Plans for projects

Hi, All,

Just saw a post re Sketchup, and wanted to know if this was good for making plans for a project. SWMBO wants new end tables for the LR, and they must have drawers, shelves, pull outs, and probably a string to pull to make the flames shoot out of my butt. Anyway, I haven't done mechanical drawing since Engineering 105 in the days of slide rules. I can design on paper, but am worried about dimensions, overall, and individual parts.

What do people use on a PC to replace the paper, dimension a project, and produce simple "blueprints"?

Thanks for the help.

Rich.....

Reply to
cwo4cno7325
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I use DesignCAD for this job - and like SketchUp for sharing a visual model.

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Not really, but it's absolutely great for sketching out ideas. The working drawings will have to come from somewhere else. You might still need the mechanical drawing stuff after all, but at least you'll be detailing something that's fully worked out and designed.

I'm lucky enough to have put a youngster through college recently. His academic licensed Solidworks is still good for a few more months. Since I don't have SU Pro, it means I rebuild the entire model in SW. Even so, that's still lightyears better and faster than doing it by hand. Few projects are complex enough to need detailed part drawings. A few key dimensions in SU is often plenty. One exception is laying out cuts on a 4x8 sheet. I like to plan out the cuts sitting comfortably at my desk.

Reply to
MikeWhy

"MikeWhy" wrote in news:G24cl.9074$ snipped-for-privacy@flpi149.ffdc.sbc.com:

Mike,

I'm curious why you think SketchUp is not up to the task. What features are missing that make it unacceptable? I've become a big fan of SketchUp and find it does everything I need. It does have its quirks but most are easy to work around or are addressed by a ruby script.

Larry

Reply to
Larry

I didn't mean to imply that. I use it and am getting things done, often quicker and more directly than with other packages (big pricey things: SW, Inventor, acad). In direct response to the OP's question, though, the free version has no provisions for 2D working drawings. Other than that, it's dandy for the blocky shapes we tend to make with wood sticks and sheets. Of its foibles, the most glaring is its lack of angle dimensions. When you really want them, rise and slope dimensions are a distant second best. Most of everything else won't be needed for woodwork -- lofts, blends, that kind of stuff. Sometimes I miss the sketch based features, feature history, and part configurations, but that's a workflow issue. Last, a dimensioned 3D sketch is actually better than a 3-view working drawing sometimes, except adding dimensions to the component adds them into every model that uses them. Its strengths in other areas more than makes up for this, however. I use Sketchup by preference over the other tools now.

Reply to
MikeWhy

"MikeWhy" wrote in news:5g9cl.8975$ snipped-for-privacy@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com:

Ok, agree with everything. The angle dimensions, or lack thereof, are most bothersome. You can draw it easily enough, just can't dimension it. I generally just put a text note in its place. I was not aware that domensions on a component span across drawings. Can't you "make unique" and get around that?

It's hard to bitch too much about a piece of *free* software with the features it has though. I should be happy and shutup....

Larry

Reply to
Larry

It's great for what it is.

As for the component dimensions, next time I'll try inserting them into a new model and annotate them there; consider it as a part drawing. I had in mind the times I got "smart" and saved out some components to detail them. I cleaned up the joinery, and added some dimensions and notes. The dimensions were all over the place in the original model when I reloaded the components to update with the changes. Still sneaking up on a useful workflow.

Reply to
MikeWhy

wrote

Excellent tool for the task you ask about, and particularly for the price.

And, as long as not mislead by folks with a cursory, at best, knowledge of the program, which is all you've got thus far.

Take a few minutes and look at some of the excellent woodworkers using SU for designing complicated woodworking projects:

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I'm currently in the middle of building a $300K house for a client that was designed _totally_ with the free version of SU, and that is being built with assistance from the Pro version only to print out scaled construction documents, a task not remotely necessary for the vast majority of woodworking projects.

Will it do the same for you? Absolutely! As long as you take opinions, over experience, with a grain of salt.

Reply to
Swingman

It can become a satifying hobby in itself. For the rest of us, as a user, his experience won't be much different from what I describe. There are far better tools for curvy shapes, but I readily agree he won't find them for the same low SU price. Unless you have a quick fix in mind. Would you take this moment and lighten the darkness of our ignorance?

Reply to
MikeWhy

"MikeWhy" wrote

Antidote for ignorance previously provided by simply following the link.

