of the corner and the edge radius. I only radiused the two sides and the round corner. It has 172 faces. The one on the right has 6 segment arcs and ends up with 52 faces. On one part of a drawing that doesn't make a lot of difference in file size but imagine what happens if you have a large drawing with lots of circles and arcs.

[Marion Rood]

Dave,
I can draw in the lines now. I will practice more on it later. I am thinking if I am building a cabinet, I make components rail and stiles and then position them using the construction lines.
I would like to be able to draw a box in SU that I could then build in shop. This is the first software I've used that I've even been able to draw things. Thanks.
Marion

[Michael Adelong]

Ok... Now is there an easy way to create the angle dimension labels? I create a seperate layer for the dims and I can't seem to find a way to create them. The tape measure tool just gives straight line dims, and the protractor tool seems to just measure and create construction lines.

I read somewhere that you measure with the PT, then draw an arc and add text. Is that proper method?

Michael

[Dave Richards]

Michael, you have it correct. SU doesn't do angle dimensions. You have to do those manually. There is a Ruby script that will do it but I'll have to look to see if I can find it. I've got to run off to surgery for a little bit first.

[Michael Adelong]

Thanks Dave. Take care.

Good luck with the surgery.
Michael