A new shop in the making #1: The planning stages

I’m still trying to learn Sketchup also so I can’t offer any help.

Great looking shop and layout though. When do you plan on starting it?

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Hi Gary, I pulled permit so will be starting just as soon as the ground is workable. I will need at least 6- 8” posts holes below the frost level to mount the bearing blocks .

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Although it may be just as frustrating if you still aren’t comfortable with sketchup …, the tool to use is Photo Match. It’s under the Camera → Match New Photo menu. Basically it lets match the perspective and/or focal length of the picture by overlaying a few lines on some parallel surfaces within the picture.

While it is easy, it is NOT intuitive, so I’d watch or read a tutorial. Here’s one I found with a quick search:

Video Tutorial

Good luck (not sarcastic :)

-- Tom, Central New York

phew.. glad to hear that it isn’t blocking the view from kitchen window any longer!! :)

I can’t help with the program either… too frustrating for my level of desire.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Tom I watched that video a couple of days ago and apparently what I need is that fellow that demoing it. <g>

Mine looks like kindergarten.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Hey Bob…not a bad start for someone who dosnt know Sketchup! If I could offer a few observations/suggestions..
It is always going to be tough to get a non photo-real rendered element to look correct in a photograph. No matter how you position it its always going to look like its floating, not to mention there are shadows in the photo and none on the building so that will add to the contradiction between elements. The bigger problems I see are that the structure looks like its floating off it’s foundation blocks. Also it looks like you have some things out of square/not perpendicular. If you look at the side wall either the wall itself isn’t a true rectangle, or the siding is applied croocked….same with the roof…if you look at the shingles they don’t run true to the edges of the structure. I would go back to your Sketchup drawing and bust out the measuring tape and start doing some checking. The one bad thing about SU is if your not careful it will allow you to build things out of skew. Make sure you have the units set to architectural and the tolerance set to 1/16”. Also set the snaps to the same 1/16”..it will make drawing accurately easier. Go back and make sure all your walls and roof structures are parallel and perpendicular and the right dimensions. When using the tape measure by default it will leave snap marks and guide lines when you use it…if you just want to measure with it hit the control key..that toggles it between leaving guides and just measuring..or what I do is I just use it with guides left on, click on where you want to start your measurement then when you get to the other point of measure don’t click…the tape should snap to the point by itself and the VCB (the little box in the lower right corner) will show the measurement. Then just hit ESC and then you can start another measurement and you wont leave a mark.

As far as photo match is concerned it is a great tool to help you line up your inserted image with the existing photo. I use it to get my sketchup image I am importing to match the perspective of the photo I am using as a background. Usually I do some lo res outputs to insert into the background image changing them slightly till I get the perspective correct. Then once it looks like it’s correct I render the structure with shadows turned on, then bring both images into photo shop and using layers and filters I combine the images to get the finished product. I am no expert on this..I just recently learned how to do this and I am still in trial and error mode. It is pretty tough to get it to look “real”

Details are the differance between a model looking real and a model looking “kindergaredenish” (your adjective!). One thing you might want to look at..you dont have windows..just holes in the walls..

If you want to post some specific questions or problems you are having with the software I would be happy to help you figure them out.

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

I’ve tried Auto Cad and it was as Debbie said, “too frustrating for my level of desire” and I feel the same frustration with Sketchup…maybe later. Nice shop, thanks for the post.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Thanks Brad.
That’s the kind of stuff that’s takes weeks to figure out.
I have mastered Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Freehand and Pagemaker but this loosey goosey software seems to have a mind of its own and none of the legacy keyboard shortcuts that my brain has memorised will work with this one.

I appreciate all the help I can get.

John, I had considered giving up on this one but mystupid stubbrn streak set in. <g>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Nice shop cant wait to see it!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

looks good enough to me bob , but then id probably wet myself if i ever got past making a rectangle with the blasted thing ! lol i think youve done great in a short time

Bob,
I feel your pain. After years of living in an Adobe world, nothing about SketchUp seem intuitive, and the project has not yet been born that holds sufficient attraction to make me learn it. Especially since I should be learning Flash, Dreamweaver etc. (Ruby on Rails?) if I am going to tilt at new windmills.

