Need help/tips switching from Sketchup to Rhino

[Domen]

Hey Rhino community,

I’m trying to switch my workflow from SketchUp to Rhino, but I’m running into some problems with basic modeling, which makes my workflow much slower in Rhino. I could use some help and tips on how to do certain things in Rhino, since I can’t find an equivalent method to what I’m used to in SketchUp.

There’s one specific thing I’m wondering if I could do at least as quickly and easily as in SketchUp. I design skateparks, and this is one of the essential steps in my modeling process:

Let’s say I want to model a ramp (with a radius). My process is to draw a horizontal line at the bottom of the ramp and platform. Then I create a vertical line and use a fillet radius between the bottom and the vertical line. For example, if the height of the ramp is 1.2 m and the radius is 2 m, SketchUp’s fillet tool will still create the 2 m radius, even though it doesn’t physically fit into the 1.2 m height.

In Rhino, however, this doesn’t work—I can only create a 2 m radius with the fillet tool if the height is at least 2 m. This makes drawing these outlines much slower, because there are a few extra steps I need to do compared to SketchUp.

In the image above, you can see the process I use in SketchUp. I’d like to be able to do it the same way in Rhino—or even better, if there’s a faster method available.

Another thing I’m wondering about is whether there’s a quicker way to model a transition along a sloped bottom. For example, if the transition follows a bottom surface that’s sloped for water runoff, the top part of the transition will be smaller, and the other end will be higher/deeper because of the slope. The radius remains the same along the entire transition.

In SketchUp, the way I do this is by creating two profiles on each side of the transition (the same way as in the photo above). Once I have the full frame drawn, I generate the surface between these lines. This process becomes very time-consuming when working with more complex shapes, so I’m wondering if Rhino has a function that could simplify this workflow.

And last thing is when I am drafting and drawing 2D geometries it really helps me that Sketchup can recognize a direction of the line or geometry from which I am starting to draw new line/curve and it locks into it - is there a similar function I can turn on in Rhino?

Any help or tips would be appreciated, I really want to get rid of Sketchup&CAD and switch completely to Rhino.

[davidcockey]

@Domen

Let’s say I want to model a ramp (with a radius). My process is to draw a horizontal line at the bottom of the ramp and platform. Then I create a vertical line and use a fillet radius between the bottom and the vertical line. For example, if the height of the ramp is 1.2 m and the radius is 2 m, SketchUp’s fillet tool will still create the 2 m radius, even though it doesn’t physically fit into the 1.2 m height.

In Rhino, however, this doesn’t work—I can only create a 2 m radius with the fillet tool if the height is at least 2 m. This makes drawing these outlines much slower, because there are a few extra steps I need to do compared to SketchUp.

Use the Arch command to create an arc which is tangent to the bottom curve, has the desired radius, and ends at the upper end of the vertical line.

Command: Arc
Center of arc ( Deformable  StartPoint  Tangent  Extension ): t
First tangent curve ( Point )
Second tangent curve or radius <25.000> ( Point  FromFirstPoint ): 2.
Second tangent curve or radius <2.000> ( Point  FromFirstPoint )

[Domen]

Thanks David this is great, exactly what I was hoping for and even faster than SketchUp workflow.