1. Hey guyz. Welcome to the All New Phlatforum!



    Sign Up and take a look around. There are so many awesome new features.

    The Phlatforum is a place we can all hang out and

    have fun sharing our RC adventures!

  2. Dismiss Notice

newbie Phlatscript problem

Discussion in 'Trouble Shooting - Support - Help Section' started by beanie, Apr 5, 2009.

  1. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    hello everyone, i'm a newbie here. crash-man, thanks for spending time with me at the Toledo WeakSignals show demonstrating the PhlatPrinter for me. i am very interested in getting the printer, but before spending my money, i figured i should make sure i can get all my AutoCAD files into a format ready for the printer.
    i followed the tutorial by crash-man about installing the PhlatScript. my version is Google Sketchup7 instead of 6 (i'm not sure if that makes a difference). anyway, in his tutorial, he states that if the Phlatscripts menu doesn't show up, then to go to View->Toolbars and click on Phlatscript. when i do that, there is no Phlatscript to click on. i double checked his video and made sure that the phlatscript.strings file was moved into the Resources->EN-us folder. i tried rebooting Sketchup, but still no joy.
    any help here is greatly appreciated. i'm sure its a simple thing i'm missing here. thanks.
    -beanie
     
  2. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    Hi,

    You do want to use Sketchup 7. Other wise you probably won't be able to output the g-code with the latest version of the phlatscript.

    Try this for your problem. Go to "window > extensions" and check the box, "Phlatboyz Tools".
    Then maybe you need to close and restart sketchup. Then there should be something in "Toolbar" for you to click and a new phlatscript menu should show up.

    -Kwok
     
  3. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    thanks a ton Kwok! i wasn't able to find "window > extensions", but i did find "window > preferences > extensions" and that did the trick. thanks so much.
    do you or anyone else know where to download the "repair broken lines" plug-in that crash-man mentioned in one of his tutorials. he said he would demonstrate where to download it at the end of the video, but i didn't see anything. i found 1 page here on the forums that had talked about downloading that script, but it looked like a dead link. any ideas?
    -beanie
     
  4. 66tbird

    66tbird Moderator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    431
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Deserts of Arizona
    Just in case ;)

    From acad Export as DXF (set to r12 binary)

    Import to SU7 as a dxf and Scale as needed (for me its x.083)


    Welcome to the club :D
     
  5. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    I googled and found this:
    http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDep ... n_lines.rb

    I've never used it. You can always pm Crash directly:
    memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=63

    Also, you might want to find a program to view your g-code and verify it. I've only done two drawing for the PP, but it really helped me to initially see if everything is ok. You can do it in Mach3, but you still got that 500 line limit and it's slow when you are just trying to see the cut order. The free version of NCPlot will at least show you the final results. What it doesn't do is run throught the process of cutting. But check out the pay version demo. It's good for 15 day trial and really nice. I love it. Too bad it's so expensive: http://www.ncplot.com

    -Kwok
     
  6. Thewz

    Thewz Moderator

    Offline
    Messages:
    269
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    I had the same issue initially.....let me search for what I found....give me a few.
     
  7. Thewz

    Thewz Moderator

    Offline
    Messages:
    269
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Location:
    Temecula, CA
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,280
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Post 180 has the answer, actually. :)
     
  9. Thewz

    Thewz Moderator

    Offline
    Messages:
    269
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    Well yes but I wanted him to get the full context of the brilliant answer.... :p
     
  10. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    thanks for the input guys! i got the phlattoolz working thanx to all your help.
    this whole issue of fixing up the imported dxf files to get it to be ready to have the inside/outside cut tool work is quite a confusing pain in the rear. it seems kinda random when sketchup gives me that bluish face that tells me its now acceptable to use the tool. i start to randomly chop up each piece with disecting lines because the repair broken line tool usually doesn't give me the face i need. i then sit there and strategically remove segments of the lines and draw new lines until the whole piece remains that bluish face. i'm sure its just an issue of not being familiar with sketchup. i wish there were a way to fix these pieces in AutoCAD before importing to sketchup.
    -beanie
     
  11. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    Why don't you post you dxf file and maybe someone can give you an experienced opinion. I probably can't help you, but I wouldn't mind seeing exactly what you are dealing with.
     
