Screw2 1 Tutorial

7/27/2019 Screw2 1 Tutorial

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Screw 2.0 Tutorial

Screw 2.0

This has grown into a powerful Plug-in for Sketchup. Thistutorial shows you how to work with it. You can screwpolylines, components and construction points.

Basic Shapes

Since all screwing will be done around the blue axis wefirst choose an upright view (Front, Right, Left, or BackView)

Draw an open polyline (use Line, Freehand Pencil or ArcTool)

Select the polyline and run the script

Enter values for the number of full rotations and the numberof segments (Steps) in a full rotation.

screwtutorial.doc Frank Wiesner screwTutorial.sxw 10 October 2004 Page 1 of 7


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Here is the result:

Maybe you want a counter-clockwise screw. No problem.First undo the operation (Ctrl Z).

Run the script again, this time setting a negative number offull rotations.

This is the result:



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Screw 2.0 Tutorial

Screwing closed Shapes, Components andConstruction Points

Start a new Drawing, switch to Front View and this timedraw a closed shape (Rectangle, Circle or Polygon Tool)

Select it, and run the Screw 2.0script.

Well, I guess the result is a little unexpected. The offset iscalculated from the start and end points of the closestpolyline to the blue Z axis.Since we have selected a closed polyline the offset is zero(the start point and end point are the same)! If we want to

screw a closed polyline we need an additional edge toindicate what we want.

Select all and run Screw 2.0 again

Now, select and delete any unwanted geometry



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Screw 2.0 Tutorial

Non-integer values for Steps

For screwing components, a non-integer value for steps canbe used (all digits after the point are simply ignored for(poly)lines).

Now we enter 10.5 for the Steps:

And we get

Look carefully how components align on the second turn.They are displaced by half a step



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Bells and Whistles

In the last example you may have observed, that screwingwas done along the negative blue Z axis.

The script examines the way you draw your edges. Thescrewing offset is always from the start to the end point

of your polyline

Screw up

Screw down

If your polyline has no consistent orientation screwing isdone up the blue axes (see image below). If both endpointshave the same height, screwing is done away from the blueZ axis.



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Screw 2.0 Tutorial

Up and down = Screw up

An expanding spiral

Why does it expand? Can I make a spiral staircase?



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Screw 2.0 Tutorial

One Last Word...

Sadly, Sketchup does not reflect any changes of model on screen until the whole script has finished. Screwing many edgestakes some time and Sketchup seems to hang while this is going on. Please be patient and look at the status panel, where thescript keeps you informed about itsprogress.


Screw2 1 Tutorial

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Transcript of Screw2 1 Tutorial