Google Sketchup Patch Holes
Create Nuts, Bolts, Washers, Tapped/Threaded Holes, and Drilled holes in to your 3D models. Produces printable 3D components. The threaded or drilled holes will glue to two parallel surfaces and cut openings in both surfaces. Produces usable threads in standard Metric and SAE sizes through 30mm. Adds EP Fasteners & Holes to the tools menu. Open Tools/ EP Fasteners & Holes, Select the type of fastener and dimensions and press OK. Then place your new component.
In the case of through holes, the component will be just a circle, but once placed, another component will be built and placed on the nearest parallel surface in the direction of the hole. Both Components will glue to the surface and cut openings.
Cutting Openings. Another cool feature that you will want to take advantage of in SketchUp is using the Push/Pull tool to 'cut' or create the illusion of openings in. Uninstalling or repairing SketchUp. In the Application Support folder, find the Google SketchUp # folder, and then drag it to the trash. Download SketchUp here to get started with our flexible and intuitive software for any project. Try a free download of our 3D house design software.
I too had problems like this. I found it usually happened when trying to put a threaded hole into a 'component'. In most cases I just exploded the component, then applied the threaded hole, then recreated the component. After learning that lesson I just added the threaded holes before ever tuning the object into a component. The more I worked with it the better I got. I also use Solid Inspector2 to review solids and make sure they are clean.
It's a great tool for producing very clean drawings. However, Solid Inspector doesn't seem to like EP Fasteners. It finds all kinds of (what it considers) bad faces and lines and when it cleans the solid it deletes most of it. Editing the threaded holes and bolts can be quite a challenge.
EP Fasteners was apparently created for 3D printing, and I'm guessing that for that application it works as intended. I prefer VERY clean drawings but given the option of creating accurate thread images (time consuming) versus plopping one in and moving on, I use EP Fasteners. to post reviews.
Images
This is a great plugin that significantly improves Sketchup for any engineering type layouts. The v1.0.4 version runs fine on 64 bit Wndows 10 pro and Sketchup 2017. Like all plugins there are always bugs and things that we would like to see.
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In this case: Bug - tapped holes are drawn with LH threads - this can easily be fixed by using 'flip along.' But it would be nice to get it fixed perhaps even offering both LH and RH options. I would like to see: 1) more choices of head style, i.e., button head, flat head,etc. 2) Studding 3) Shoulder bolts, i.e., bolts with less than a full thread length 4) Larger selection of nuts styles, i.e., lock nuts, half nuts, etc. 5) Selection of lock washers styles 6) Countersunk holes Etc.
News
For those of you that are interested Jay Watson did post an update v1.0.4 to the SketchUcation forum site here. I think the 1.0.4 version goes along way to addressing the MAC issues and some of the other concerns listed below in other posts. Not sure that Jay Watson is continuing support for this plugin. Ray. to post reviews.
The real power of this tool comes when create an array of holes. As opposed to having to manually create each and every hole individually. You can create any number of holes by using the tool to automate it. There are 2 ways to generate an array of holes.
The first is by creating 2 holes with the tool and copying the 2nd one X amount of times (keeping the direction and distance between the 2 holes as the multiplier). The other way is to create the 1st and last holes in the array, and then creating X amount of holes between the 2 limits evenly spaced.