Google Sketchup

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
I know we have our resident experts in this program however with new members joining all the time and often these new members are like i was once coming in from the cold so to speak, i thought it worthwhile we post a thread with a link to Google Sketchup the free version as well as goodies that exist to take advantage of it.

http://sketchup.google.com/download/


Then I discovered more by accident than design a host of models that exist created by users that one can download and play with or use as a starting point in your own needs either on a project or in the shop as a jig or fixture. So take a look here

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?tags=workshop

This is a goldmine of designs and you can download them if you log. Given that you will already have signed up to Google to get Sketchup its no biggie. The place is a virtual treasure chest of designs from benches to dust collection through to drill press tables you name it.

If you have a few Sketchup tips please add them to this thread. Dont ask me how to use it, 1 year of trying and i am still struggling. But then i was taught to draw with a drawing board, paper and pencil so my transistion to a mouse is gonna take about 10 years.:rofl::rofl:
 
dont forget to mention one of our members here Dave Richards is a excellent teacher and provides us with tips and methods of using it regulary..we have others here that are pretty good with it as well.
 
I've been fiddling with it for 3(?) years give or take a bit. I'm still no expert.

About 3 months ago I found this website: http://www.aidanchopra.com/ -- Sketchup for Dummies.

These are great video tutorials that this guy posts. Very easy to follow, and I found a few fundamental things that have improved my use of Sketchup.

For instance, and I know this is silly, but I had never figured out that hitting "m" will switch to Move, "t" will switch to tape, and so on. Just memorizing a few of those makes it much quicker to swap between tools as you're working.

...art
 
And don't forget if you create things as components and use something like the 'CutListAndMaterials.rb' plugin, you can get materials lists and cutting diagrams pretty easily...

Here's a link to one of Dave Richards articles on FWW about it How Much Wood Will it Take
 
Just a note about the 3D Warehouse. While it does have a lot of good stuff, there's a lot of bad stuff, too. You should be discerning in your choice of models you download.

Brent, thanks for the link.
 
Just a note about the 3D Warehouse. While it does have a lot of good stuff, there's a lot of bad stuff, too. You should be discerning in your choice of models you download.

Brent, thanks for the link.

You got that right about the 3D Warehouse. I'm working on a shed plan for myself and some of the sheds I looked were very difficult to work with. I.e. random lines/objects. Things that aren't really 'components'.

I'm no expert, but I do find that creating some standard components really helps. I.e. if you are doing a shed :rolleyes: create one component for the floor joists. That way if you need to resize something, you resize one object and they all reflect the changes.

And Dave, Thank you for the article! I'd like to get a shed and a green house put together, and I'm using sketchup to help me get the materials list together. Your article was very helpful to me!
 
Brent, in most cases I find it easier to draw the component myself rather than to repair one I find on the 3DWH. It's usually faster for me to draw it myself than spending the time to fix them, too.

You are right about making and saving components that you'll reuse. No point in doing the same job over and over. Before you save the component, though, make sure you place the component's axes such that inserting the component in your models will be quick, easy and accurate.

I'm glad you found that blog entry helpful. FWIW, there's a recent update to the plugin.
 
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I've never even heard of Google sketch up until now. Boy, am I out of the loop! Is it a program similar to Photoshop or is it more like a blue print creator? If it's the latter of the two, it may prove useful for creating blue prints for our project. Of course, I'm not entirely sure if my hubby Trev has already discovered it. lol.
 
Ashley it's a 3-d modeling tool. It will actualy let you create a project just like you would build it in the shop. Very powerful and very useful. I use it on every project. heres an example of somethging I am buildding right now that I created in sketchup.
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and heres the non assembled parts
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Ashley, SketchUp is a 3D drawing program. You can use it to sketch out ideas, use it to communicate ideas (that old picture is worth a thousand words thing) and develop plans or whatever you need to complete the project. You can put in as much detail or little as you need. There are two versions of the program. The free one is likely all you'd need.

Here are a few quick examples of different sketches from my collection.
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Didn't see Don's post but what he said.

Don that's a nice piece. Are you really building it out of OSB?
 
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Brent, you can use Google's image search to find images of various wood species. In most cases, only images of the straightest grained woods work well without noticeable tiling or repetition of the pattern. Highly figured or distinctive wood grain patterns end up repeating too often to be useful because the images tend to be small. Perhaps the best source I've found for images is on the Herzog Veneers, Inc. Longwoods site. They have images of full lengths and in many cases you'll get the choice of several "boards" from the same long so you can get consistent color with minimal repetition. On smaller projects you can work around the image to use different parts of the boards much as you might if you were really working with the wood. There will be a little bit of image editing work but that is mostly just cropping.

Here's a couple of images of some ash I found there just now.

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