Dave's SketchUp Blather #2: For the Beginners - A Simple Table

I wrote this elsewhere but I hope it might be useful here. Maybe someone will get something out of this anyway.

Important: I should have added this earlier. Before you start this tutorial, make the following setting changes. I’m assuming you haven’t already modified the starting template.

Under Window>Styles>Edit, click on the wire frame cube and uncheck Profiles.

So, we’ll start with a couple of guidelines drawn up from the red and green axes. I’m making a tall, skinny table so I set them at 30”. Use the Tape Measure tool to do this and pay attention to the color of the trailing line as you drag. It needs to be blue. Click on the axis line, drag upward and type 30 followed by the Enter key.

Next get the Rectangle tool. Click on the intersection of the two guidelines and drag out between them. Stop dragging and type 24,24 followed by the Enter key.

Get the Push/Pull tool and push down on the face. Type .75 followed by the Enter key. You could also type 3/4 if you wish.

Get the Select tool (Arrow) and triple click on the flat box you’ve just made. This will select all of the geometry. Right click on it and choose Make Component. Give it an appropriate name and hit Create.

Go to the Edit menu and hit Delete Guides. I have a shortcut setup for that one so I only have to hit a single key to delete all the guidelines and points.
Orbit down low so you are looking up at the underside of the table top. TO make locating the legs easier, I put in some guidelines one inch from each edge. Get the Tape Measure tool, click on the edges one at a time and drag inward. Type 1 followed by the Enter key to place the lines one inch in.
Then get the rectangle tool and, starting at the intersection of two guidelines, drag a rectangle in toward the center of the table. Type 1.5,1.5 Enter. Get the Push/Pull tool and start pulling the face downward.

Type 29.25 Enter to set the length of the leg. Get the Select tool, triple click on the leg geometry to select it all, right click on it, choose Make Component, give it a name and click Create.

So now we have the top and the first leg drawn. They are each components so although they reside in contact with each other, they don’t modify or glue themselves to the other. There are other benefits to making them components which we’ll see shortly. It’s good practice to get in the habit of making components of the parts you’d have to make in the shop if you were cutting wood.
I suppose we ought to have a few more legs so our table will stand up. We could draw each of the others but that’s kind of a waste of time and energy. How about we just copy the leg we drew instead?
With the leg selected (it should still be selected after you made it a component) get the Move tool. Hit Ctrl to invoke the copy function. Grab the leg at the top corner. This is the corner that will correspond to the intersection of the guidelines, in this case to the left.

Start dragging the cursor along the guideline toward the left. You’ll see a copy of the leg has been created and it is following the cursor. When you get close to the intersection of the guidelines the tool should snap into place.

Now, while that new leg is still selected, right click on it and choose Flip. Select the axis to flip along that is parallel to the direction you just moved the leg. In my case I worked along the red axis so I chose Flip Along Componenet’s Red Axis. If you aren’t certain about the axis to flip along, orbit so you can see the global axes.

The second leg won’t look any different at this point but that’s fine. This last step will pay off later.
Next, get the Select tool. While holding Ctrl, select both legs. Get the Move tool and invoke Copy again with Ctrl. Grab one of the leg components by a corner that will correspond to the intersection of another pair of guidelines for the opposite side of the table. Move to copies to that side.
With the two newest legs selected, right click and choose Flip again. This time you’ll flip along the other horizontal axis. I flipped along red the first time so green will be the choice this time.

Now we’ve got a four-legged table. kind of spindly looking but at least we can tell what it is supposed to be. Nobody would mistake it for a tire swing, anyway.

Now we’ll taper the legs which is going to demonstrate a benefit of making the legs instances of the same component and flipping the copies as we went along.

Orbit and zoom so you are looking up underneath the table at the top of one leg. It makes no difference which leg.

Get the Tape Measure tool and set a guideline on an inside face of a leg 3” down from the top. Then double click on the leg component with the Select tool or right click and choose Edit Component. Get the Line tool (Pencil) and trace along the guideline from outside edge to inside edge. Watch for the colored trailing line. In my example it’s green which confirms I’m drawing parallel to the green axis.

Once you get to the edge, turn the corner and draw another line to the other outside edge. It should show as red if your first one was green.

These lines define the ends of the tapers—we’re only tapering the legs on their two inside faces—and they will act as fold lines for the next step.

With those two lines drawn, move your view down to look at the bottom of the leg. Set a couple of guidelines in 1” from the outside edges. the intersection of these lines will be our snap to point for the Scale tool. Double click on the bottom face of the leg. A double click will select the face and its bounding edges.

Click on the Scale tool. You’ll see some green scale handles surrounding the selected face. Click on the one at the inside corner and drag it to the intersection of the guidelines.

Instead of placing the guidelines, we could figure out a scale factor which in this case wouldn’t be so hard but in the shop we wouldn’t think about the taper that way. We’d think, “Let’s taper the leg to one inch square” or “Let’s take a half inch off each of the inside faces” or something like that. No need to bother with the math here.

Now when we zoom back to look at the whole table, we see that all four legs are tapered and the tapers are on the proper sides of the legs. The taper may be difficult to see in this view but notice where the fold lines are.

Now lets add the aprons. Orbit around so you are looking down on the table. Select the top with a single click and right click on it. choose Hide.

Zoom in close on the top of a leg. Drag a guideline in 1/4” from the front edge. Get the rectangle tool and drag a rectangle down the inside face of the leg. Start at the intersection of the guideline and the top edge of the leg and go down toward the fold line on the leg. Make the rectangle 3” high and 3/4” wide. Look at the Measurements box (VCB in SU6) to check to see what order you’ll need to enter the values.

Get Push/Pull and pull the apron out to the opposite leg. Zoom as needed to be able to do this.

Get the Select tool and triple click on the apron. Right click and choose Make Component. Give it a name and hit Create.

Move over to the opposite side of the table and put in another guideline a 1/4” in from the outside edge of a leg. Then copy the apron using Ctrl+Move. Remember to grab the apron at the corner that will correspond at the end of the move to the intersection of the guideline and to edge of the leg. Then flip the new apron component.

Now, since this is a square table, we’re going to use a neat trick for the other two aprons.

First get the Tape Measure tool and draw a guideline between diagonal corners on the top of one of the legs. repeat that on another leg so that you have two guidelines crossing in the center of the table.

Select both apron components and get the Rotate tool. Hit Ctrl to invoke the copy function. Place the Rotate tool on the intersection of the diagonal lines, click once to set the center of rotation, click again along one of the diagonals and then drag around to copy/rotate the aprons. Type 90 followed by the Enter key.


Unhide the top. Go to the Edit menu and click on Unhide>All and then delete all the guidelines.

In the next installment we’ll add some details to the aprons and start on the joinery.

-- Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?