Reply to
Swingman

I'll settle for angle dimensions for starts. Lathed shapes and intersections are basic in every tool, and already in my cursory understanding. Surely there has to be more.

Reply to
MikeWhy

"MikeWhy" wrote

There is ... but those broadcasting opinions based on "cursory understanding" will always find something else to quibble about.

Reply to
Swingman

OTOH, I don't build houses (and only rarely cabinets or tables) and have so far found SU too often non-intuitive, inadequately-documented, or just plain unsuited for a significant part of the work I want to do.

That's not a denigration of SU, any more than it would be of my table saw to point out that my band saw handles curved cuts much better than my Unisaur.

I'm perfectly willing to accept that the fault lies with me - but if I, for example, can't find how to accurately draw a smooth non-arc-derived curve/surface (such as that shown in the photos at the link below) after a couple days of digging, then I'll use a different tool that does meet my needs - because I can't let a tool stand in the way of getting the job done.

My attitude is partly a result of my methods of work, which require that the finished drawing (the exported dxf/dwg equivalent) be passed to a computer for automated cutting with fairly high precision. For this type of work the drawing /is/ the exact template for the part, rather than something from which I produce a cut list which is then used as a guide for manually producing parts.

As I said, I /do/ like SU for producing "show and tell" renderings - yesterday I sent off a fairly spiffy SU-produced JPEG to a cabinet shop in Finland, and the SU rendering was actually better for my purposes than a photo. That's hard to not like.

I haven't given up on learning to use SU to produce machinable shapes like fleur-de-lis, wheat sheaves, ears of corn, bunches of grapes, etc that I've drawn with other tools for automated routing on cabinet door panels - but so far I'm not having much success using SU for that type of work.

Reply to
Morris Dovey

If I didn't have a 20-year back-ground in other software, I would probably latch onto SU pretty quick. Now, if I want to make a photorealistic presentation of anything, I create the model in Vectorworks, and render it in Strata. That gives me both a pretty picture, and a vector-based file to create toolpaths for my router. SU, in comparison, is rather Fisher-Price to me. To try to draw comparisons between the two classes of software is silly.

A local contractor wanted to build his dream/retirement house and over a beer/lunch with a few locals, a local architect sketched out the house on a placemat. It was instantly accepted as 'The Plan'..and proved conclusively that the ability of the architect to express visually what the client wanted had nothing to do with the software. There is no software package that will compensate for a lack of vision. Neither does a concept drawn in AutoCAD automatically means it is a good design.

Lately I have been using Aspire by Vectric almost exclusively. In fact, I went and bought some Intel-based PC's to run just that software.

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Reply to
Robatoy

"Robatoy" wrote

To pontificate that anyone did so is sillier ... and to not _specifically_ address the OP's question while engaged in such pontificating, sillier still.

Reply to
Swingman

Pontificating? Hardly.

Reply to
Robatoy

"Swingman" wrote in news:jdidnZroRbO40u_UnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

To the original poster...

The best advice is ignore most of this thread and try it for yourself. Most of us find it does more than what we need even though it has it quirks. There is no such thing as perfect software. It's free and will cost nothing but a little time.

There is a good tutorial that can be found at

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While I find that he does things a little different than the way I would, it's a

*very* good intro to the software and will give you the skills necessary to form you own opinion.

Good luck, Larry

Reply to
Larry

"Robatoy" wrote

A local contractor wanted to build his dream/retirement house and over a beer/lunch with a few locals, a local architect sketched out the house on a placemat. It was instantly accepted as 'The Plan'..and proved conclusively that the ability of the architect to express visually what the client wanted had nothing to do with the software. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wonder how many great ideas/concepts, etc were first drawn up on placemats, napkins, etc.

I wonder if there is a market for creative placemats and napkins?

Reply to
Lee Michaels

Jeezus. You self styled power users are tiresome. Three posts with no content other than my obvious ignorance? Here. Let's set it straight. The only things superficial and cursory here is Sketchup and your obvious ignorance of CAD systems. SU manages to get real work done, despite its having only the most primitive profile sketching tools, and the simplest of sweeps. There. It's said. It's done. No quibbling. SU doesn't pretend to be anything else. Why do you?

Reply to
MikeWhy

But for many things, SketchUp simple doesn't have enough.

(From Strata Galleries.)

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especially this one created in AutoDesk Inventor and rendered in Strata

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again, it is possible to hold up a bank with a toy gun.

Reply to
Robatoy

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