Sketchup Tutorial Requests

[Neomorph]

Well after having a bit of good news that a friend who is an architect (after Dave R mentioned it's more an architect package) I was suprised to find he has several CAD packages and .... Sketchup. He was nice to lend me his package as he isn't using it at the moment. This means I can now practice without reinstalling (don't worry, I'm not doing copyright theft as it's not installed on Lloyd's PC atm and I'll delete it when I give it back :wink: ).

So here are a few things that I think would be useful to learn in sketchup.

1. Alignment.

One thing I REALLY find irritating about Sketchup is aligning things. For instance I built a carcase and wanted to insert partitions inside the carcase. Whenever I try to move them inside the silly things jump all over the place. Is there any hints to deal with alignment.

2. Exploded Diagram

Is it possible to explode the models to see parts that are hidden in an assembled unit.

3. Drawers

Is there an easy way to build drawers in Sketchup. Most of the time I try they come across the alignment problem.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Alright John, let's see if I can answer your questions.

Alignment: first, go into the Window menu and select Model Info and then Units. Select your desired units and uncheck the box next to Enable Length Snapping. Next, when trying to align something--your divider--find or make a locating mark. Either use an existing edge, corner or whatever or create one with a construction line or two. (Use the tape measure tool to drag out construction lines or points. I can do a tutorial but to start with, read the Help files on Construction Geometry.)

When you try to move your divider, make sure you grab it by an appropriate corner and then drag to the reference mark.

I'll come back and give you some tips about using the powerful inferencing tools in SU but in the meantime, look at the Help files for info on them.

Exploding things. I don't know how many times I've typed this but I'll repeat myself loudly. MAKE GROUPS OR COMPONENTS OF THE PARTS IN YOUR DRAWING. If you've made groups or components it is a simple thing to drag them away from each other to make an exploded view. You can also put the parts on different layers. Put the case sides on a layer called "Case Sides" and the legs on a layer called "Legs", etc. Do ALL of your drawing on Layer 0 and move groups or components to their own layer afterward. You can always go back and edit them if you need to. Now, if all you want to see is the legs, turn off all the other layers.

Drawers. How much detail do you need? If you don't care about drawing the joinery do thisPrint this out and follow the steps. I know the dimensions don't make a perfect drawer but it will work as a learning tool.) Draw a rectangle the size of the drawer front(75mm high and 300mm wide). Push/Pull the rectangle to the desired depth of the drawer(400mm). Select the top face of the drawer box and then the Offset tool. Start dragging from the edge of the box toward the center of the top face. Type a dimension (12mm). Select the Push/Pull tool again and push the inside rectangle down toward the bottom of the drawer. Type the distance (50mm). Now you've got a simple drawer.

Drawer front needs to be thicker? Use Push/Pull on the inside of the front face to pull the face back. Start to pull and type 6mm. Now the drawer face is 18mm thick.

Selec the whole drawer and right click. Select Make Group. Now the drawer won't stick to anything else. As for aligning the drawer in the opening, see above.

See if that will get you started.

 

[Neomorph]

WOOHOO \/

Dave that was EXACTLY the info I wanted. Once I got rid of the length snapping I stopped fighting with the program and have actually started to create with it instead.

I've got to practice more with the alignment but it seems my problem was I wasn't grabbing the group by the edge I wanted to align - a simple solution that seemed buried in the help files.

Another tip I found by accident is that you can't cut holes in groups without first editing the group. If you don't edit the group it lets you do circles on the face but the push-pull tool doesn't cut the group. Took me ages to figure that out when I was trying to cut fan holes.

 

[Chris Knight]

John,

I don't know if you have used the search facility in the forum but I previously recommended a book on sketchup. It is based on building a house but it covers the stuff you need as a woodworker just fine - see link 1. The other link is to more general but still useful stuff.

1. https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... 6029#56029
2. https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... 7894#57894