sketch up

A couple noted things, I couldn't find the isometric views

Does this help?


the other is the lack of color in the icons, really makes it tough to find tools you want. I know others are keyboard shortcut users, but time between uses for me makes it hard to remember the keys to use.

Yeah. I can see the missing colors being a thing. I expect it's something you'd get used to.
 
Coming from an engineering CAD software, Solidworks, I just need a little more than Sketchup. I am quite impressed with what I see people do with Sketchup, but I am more tuned into the Solidworks platform. I have Solidworks at home because I have it legally at work and Solidworks allow the user to also load it at home, legally. As I will be retiring in 3 years I need to transition to something else.

That said, I have recently gotten gotten started on Fusion 360. Fusion is a great fit for me as it functions a lot like Solidworks. The super PLUS is that it also has CAM features and I am pretty sure has Laser CAM. It is fully parametric and assemblies are a bit better that Solidworks.

Fusion 360-1.jpg

This is really my first real attempt at Fusion 360. I am designing a Christmas Bell Ornament. I want to see how it assambles as well as to create a design. I have it set to glass for now.
 
Leo, Solid Works is nice. I talked with a representative to find out the cost. I don't have that much money invested in all the tools in my shop! It's not a practical option for the hobbyist woodworker unless their employer buys it as in your case. I've looked at Fusion 360, too. I expect it works well enough but I still prefer SketchUp. So far I haven't found anything I need that I can't do with SketchUp. I guess it's what you get used to, though.
 
I agree, Fusion is probably more bang than any hobbyist really needs. If I was not so tuned in to Solidworks I probably would migrate to Sketchup.

Fusion allows more in assembly and in rendering and in CAM. If just to do some woodworking design, sketchup fits the bill and does it VERY well. I think Fusion can carry further into the artistic world and complex makers world as well as into machining and artistic flair.

It's just an option -- best part is it's free.
 
Although not built in, there are numerous rendering options and there are several different animation extensions for SketchUp.

As for the rendering stuff, with SketchUp you can easily go from something that looks like a hand-drawn sketch...


To something that looks more realistic.


And anything in between.
 
Not to sidetrack this, but I've been using SketchUp for 3d modeling. I've seen people on some of the 3d printing forums complain about it. I'm not sure what their problem is, but I think they usually complain about it creating non-manifold models or something. Since I don't really know how to create things in fusion, I'm really not sure if it's any better or not.

But at any rate, I've learned the tricks on what to do to make sure things are 'manifold'. Basically, it means that you don't have holes in the walls and that you're not creating things that are just single planes.

Here's an example. There are 4 seperate objects in here that can be exported as STL files that can be pulled into a slicer to be prepped for 3d printing.

This is a case for a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 5" touchscreen.


5inchscreenholderver3.jpg
 
Very good Brent.

Indeed, for 3D printing, making manifold components/groups is critical. It really isn't difficult to do but you need to use clean modeling techniques. There are a few tools that can help such as Solid Inspector² which can help get things sorted. Even though I'm usually not modeling specifically for 3D printing, I shoot for all manifold components in my models. Doing that makes them much easier to work with when changes are needed.
 
dave i tried just now to get version 17 on shop puter and all i see is sketchupfree listed no version 17.. you got a link to the right stuff? the new free style one looks bad..
 
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