Sketchup
Posted by philwaud
Hi folks
Has anyone considered or even used Sketchup with their RepRap?
As one of my long term goals with CopperRap, I want to develop some software to take a Sketchup file and print it on the RepRap.
Is this doable? Are there any issues I will come across that have prevented people progressing in the past?
Phil
Has anyone considered or even used Sketchup with their RepRap?
As one of my long term goals with CopperRap, I want to develop some software to take a Sketchup file and print it on the RepRap.
Is this doable? Are there any issues I will come across that have prevented people progressing in the past?
Phil
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Re: Sketchup June 16, 2009 03:43PM |
Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 82 |
Yes, should be doable. I've been programming Sketchup a bit recently. Using Ruby (which turned out to be easy to learn) it is straightforward to generate useful object directly from code. I've put together most of a CupCake using Sketchup in order to learn from the design and make my own modifications.
Similarly, it should be straightforward to slice using Sketchup and Ruby. Basically, you use a section plane at different Z positions, let Sketchup create a group of the cross section and then process each slice. Probably the best idea is to figure out how to interface with a tool like Skeinforge to do the actual filling and generation of G codes.
Ideally, you'd be able to print directly from Sketchup and see the object grow as the section plane is raised. Sketchup has a problem with very small objects, as it was apparently more ment for building-size drawings. A work-around is drawing at a 10 or 100 times larger scale. Another issue is that it's easy to end up with "extra" geometry that's a PITA to clean up. With groups from section cuts curves get exploded to lines. This can again be worked around, but the general point is that Sketchup is not really a CAD program, unfortunately.
-Geert
Similarly, it should be straightforward to slice using Sketchup and Ruby. Basically, you use a section plane at different Z positions, let Sketchup create a group of the cross section and then process each slice. Probably the best idea is to figure out how to interface with a tool like Skeinforge to do the actual filling and generation of G codes.
Ideally, you'd be able to print directly from Sketchup and see the object grow as the section plane is raised. Sketchup has a problem with very small objects, as it was apparently more ment for building-size drawings. A work-around is drawing at a 10 or 100 times larger scale. Another issue is that it's easy to end up with "extra" geometry that's a PITA to clean up. With groups from section cuts curves get exploded to lines. This can again be worked around, but the general point is that Sketchup is not really a CAD program, unfortunately.
-Geert
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Re: Sketchup June 18, 2009 07:48AM |
Registered: 14 years ago Posts: 54 |
Thanks for the response, definite food for thought.
Copperrap is at the point now where I can move X&Y so can draw objects using some Arduino code I wrote to "move to XY".
Ive just built a stepper driver board from the Makerbot store so I am working on adding Z movement. My lovely wife has given me a strict budget on this (just as well as I would happily spend a small fortune on bits) so Im buying items in stages. Ive also ordered a Sanguino and breakout shield so there is going to be quite a bit to do in the next few weeks although its going to be a month before I have three stepper boards and limit switches set up.
Ive got to decide whether I keep going with my original plan (basically write all my own code, integrating with Sketchup), or jump on board with the RepRap version of things.
This weekend, Im going to strap a dremmel to it and see if I can mill something!
Copperrap is at the point now where I can move X&Y so can draw objects using some Arduino code I wrote to "move to XY".
Ive just built a stepper driver board from the Makerbot store so I am working on adding Z movement. My lovely wife has given me a strict budget on this (just as well as I would happily spend a small fortune on bits) so Im buying items in stages. Ive also ordered a Sanguino and breakout shield so there is going to be quite a bit to do in the next few weeks although its going to be a month before I have three stepper boards and limit switches set up.
Ive got to decide whether I keep going with my original plan (basically write all my own code, integrating with Sketchup), or jump on board with the RepRap version of things.
This weekend, Im going to strap a dremmel to it and see if I can mill something!
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