Ultra new to sketchup and so far haven't been able go get very far into it. Trying to take baby steps.
I want to draw a rectangle 12" x 23/32", duplicate that rectangle, and stretch it.
According to what I've looked at, so far, I should be able to draw a box and scale it down to my required demensions. But I cannot make the program do what I want to do.
Can someone direct me to a tutorial so that I can draw and duplicate my rectangle?
Thanks Ralph
Trying to take baby steps.
scale it down to my required demensions. But I cannot make the program do what I want to do.
I strongly suggest that you watch the Sketchup video tutorials. I tried using Sketchup without watching the tutorials and got very frustrated. After watching the videos, life was much simpler.
Don't know where you are, but if you are any where near Albany, NY this may be of interest... Join NWA for $25 and be able to attend myriad classes at our shop for low fees.:
The Basics of Google's Sketchup
Instructor: Max Bloomfield
Date and time: Sunday April 15th and Sunday April 22nd at Mustang Drive from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. There is space in the class for 15 participants. Max will be assisted by Meg for the class.
Location: Mustang Drive
Cost: $40 for the two classes
Registration: To register for the class, email snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Make your checks payable to NWA and send them to - NWA PO Box 246 Rexford, NY 12148
Tools: Students must have downloaded Sketchup onto their computer and must bring their laptop to the class so they can work along with Max as he explores the basics of Sketchup. In this two-session course, we will focus on using the free version of Google's Sketchup 8 as it applies to traditional woodworking. We will use a box, a table, and a bookcase as exercises to gain familiarity with reading six basic right-angle woodworking joints: butt, mitered, half-lap, mortise-and-tenon, dovetail, and half-blind dovetail. Everyone completing the course should go home with a small library of those joints and pieces that they can reuse in other sketchup projects. Upon registration, a PDF will be provided to registrants on how to download and install Sketchup, and how to navigate. Prerequisites will be an ability to bring a computer (laptop or desktop) with an installation of the free version of Sketchup 8, the ability to load a model, and the ability to do rudimentary navigation within a model (zoom, pan, orbit).
Big difference between a rectangle and a box. Which is it want to know about?
Go here to learn to use the rectangle tool:
Grab the side you wish to move with the move tool, click once and move it either to the desired location, or a certain distance by moving slightly in the desired direction, clicking the mouse a second time.
Then, BEFORE doing anything else, type in the desired distance ... ie, 5 for five inches, 5m for five millimeters, 5' for five feet.
Then hit the Enter key to set that desired distance.
There are a lot of valuable video tutorials on youtube. One of the best places to learn to use the program.
Check out:
I agree. And then after you've seen the videos and experiemented on your own for a while--get a book! Personally, I think I waited too long to get a book (2 or 3 months). I think a book would have been most helpful after about 2 days! YMMV. Have fun!
Southern California, oh well.
Ralph,
I wish I had an easy tutorial that I could hand you. This is operation is one of the easiest in Sketchup.
Suggest you look on Fine Woodworking's website there are a bunch of tutorials there
Check this one out:
By the way, duplicating an object? Select/paste. The various help menus might help and/or an on-line video.
There were no books when I learned to wield SketchUp and I found the youtube videos, particularly the go2school videos, very helpful.
Tim Killen has a good one out from Fine Woodworking, from a woodworking viewpoint, which is in ebook (pdf) form. I bought it for my iPad just for grins:
After, _and ONLY after_ , you become proficient with the program, there is one book that is hard to beat for some of the harder concepts, as well as a world of "tips and tricks", that are hard to find most anywhere else:
As mentioned by others, YouTube has a bunch of good tutorials that should get you going. Before you start, there are a couple things you might want to do first, and often tutorials skip this stuff, at least it took me a while to get it:
Go to your toolbar, click on View in the toolbar, and then toolbars and make sure the following is checked off: Getting started, Large Tool set, Styles, Layers, Views and Large buttons.
Next on the toolbar go to Windows, click on Model Information and make format fractional, inches, precision 1/32 (I like 1/16th)
Next, also in windows, go to Preferences and look through and familiarize yourself with that section. I'd go to templates and pick Product design and Woodworking. This is also where you can set up file folders and Hot keys.
Once you do this, fool around with some tutorials, I liked this tutorial on a bookcase:
click R for rectangle, draw any size rectangle and in the little box on the bottom right of your screen, type in 12, 23/32 and hit enter, you will have your rectangle. Press space bar and Triple click on the rectangle and then right click and select make it a *component, give it a name if you wish. Next press M for move, click control for copy and drag a copy of your rectangle any where you want, and pay attention to the little box you typed your rectangle size in, you can type in a distance to place your copy.
Personally, I wouldn't take a class or pay anything to learn, you can do all that online yourself. If you are in a hurry, forget Sketchup, or any cad program, cause you gotta put in the time to learn it. Sketchup is not hard, not easy, many, many get frustrated and quit thinking it doesn't work, but they just didn't learn how to use it. I started and quit 3 times at least before I bit the bullet and put in some time. Well worth it.
*Tip, make everything a component, otherwise everything else will get "stuck" to it, and you will have a mess on your hands. After you copy your component click on Window in your toolbar, and check off Outliner, you will see you have two copies of your component.
The Missing Manual seems pretty good for newbs like me. I -still- haven't spent much time with it yet.
-- It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment. -- Freeman Dyson
That was the one I used, but I wasn't crazy about it. When I went to the "cookbook" as a subsequent read, it read so much nicer I can't even tell ya how much. But,it wasn't perfect either. Both of them would benefit from having "exercises (for the reader to do)". But it's not hard for anyone in this audience to make up his or her own. I believe it was mentioned that there's another book out there written especially for woodworkers. I haven't read it so I can't comment further.
Bill
Here ya go! Tim Killen's most excellent book, FREE!
Nor have I/can I, but Swingy listed both: Lang's and Killen's.
-- It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment. -- Freeman Dyson
I don't have Bob's book, but a lot of folks on G+ have learned using SketchUp for woodworking from it. Bob teaches Sketchup classes for woodworking around the country. Check out his online store:
WTF?
Tim's a good guy and a fellow woodworker who gives a lot back to the both the woodworking and SketchUp community on his FWW blog with Dave Richards: "Design, Click, Build".
At least _BUY_ the book so that Tim can get some benefit from taking the time to teach others how to use the software.
-- It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment. -- Freeman Dyson
and Uploading.com that this file is on their server illegally.
I JUST bought this e-book in the last week, and checked this morning, it is NOT FREE.
MJ
Fine and good, except ... why continue to re-post the link?
Stupid error on my part.
Thanks for the notice.
MJ
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