Google SketchUp - pentagons and hexagons, attempt #2
It had been months since I worked on "attempt #1" of the pentagons and hexagons object.
On Day 4 of using Google SketchUp, I wanted to start from scratch and see what I still remembered from my prior attempt. Perhaps I would arrive at a more accurate or complete model. I definitely had the advantage this time of knowing how I'd start.
I thought I would make much more use of axes this time, but it turned out I didn't need them. I made a lot of use of new, temporary reference planes (made by drawing three lines to form triangles) and moving relative to those.
Precision remained the problem. I chose to start with a base pentagon and lay five hexagons at its edge and tip those upward until they touched each other. I made a component out of that result so that I could copy that result in place in a few more spots, hoping for a more rapid development of the globe. Well, it turned out that the inherent imprecision of the initial pentagon and hexagon was multiplied as I added additional sections, resulting in a gap at the top of the globe.
But, hey, all I had to do was knock a bunch of holes all over the hexagon and distract you with those and you are less likely to think to look for the gaps :) Look for them and you'll find them.
Transparent objects: nice feature.