Johnboy
Established Member
Sketchup seems to be getting popular around here especially with Dave's excellent tips and tutorials. Before splashing out the quite large sum for Sketchup I would suggest trying Alibre Xpress which is available for free. Below is a small demo showing the modelling and modification of a simple flat panel door or drawer front similar to one shown by Dave recently.
First a rectangle is drawn on any workplane and dimensioned.
This is then extruded to the thickness you want (18mm here) resulting in a solid.
A rectangle is then drawn on the front face and the width of the rails and stiles dimensioned.
An "extrude cut" is made with this rectangle to make a panel recessed 6mm into the face completing the model.
The beauty of CAD is when you decide to change the dimensions or want to make several doors in different sizes. For example if I want to change the size to 1200 x 400 I just select the original sketch and edit it.
Update the model and you get this.
Perhaps that bottom rail could be a bit thicker so just edit the second sketch to make it 125mm instead of 50mm.
Update the model and job done.
Open a drawing select this part and choose what views you want, add a few dimensions (which are linked to the model so automatically change with changes to the model).
I haven't used Sketchup so don't how easy this would be using it but for free I think Alibre is worth trying.
No connections etc.
Hope this was of interest.
John
First a rectangle is drawn on any workplane and dimensioned.
This is then extruded to the thickness you want (18mm here) resulting in a solid.
A rectangle is then drawn on the front face and the width of the rails and stiles dimensioned.
An "extrude cut" is made with this rectangle to make a panel recessed 6mm into the face completing the model.
The beauty of CAD is when you decide to change the dimensions or want to make several doors in different sizes. For example if I want to change the size to 1200 x 400 I just select the original sketch and edit it.
Update the model and you get this.
Perhaps that bottom rail could be a bit thicker so just edit the second sketch to make it 125mm instead of 50mm.
Update the model and job done.
Open a drawing select this part and choose what views you want, add a few dimensions (which are linked to the model so automatically change with changes to the model).
I haven't used Sketchup so don't how easy this would be using it but for free I think Alibre is worth trying.
No connections etc.
Hope this was of interest.
John
look intressing any links to the down load site ?