  12. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    ok, here is the dxf file status post import into sketchup. i've started in on most of the faces but have been having some problems with the wing and tail. the other pic is what my MiG-15 looks like so far. she's a built up fuse with bulkheads and skinning with FFF. this is one of my more simpler planes. but i figure if this works out then i can consider some of the more complicated planes i have.
    -beanie Attached files [​IMG] MiG-15 beanie 1-11th WS36 145% v1.3 Google Sketchup.skp (1.2 MB)Â
     
  13. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    Ok, I do think it's just a matter of getting familiar with sketchup and finding some plugins. If I understand, you just want to put faces on the parts. The tail was easy. I just exploded it and use the "Make Face" plugin. Get it here: http://www.smustard.com/script/MakeFaces
    It worked right off, which meant there were no breaks in the outside line. I tried it on the wing but it definitly has problems. Only got the two triangle in the middle and the tiny rectangle at the back. But I extended the 2 lines at the center and got most of it. I just took the pencil tool, clicked on the 4 endpoint and extended the line. I couldn't get that middle part, but hope this helps. I just spent a few minutes with it. Here is a pic:
    Attached files [​IMG]
     
  14. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    cool kyyu! thanks for the help and tips. i'll give it a shot. i still have to go through each of crash-man's videos more slowly.
    -beanie
     
  15. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    You're welcome. I want to learn this, too. But I can take my time, since I don't need to export in dxf files. Here is something else, I just tested. I just took a pdf plan and converted it to dxf. And imported it into sketchup. I just ran the MakeFace plugin and as you see, it got most of the faces.

    Attached files [​IMG]
     
  16. tvcasualty

    tvcasualty New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    637
    Trophy Points:
    0
    NICE MiG!!
    I look forward to seeing some more plans like that!
     
  17. Evil-Tunes

    Evil-Tunes Moderator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    659
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Southern N.J.
    Importing SOME .dxf filescan be a real pain to clean up for SU.
    Cheers

    E-T
     
  18. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    2,380
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Location:
    Sebastian, Florida
    The plugin you really want is called straylines. It will label each spot that has lines that aren't connected. This will speed your time up alot. The label function of it works the best. After I fix the lines I then erase the labels it creates.
    I can't remember if I got it from Smustard or Rubylibrary depot so here you go.
    Just put it in the plugins folder. Attached files stray_lines.rb (6.5 KB)Â
     
  19. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,578
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Kwok, what program do you use to convert pdf to dxf?

    Yoram
     
  20. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    I think it was "Aide PDF to DXF Converter". This one is a trial and looks like you can use it a limited times. Mine said 17 left. I normally have more than one program ready, as sometimes one program will work on a pdf while another one has bad results. Another one is "CAD-KAS pdf 2 dxf". I think this one was my favorite, but it's been a while. This one is also trial, but it just puts a tiny bit of text on your dxf, which you can just delete. So I guess there is no limit. I was looking for this yesterday, but the tons of links on the internet are all dead. Then I found a copy I had on my computer. I can upload it here, if people can't find it.

    -Kwok
     
  21. beanie

    beanie New Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    1
    thanks a ton 3DMON. i'll give that straylines script a try.
    -beanie
     
  22. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
  23. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,578
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Kwok, can you please upload it here?

    Yoram
     
  24. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,183
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    Maryland
    Ok, here it is. I downloaded this in 2007. It's a self extracting compressed file. I've scanned it with Nortion Antivirus and extracted all the files and scanned those too. Didn't find anything bad. I thought it used to be able to view the file also, but that feature doesn't seem to be working on my computer now. But it still exports out a dxf file, when you hit the export button. I just checked it and it works.



    -Kwok Attached files epdf2dxf!.zip (1.7 MB)Â
     
  25. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    1,578
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Thanks, man. Downloaded it and will try it today.

    Yoram
     

Share This Page