The way the rubies are set up they create four sided shop drawings. Is there a way to harness the power of the rubies and create bent and wall section drawings that show all the mortices. IT would be nice if you could create a group or component with all the bent members that would create reference and non reference views of the bent with the associated joinery. How hard would it be to modify the current TF rubies to accomplish this?

Am I understanding that you want a view of the bent with joinery on it so you can develop shop drawings / dimensioned drawings?

You can do this right in your model by using SketchUp to create section slices. I then turn the slice into a group, then into a component. I'll drag it off to the side and detail it. I'll then move it back to the location it came from and set up a view in with the scene manager. You can put your dimensions and notes on specific layers to control visibility.

Currently the Rubies work on a per - part basis. Great if you need to detail each and every timber for the shop. If you don't need to do this you can use a SketchUp model with the method I've described above to list joinery, notes, and dimensions.

-Mike

I was using the scene manager to isolate bents and layers for dimensions. I was just wanting the joint and peg counts along the the flexibility of moving say a bent girt up and having the mortice follow. Thanks for the section slice idea I hadn't thought of that.

Kevin

The mortises and pegs will follow - the Rubies only require you to draw the male joinery. The mortises do not need to be drawn on the timbers show they will automatically show up when you cut a section and they are imported and cut when you use the Rubies.

In my workflow I do not do any joinery* until the final phase before the frame enters the shop. I have my library of timbers drawn with a boxed 'x' in the ends - this way when I cut a section @ the face of a timber I see the boxed 'x'. I detail the frame as needed to client presentation - and after the frame goes through the approval process I do the joinery. At this time it is unlikely that things will move - as you are getting ready to cut the frame.

When I have a moment I'll post and example of my section slice method.

*sometimes I'll use a brace or a floor joist with the joinery attached - but I tend to keep things simple until the wood is on its way to the shop - and this comes from years of working with AutoCAD HSB and translating my workflow to SketchUp.

Hi Kevin. I hope Mike answered your bent-section questions. His method is the same as mine. We do have a different workflow for joinery, in that my library of timbers mostly has joinery already included. But, like Mike, I don't spend time refining the joinery until further along in the process. CB.

I'm missing something. Are you turning the slice plane into a group and then component or are you turning the bent with the slice plane into a group?

Place the section tool to create the slice. Right click on the slice to 'create group from slice'. Move off to the side some known distance (I usually use 1000"). Right click on the group, turn into component (so you can name it and save it to it's own drawing later). Edit the component - add dimensions, possibly fill in ends of timbers that you want to see solid, etc. etc.

Move back to the original location. To control visibility of this component use the Outliner and hide / unhide or you can create a layer for 'Bent1 Dims' or similar. Create a scene with everything you want to see aligned (you might want to use 'align with section' and turn perspective off in the camera).

-Mike