Clark,
Toni,
One of the great things about SketchUp is all of the user support by users out there. I think Google pulled off a great coup by releasing the free version. The user base is enormous and there are just all sorts of sites out there and people on forums and blogs and stuff helping people to learn. Like I mentioned above, simpler stuff with straighter lines and simple curves can be done after a minimum amount of learning time. Seing the complexity of the stuff you're doing, though, it could take a little longer to get to that level of drawing. I've looked at some of the drawings of stuff you're working on and tried to imagine how I would draw them in SketchUp to the accuracy needed for shop drawings and I think it might be a while yet before I'd be able to tackle those.
Hi Jerry, I completely agree with you, I've tried to draw some of my own desings, using a NURBS based software which I know and due to my lack of experience in it using compound curves and surfaces the whole process has been really painstaking.
Other simpler desings pose no problems, I've got SkechtUp and started to work with it, I found it rather straigtht forward, and easy to tackle, but I'm not in the right mood to learn to use another CAD package. I'll give it a try some time in the near future but it is not one of my priorities.
Due to my job each time I've changed of company I had to learn a new one, and were I work now they've changed of CAD software three times in 10 years, so as far as my woodworking projects are concerned, I only use CAD sofware when I want to make sure that all pieces fit together, and to know how much wood will I need.
For the initial creative step, I find easier just making rough sketches, and modify them following the flow of my mind, I've drawn most of them while flying from one place to another or in long waiting hours at airports.
For those who are more 2d and orthographic oriented people, and find free hand drawing difficult CAD systems like SU are a real help to visualize their ideas in 3D.
I stop here, because I think I'm hijacking this thread.