Good luck with the project and the titillating prospect of have one’s own shop right out the back door (or just a few steps beyond).

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I’m pretty stubborn about things I can’t understand so sketchup is way up on my list of things to overcome.
I spent some more time with it today and have started a floor plan laying out my machines so I can figure out my eletrical feeds and dust collection.
I’‘ll try to log my progress and if possible leave a trail of sites that helped me get through this.
The building will be a piece of cake by comparison.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Photoshop makes me want to pull my hair out! I am trying to get decent with it but its very frustrating.

Bob as far as shortcuts go, you can custom setup your own shortcuts for Sketchup. Under the window tab click preferences, then look for shortcuts.

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

I can empathize with you Brad. First there are too many tools in Photoshop that can get the new user into trouble.
I recommend using only the levels to adjust the raw pics to your liking and then using the brightness/contrast sliders to sneak up on it.
After that try the unsharp mask setting to pinch the pixels to make it pop a bit.
Go to image size now and drop the resolution to 72 ppi and keep the image size around 6” x 8”.
If you are going to post the pics on the web you can squeeze a few more pixels out of the image by ”save for the web”.
Try to keep your original images separated from your re purposed ones in case you need to go back at a later date.
Once you get a routine that will give you decent pics you can try some of the other features with a decent companion book .
I can’t recommend one as I don’t have any new ones but Deke McClellan is a pretty fair writer as is Blatner.

I’m driving myself crazy today with stick framing. I was hoping that they had and algorithm for offsetting a series of studs but I cant seem to see one . I have been deconstructing the preset frame members and rebuilding them. What a PIA. I could have done this job in half the time with Freehand.
Upward and onward.
I will not be denied! <vbg>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob,

If you move a stud 16” with a tap of the CTRL key(makes a copy), and then type *30, it will create 30 studs 16 inches apart if that helps :) It’s actually detailed on the “Move tool” help page.

-- Tom, Central New York

Tom, you just took 3 hours off my day today. Thanks.
I have to wonder why when you orient your model than everything from that point on comes in on a different plane from the oreintation.(components) It seems the data co ordnates should be kept by the program somewhere and refered to when an objest is brougt on to the project.
Who would need a window for instance lying flat on the ground? <g>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob. Good luck on the construction. Just pick up two boards and start pounding. All buildings start from simple beginnings.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Bob;

I feel your pain.

I keep trying the program, making some headway, then getting side tracked. Then I forget what I learned and have to start over basically.

My back up plan is a crayon. (for when I need the drawing quickly).

Send me your address, and I’ll send you a couple. LOL

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Bob – your issue with the window can be set in the component settings – I think it’s “always snap to vertical” or something like that. I’m a long time AutoCAD user, and SketchUp is pretty frustrating for me, too. I caught on really quick to a few basics, but I just can’t seem to get past those few skills. I look at some people’s SketchUp models and think “that would be easy enough to draw … in AutoCAD!”

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

Oh, and Lee – I recommend sticking with black crayon, at least for the line drawings. Clients seem to think other colors are amateurish.

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

I hate to admit when I’m beat but I’m afraid I don’t have the skill set necessary for this software.

It seems to be designed for a 21 inch or better sceen display and attempting to move the vector handles on a a 17” lets the component fly right off the viewing area.
Yesteday I lost the component window on my Mac and ended up doing a reinstall of the complete program before I discovered that the component window can and will move rigtht off the viewer into the abyss.
This is complete nonsense.
p.s. I lost the same window today on the pc and had to close and reopen the prgm to find it.

By the time I build the standard components for a 12, 16, 20, 24 foot walls so I can skootch out a 22 footer my entire morniing is waisted.
I tried to place a 20 foot beam in position for a 4/12 roof today and I swear I chased this board completely thru the universe only to find that by the time I got it positioned it was 2×14 instead of 2×10”.

I’ve managed with a pencil up to now.

I will just have to wait for sketchup to catch up to this marvelous device. <vbg>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner