AnotherEye
Member
I'm a London based designer/maker and I've just joined this forum. I thought I'd make this my first contribution.
Whether or not you've ever used SketchUp before; follow this little tutorial and you will learn a few things that will make a big difference to your modelling in the future. I've been using SU for over 3 years and I use this method every time. Before I discovered it I got myself in a mess from time to time, now I don't.
I'm going to assume that the free version of SU is much the same as SU5, Mac version, (which I am familiar with) if you're using SU6pro, or are in Windows, there might be a few differences.
There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that I use but I've not mentioned them in this tutorial; instead I've used menus throughout.
Here I'm going to show you how to create a template for a basic carcass.
Open a new window in SU. Click on the 'Iso' button in the standard views (or: Camera>Standard>Iso). Invariably it is easier to draw in this view.
Make sure that the axis are visible ((View>Axis).
Go to: Window>Model Info>Units and select your preference (I have: Decimal, Millimetres, Precision: 0mm). In the Window menu open the 'Layers'; 'Display Settings'; 'Pages' and the 'Entity Info' windows. Position them where you want as you're going to keep them permanently open.
Choose the rectangle tool and, starting from the point where the 3 axis meet, draw a rectangle to represent the width and depth (ie. the plan) of the unit that you want to draw (as I write; I'm drawing a simple wardrobe carcass: I've drawn the rectangle between the red and green axis then typed 500,1000 and press return). Now use the zoom (mouse wheel) to adjust your view so that plenty of empty space around the object (if you don't have a mouse wheel; select the Zoom tool and drag it up or down the page).
Select the Push/Pull tool; drag the rectangle up any distance then type the height that you want (2200) and press return.
Select the 'Orbit' tool and adjust your view if you need to then click on the 'Zoom Extents" tool. Now select the 'Select' tool.
In the Layers window: click 'Add' you will see 'Layer1' appear. Type Carcass to name it then click 'Add' again and type 'Outline'. You now have 3 layers. Notice the little radio button selected next to Layer0. This means that it is selected as the active layer: All new geometry is drawn here. The golden Rule is to ALWAYS KEEP LAYER ZERO AS THE ACTIVE LAYER (Like all rules there are times for them to be put aside but there have been so few occasions when I have done this that I cannot remember the specific details).
Next: Edit>Select All, then Edit>'Make Group'; now while the group is still selected; move it to the Outline layer as follows: in the 'Entity Info' window: select 'Outline in the drop down menu.
We're going to make the object into a skeleton: double click on it and then in the 'Display Settings' window: uncheck the 'Edges' and 'Profiles' boxes. Now, 'Select All' and press backspace; this will delete the faces. Now put the tick back into the Edges box and the click once outside the group so that it is de-selected. In the top right of the display settings window there is a triangle arrow pointing down; click on it to extend the window and then choose 'By Axis' in the 'Edge Color' menu. As you can see the edges of the drawing are now the same colour as the axis that they are parallel to, this is a sure way of seeing that your lines are how you want them.
Next we're going to create four pages: Whilst you still have the outline in full view; uncheck the 'Visible' boxes next to the Carcass and Outline layers in the Layers window. You should now only see the axis. In the 'Pages' window click 'Add'. Now tick the visibility next to Outline in the 'Layers' window and de-select 'Axis' in the 'View' menu; then click 'Add' again in the 'Pages' window. This will create page2. Next, untick the Outline and tick the Carcass in the Layers window (you should now have a completely empty window) and then 'Add' another page. Lastly; create Page4 with all three layers visible.
You will see that along the top of your window that you have buttons for each page, you can toggle between them as you wish. If you like you can re-name them in the 'Pages' window; just click on the arrow to extend this window in the same way as you extended the 'Display Settings' window. You might want to create another page showing you Edge Colour as 'Default'.
Select page2. Trace over the near side of the outline by dragging the rectangle tool between 2 opposite corners. Now switch to Page1 (this hides the outline) and, with the push/pull tool, drag the rectangle that you have just drawn away from you and then type 18 and press return. Now; 'Select All' then 'Group' and whilst it is still selected choose 'Carcass' in the Entity Info window, the side will seem to disappear.
Choose to view in Page4: select the side and then the 'move' tool. To copy the side; hover the move tool over the bottom right corner (you might need to zoom in a bit) and hold down 'alt' (on a Mac; for Windows: look up "copy move" in the Help) then click on the corner and move across to the far side of the outline, when it is position let go of the mouse button. If you had to zoom in then just click again on Page4 to return to full view. De-select the object.
I've now covered the important fundamentals of this method. You can now draw the bottom and copy it to the top and then draw the back. When you've done this you can save it as a template if you want.
Whenever you have drawn a new object; click on Page1, this will hide everything else so that you can 'Select All' and 'Group' very swiftly. You then move it to another layer straight away.
Any questions?
Whether or not you've ever used SketchUp before; follow this little tutorial and you will learn a few things that will make a big difference to your modelling in the future. I've been using SU for over 3 years and I use this method every time. Before I discovered it I got myself in a mess from time to time, now I don't.
I'm going to assume that the free version of SU is much the same as SU5, Mac version, (which I am familiar with) if you're using SU6pro, or are in Windows, there might be a few differences.
There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that I use but I've not mentioned them in this tutorial; instead I've used menus throughout.
Here I'm going to show you how to create a template for a basic carcass.
Open a new window in SU. Click on the 'Iso' button in the standard views (or: Camera>Standard>Iso). Invariably it is easier to draw in this view.
Make sure that the axis are visible ((View>Axis).
Go to: Window>Model Info>Units and select your preference (I have: Decimal, Millimetres, Precision: 0mm). In the Window menu open the 'Layers'; 'Display Settings'; 'Pages' and the 'Entity Info' windows. Position them where you want as you're going to keep them permanently open.
Choose the rectangle tool and, starting from the point where the 3 axis meet, draw a rectangle to represent the width and depth (ie. the plan) of the unit that you want to draw (as I write; I'm drawing a simple wardrobe carcass: I've drawn the rectangle between the red and green axis then typed 500,1000 and press return). Now use the zoom (mouse wheel) to adjust your view so that plenty of empty space around the object (if you don't have a mouse wheel; select the Zoom tool and drag it up or down the page).
Select the Push/Pull tool; drag the rectangle up any distance then type the height that you want (2200) and press return.
Select the 'Orbit' tool and adjust your view if you need to then click on the 'Zoom Extents" tool. Now select the 'Select' tool.
In the Layers window: click 'Add' you will see 'Layer1' appear. Type Carcass to name it then click 'Add' again and type 'Outline'. You now have 3 layers. Notice the little radio button selected next to Layer0. This means that it is selected as the active layer: All new geometry is drawn here. The golden Rule is to ALWAYS KEEP LAYER ZERO AS THE ACTIVE LAYER (Like all rules there are times for them to be put aside but there have been so few occasions when I have done this that I cannot remember the specific details).
Next: Edit>Select All, then Edit>'Make Group'; now while the group is still selected; move it to the Outline layer as follows: in the 'Entity Info' window: select 'Outline in the drop down menu.
We're going to make the object into a skeleton: double click on it and then in the 'Display Settings' window: uncheck the 'Edges' and 'Profiles' boxes. Now, 'Select All' and press backspace; this will delete the faces. Now put the tick back into the Edges box and the click once outside the group so that it is de-selected. In the top right of the display settings window there is a triangle arrow pointing down; click on it to extend the window and then choose 'By Axis' in the 'Edge Color' menu. As you can see the edges of the drawing are now the same colour as the axis that they are parallel to, this is a sure way of seeing that your lines are how you want them.
Next we're going to create four pages: Whilst you still have the outline in full view; uncheck the 'Visible' boxes next to the Carcass and Outline layers in the Layers window. You should now only see the axis. In the 'Pages' window click 'Add'. Now tick the visibility next to Outline in the 'Layers' window and de-select 'Axis' in the 'View' menu; then click 'Add' again in the 'Pages' window. This will create page2. Next, untick the Outline and tick the Carcass in the Layers window (you should now have a completely empty window) and then 'Add' another page. Lastly; create Page4 with all three layers visible.
You will see that along the top of your window that you have buttons for each page, you can toggle between them as you wish. If you like you can re-name them in the 'Pages' window; just click on the arrow to extend this window in the same way as you extended the 'Display Settings' window. You might want to create another page showing you Edge Colour as 'Default'.
Select page2. Trace over the near side of the outline by dragging the rectangle tool between 2 opposite corners. Now switch to Page1 (this hides the outline) and, with the push/pull tool, drag the rectangle that you have just drawn away from you and then type 18 and press return. Now; 'Select All' then 'Group' and whilst it is still selected choose 'Carcass' in the Entity Info window, the side will seem to disappear.
Choose to view in Page4: select the side and then the 'move' tool. To copy the side; hover the move tool over the bottom right corner (you might need to zoom in a bit) and hold down 'alt' (on a Mac; for Windows: look up "copy move" in the Help) then click on the corner and move across to the far side of the outline, when it is position let go of the mouse button. If you had to zoom in then just click again on Page4 to return to full view. De-select the object.
I've now covered the important fundamentals of this method. You can now draw the bottom and copy it to the top and then draw the back. When you've done this you can save it as a template if you want.
Whenever you have drawn a new object; click on Page1, this will hide everything else so that you can 'Select All' and 'Group' very swiftly. You then move it to another layer straight away.
Any questions?
