I found the video tutorials on the SketchUp support site.
You are right. It looks like this tool can do everything I'll need for a long time.
There's a lot fo good information there. Thanks.
Well, I'm probably halfway between try #1 & #2. It's not any harder than Visio and a lot more powerful for what I am trying to do.
Thanks for the pointers.
All of my projects are fairly simple and for my own use. I watched the dimensioning tutorial. I think it will be good enough for me.
A lot of software is going that way lately. It's great when it guesses correctly. Not so much when it doesn't, especially if it isn't nice about letting me take over.
Thanks for the insight.
I'll get that as soon as I have a sense of the program. I've spent a couple of hours watching video tutorials and drawing simple objects. I think this going to be a very useful tool.
Thanks
I hadn't though about it, one way or the other, but there's no reason not to. It may be a while before it's published since I just started looking at it yesterday when he sent me the dimensions (yes, inches, BTW) We've a ways to go before the model looks like much more than a coffin standing on end. I'll have to take some pictures of finished walnut to use for the SU material image.
The walnut was given to me by a neighbor. He's a building contractor who was remodeling a house for some physician. They stripped out a bunch of paneling and was hauling it to the dump. On the way, he stopped by my house to see if I might want to try to salvage it.
The bed of his pickup was loaded with 3/4" walnut T&G boards about 6" x 9 feet. After ripping off the damaged edges and planing down the reliefs on the back of the boards, the actual surfaced dimensions calculated out to about 120 board feet. Would have been more except they didn't take any pains to preserve the wood while they were tearing it out and quite a bit was too damaged to be worth trying to save. Still, some pretty boards that were headed to the burn pile, didn't quite get there.
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
"Tom Veatch" wrote
As a point of reference, the latest 2D - 3D TurboCAD 16 communicates well with sketchup. It can import sketchup files and export to sketchup. Sooooo. if you need to use a CAD program later, you can buy a new TurboCAD
16 2D - 3D for about $130 list. I am sure some one will give you a little better price.
You may be right -- either that or I am on 1.5, but it will take me 5 tries. ;-)
I haven't even started looking at colors and textures, but I did watch an amazing video showing how to model a structure from a photo:
That's for sure. A full-scale CAD program was never an option. ;-) If something like SketchUp was not available, it would be pencil and paper.
I think I've figured that out already.
An example of the usefulness of the program for some woodworking projects:
Current ongoing project, designed in SU, presented to the client for approval in SU in 1, casework built on dimensions in 2 and 3, and actual casework just finished last week in 4:
I think you are still on try #1. After you play with it for a week, quit for a month or year, and re-start... then you will be on try #2. It took me 4 tries, not 3 but I think you skipped try #1, which is normally to install it, and see what you can do with out RTFM.
Regardless of number of tries, Sketchup is almost perfect for the hobbyist wood worker. You can quickly draw up cabinets, shelves, work benches, chairs, tables, pencil holders and golf net frames to scale and with 3D graphics, color the designs with wood types or paint so you can get a nice look at what your project will look like before you build it. You can print out the design with dimensioned drawings to make building it a snap. This is all FREE, so it's impossible to beat the price. The pro version is like $500 and has about no features the free version doesn't have. The few things the pro version does would not be of much value to the average home hobbyist woodworker, or even a small shop professional. You probably can design, draw and build (and pay for) an entire kitchen for your loved one with the free version faster than you can learn to use (and pay for) Autocad.
If you are designing a launch pad for NASA, or hooking your drawing up to a $500,000 CNC water jet/laser cutter, you probably want to look into going to school for a few years and getting familiar with AutoCad types of programs that cost as much as most wood shops.
Otherwise, let us know how many tries it takes you to figure out how good free can get.
Glad to hear it's inches - I was worried about his liver. ;) Obviously there's no rush on the thing, but I would like to see the process as it moves along. Pixels to pouring as it were.
I'm guessing the drool coming out of the corner of your mouth tipped him off that you would be willing to save him the trip to the dump. I think that neighbor is a keeper.
Damn! A literal drive-by gloat and I walked right into it! You are the suck meister!
R
I'm asking if image #1 is made up of all of the pieces or just an image of the final product and the actual pieces are drawn separately.
Do the doors open in #1?
Yes, I can see how that would be a powerful sales tool.
I'm curious about the face frame on the casework jpg. Why didn't you continue the top rail all the way across, instead you divided it twice. You do beautiful work and this wasn't intended to criticize, just wondered. Kinda caught my eye right away.
Every rail, stile, end panel, trim, part, etc (including the hardware). is a separate "component", some of them "grouped" into sub assemblies(like the doors).
For woodworking, you will want to get in the habit of doing all your models as separate "components", them "grouping" them as needed, just as you would do when making the piece in the shop.
There are many reasons for this, the least of which is that you can extract a parts cutlist from the model, it helps to work out the joinery details, and part dimensions can be easily changed (change the dimension of one "component" and all the copies of that "component" change accordingly).
Using animation, they can certainly be made to do so, but IMO that is just "eye candy" and not all necessary to this particular project, which didn't need a "wow factor".
"Presentation" is a big part of designing, and then selling your client.
On this particular project, only the free version of SU was used, although I have subsequently purchased the "Pro" version, which has many more "presentation" options. Being a custom home builder, I needed those additional options when recently presented a house to build that was designed solely with the free versions of SU.
YMMV, but SU, because it is readily available for free to any client with an Internet connection, is especially valuable in this regard for obvious reasons ... an option perhaps not easily available to your client were you using other CAD software, although most programs have "viewers" that can be used by the client to view the project.
As in most endeavors, using any tool may have compromises gladly made for convenience of use and implementation.
SU is certainly not the end all solution to woodworking design, but it can certainly be made to suffice for many woodworking projects with a little facility with the program.
Good eye ... and normally I would not do it that way, but that method did not lend itself to this particular design due to the necessity of the interor casework sides, the size, the small shop, and the method of work.
It's a long story ... also I was not sure whether I wanted to build the two side components of the hutch first, then using the curved rail and top rail to join them into one piece ... much easier to handle in a small shop and working alone.
I build face frames first, then assemble the casework in grooves dadoed in the face frames. I use pocket hole joinery (in the face frames only), and the pocket holes would have interfered with the installation of interior casework sides in the interior stiles.
Once the face frame and casework is joined and glued, the extra joint becomes moot, except in appearance, but keep in mind this in going in a kitchen and the stile appearance in the hutch is reflected in the run of the other cabinets.
Are you using SU or SU Pro?
nb
I guess in the best case scenario, you introduce a potential customer to the free version of SU, get him to design his project in SU and then he pays you to build it. Being familiar with SU as you are, if there's a problem with the customer's design, you can modify it and get him to approve the alterations.
So, I'm not the only one who has to deal with not having enough room. :-)
Ok, I'm a one man shop to, but I think I'd still would have made that rail continue across without intersecting it. I usually build the case then the face frame. I also use biscuits and pocket holes to join my face frames. Can't imagine doing it any other way.
Is it ever possible to have "enough" room? That's kinda like saying you already have enough clamps, isn't it? :-)
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