Using google Sketchup

Bart Leetch

Member
Messages
3,206
Location
Clinton, Washington on Whidbey Island
Do I have to download models from the 3D warehouse each time I want to use them or is there a way to keep them in the program. Example drawing a shop floor plan do I have to down load say a jointer or table saw into the new floor plan each time or can I store several tools within the program for future use?
 
I save individual items in the 'Components' folder. Our resident wizard Dave R may have another way but, I just save each object as a file and save the file in the 'Components' folder.
 
When in the 3d warehouse it asks if you want to download it into the current model.
I often will download it into a NEW model, and then I can save it separately in a folder on my system.
I do this because often I only want part of a model from the warehouse, and sometimes I just want to see how they did it and then redraw the parts that I want on my own.

I've spoken with Dave about this, and he mentioned that one problem with the 3d warehouse is not all of the people uploading models are super skilled, so you can often end up with ridiculously huge models out there, which clutter up your sketch and hog your CPU.

(but with planning a shop I did exactly what Bart is doing... I drew up the shop, and then download models of tools and placed them in the shop model to see how they fit.)
...art
 
^^^^^
What Glenn said. I keep models in the Components folder until I'm ready to use them. If a particular model has a texture associated with it, I'll change it to a simple color to eliminate some of the size (seems to work). In some cases, I find it helpful to start with a ready-made model from the warehouse but make changes to streamline it a bit. Some folks put a lot of extraneous stuff in their models.
 
Thanks everyone I put the models in the Components folder. You helped me a great deal as I am just starting out with Sketchup. I have a DVD Google Sketchup Guide for Woodworkers The Basics by a fellow named Dave Richards hopefully it will help me over the humps & bumps. I just want to start out doing a basic floor plan for my dream shop, so I need to figure out how to do a view from the top down showing the full floor & placement of the tools & benches etc.
 
Top