G&G Influenced Nightstand - SU

glenn bradley

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Despite going through numerous tutorials, I just never got to that 'Ah-Ha' stage with SU. Too many years in the 2-D graphics world I guess. Anyway, several Ah-Ha's achieved through the selfless assistance of (you guessed it) Dave Richards.

This is a first shot at a couple nightstands I'm planning to make. The actual creation of saw dust will hopefully leave the memories of wiring, drywall and paint far behind. Let the healing begin . . .

ns-1-9.jpg

I may turn the top 90* placing the breadboards front and rear. Then I could add some oh-so-G&G-like exposed tenons of contrasting wood. I think I'm gonna like this SU, now that I've gotten past the 3-D space mind-block I was fighting against.
 
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Glenn, that table looks pretty nice. Good work. I'd love to see the SKP file so I can check up on you. ;)

BTW, if you're gonna let him pick your brain, charge him double my fee. You're worth it. ;) :rofl::rofl:
 
Glenn, that table looks pretty nice. Good work. I'd love to see the SKP file so I can check up on you. ;)

BTW, if you're gonna let him pick your brain, charge him double my fee. You're worth it. ;) :rofl::rofl:

Dave,

Still in progress as I'm playing with some design ideas but, feel free to check it out and suggest anything that could be done easier/better.

Thanks.
 

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Good work Glenn.

You learn quickly. Good job on getting the aprons and stretchers made into components and then mirrored. And since the rear apron piece is otherwise identical to the sides, good on you to get the orientation correct.

I made a couple of subtle modifications. You made the legs components but none of them were related to any of the the others. I made the back two legs related and did the same for the front pair. This way, if you wedit one of the front legs, the other will get the same treatment. And the same for the back legs. Since the front legs don't have a mortise for a front apron (because there isn't one) they can't be related to the rear legs.

The legs are a good example of what I was talking about on Saturday as far as the production thought process. The legs are identical to a certain stage. You can make a single leg component and copy it to make the others. All four legs would get the same treatment up through the mortises for the side aprons. After that, the rear legs continue in the mortising process but the front ones don't. The trick then is to make either a front leg or a back leg component unique. then, using the Apply to plugin (I sent that to you didn't I?) get that leg's definition and then apply it to its counterpart. Finally, cut the ortises in the back legs for the rear apron.

I also made the breadboard ends on the top relations using the applyto plugin. By doing this and then purging the unused components--remember talking about the framing square--I got the file reduced by about 10%. Not really a big reduction but it's a small file. The idea though is to practice keeping file size down so that it comes naturally. Then when your models get to be large and complex the file size can be kept under control and not allowed to get unwieldy.


Clear as mud?

I've attached the ApplyTo script as a TXT file. If you haven't got it, add it to the Plugins folder. Then change txt to rb. It'll show up in the right click menu when you select a component.
 

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Thanks again Dave. I have the applyto plugin but hadn't gotten around to figuring out what it was. I did do the component relation thing to a point as you describe. With all the fiddling I was doing I ended up using the 'make unique' feature which is great. I just messed up a little (yeah, right) here and there and making them unique was my fix. I should have restored the relation to ease my changes going forward.

I gotta go check out your updates to my attempt ;-)
 
OK, here's a little more detail. I need to work on the 'plugs' as they are too uniform and give the piece a 'military' look as opposed to the more odd-sized and random plug style I'm after. I'll keep tinkering a bit but I think I've got the dimensions and general look I'm after.
 

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FWIW, I created in SketchUp a complete baby dresser with a 19 page "design package" of all the detailed parts exploded and dimensions. My thought was to use this for the shop to machine the parts.

As an aside, this is my first "big fine furniture" project, and I am constructing it under the guidance of an experienced woodworker, who has a Master designation from the Mark Adams school.

I have shared this model with Dave and his comments were similar to my tutor---I had too much detail with every part dimensions and drawn out separately. I come from a mechanical engineering background where machines came together with every (EVERY) part detailed to the last 0.001. Woodworking doesn't work that way.

So, not only was 85% of my SU design detailing and printout wasted, but SU is not able to produce the element that my tutor really required in the shop....a scalable drawing. It turns out that there are inevitable dimension questions as you are machining parts that are most easily answered from a scaled drawing.

SU (the free version) can not produce a scaled drawing. It seems it should be ok if you produce a front, side and top view and have everything dimensioned (but may not be able to tell all of the things to dimension).

For my project, I turned to another (simple) CAD program (Design CAD) and turned out a scaled drawing (my printer tiles the pages so the paste up was scalable, and we used that in the shop.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to convey my impressions after taking a SU design to the shop: the experienced woodworker will know what key dimensions are needed in the shop and can put those on the SU printouts. I was not experienced and could not anticipate the ones that would be needed. Two, too much detail is unnecessary, as (I learned), much of woodworking is to "build from the parts" and not "build the design".

The project is half done and I will share comparisons of the SU drawings and the final product once done.

Ken

P S to Dave: you were right in all of your comments about the design and how things would go in the shop.
 

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Glenn, it is looking good. I like the simple clean display, too.

Ken, it sounds as if things are going along fine with the dresser. Of course you know you have to post photos of the project in progress. :thumb:

FWIW, scaled drawings can only be made from orthographic views and can be done with the free version. You can also create full size templates (within the limits of the paper/printer capabilites) and if needed, create tiled templates for things that are larger than the paper. With the previous free version this was not available but in V6 it was enabled. At least the fellow in my shop who is running the free version can do it.
 
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