Tuesday, June 17, 2008

CAD Cleanup Scripts

The most valuable information I leaned this last week was about Ruby Scripts.  This was something I didn't know much about and just thought that it wasn't necessary.  There is no doubt that Sketchup will ever replace Civil3D because of the way that program connects and integrates pipe networks, surfaces, profiles, etc.  Also, there will be many times when we are working with other people or firms who are using different cad software.  However, Sketchup offers a unique way to show projects in 3D and rather than re-drawing every project in Sketchup, we can use the cad file as a base.

The time consuming and challenging part of taking a cad drawing and turning it into a 3D model comes from cleaning up the cad file and then making faces.  When line work doesn't connect where it is supposed to, or line work overlaps, we have to manually fix these problems before we can use it properly in Sketchup.  There are a series of Ruby Scripts that can be run in a particular order that will speed up the process.  All of theses scripts are avalable on Smustard.com.

IntersectOverlaps - Causes lines that cross and do not intersect to intersect.

CloseOpens - This script looks for lines that are supposed to touch and don't, and then draws a line connecting the open segments.  Open line segments keeps faces from being created.

ExtendCloseLines - This script will find lines that fall short of touching their intended target and extends them in a straight line to touch their intended target.

DeleteShortLines - This script will remove those annoying little lines that overshot their target. 

MakeFaces - This script will create faces where it is possible to create faces.  A critical time saver for transferring Cad files to Sketchup.

MakeFaces is a free scrip and the others are all under $20 each.  I can guarantee that you will save more time and money purchasing and using these scripts than doing all that work by hand.

In order to run most of these scripts you need to add another basic one.  It is called  ProgressBar and is free.  This will display a progress bar on the status line while a script is running to let you know how long it will take to complete the script.

By clicking on any one of these links above it will take you to the Smustard website link directly to that script.  You can then download and/or purchase the script.  In later blogs I will make some video tutorials that show how to use these scripts and show the benefits of them. 

Happy Sketching!

4 comments:

Henriqui said...

hey!! i liked very much of this blog. I'm a brazilian architect and im working in a enginnering enterprise. And the motives that im working there its that i know some sketchup and what sketchup can offer for the civil construction in the future. And i have discover some great .rb script to discover volumes of terrain cut. very good thing. Did you know that?
thanks for sharing knowledge!

bye

Jason said...

I did not know that there are ruby scripts to find volumes of cut and fill. That is awesome. Can you share what those scripts are? How would you go about doing that in sketchup because you would need multiple surfaces?

Henriqui said...

i will post it at my blog http://arquiteturaz.blogspot.com/ . And i will tell...

Unknown said...

I use sketchup as a BIM for bugetary and quote design. In sketchp of course. Piece by piece construction. I didn´t find you email any where. I 'll send an example. I do pultruded fiberglass design. stair towers and such