# Sketchup question for curved surface subtraction



## Eric_S (Aug 26, 2009)

A coworker of mine does scroll work and model building. I told him about Sketchup and now he is hooked. He is making a chariot from wood that will be pulled by dragons (made out of clay). Anyways, here is the sketchup he did of the chariot.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=57562863efd76bc8c0a313e79ed2d7b6&prevstart=0

He said he couldn't figure out how to subtract a square from a curved surface. Is this even possible? In the sketchup of the chariot, the front curved face of the chariot is where hes trying to cut out a window from it, but cant since its on a curve. Any help would be great, thanks.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I started to use Sketchup once and spent maybe a couple of hours with it but I haven't been able to get back to it because of time constraints. I use Corel Draw, Fireworks, Xara-Extreme, and Turbocad but in the couple of hours that I played with Sketchup I wasn't getting anywhere fast enough so I had to get off of it. I hope that I can get back to it because a lot of people swear by it.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Send a PM to LJ DaveR. He is the master!


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Eric - yes it's possible, but not with any of the basic tools (as in you can't push out a square out of a curved surface without a plugin that would do it).

My assumption is that the chariot curved part is a component in the following explanation:

To do it, you'd need to create a square box that would extend to both sides of curved area you want to make the window in. the square should be sized as the opening for the window height and width wise but should extend ahead and beyond the curved part.

Select the box, and the curved component, and click Edit->Intersect->Intersect selected

This will create new faces that are made of the intersections of the box and the curved component.

delete the unneeded lines/faces of the box you used to make the intersection (leaving the new faces of the intersections).

select all new faces that were created from the intersection, Edit->Cut

go into component edit mode for the curved part, and click Edit->Paste In Place

This will put the new "cut" faces where they were geometrically and inside the curved component.

delete the unneeded faces to open up the window, and you're done.

Hope this helps, Let me know if you have any questions

*EDIT* Thanks shopguryl for the images


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## Eric_S (Aug 26, 2009)

LOl I told him he should try to create a box and intersect and he said he tried, I'm guessing he meant he tried to draw a square on the curve and push it out (which you cant do).

Thanks shopguryl and purplev


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

heh, next time we'll have to post a shared response  pictures and explanation.


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## fury (Oct 17, 2009)

Most likely not as easy and elegant as a DaveR solution - but it works

-Create a long beam with the dimension of the window
-Move it so it passes through the curved front of the chariot
-From the menu - Edit - Intersect - Intersect with Selected
-Delete beam - i redrew the lines on the curved faces - deleted the window and connected front back windows

dang - not only does shopguyrl beat me to it, there are pictures too!!!


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