New (old) sketchup tutorials

Thanks!

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

I am going to take about three days and immerse myself in this program. There are a few hurdles I just can’t seem to get over.

What are the problems you’re having rikkor?

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Say it’s a table.
I can make a leg, turn it into a component. I can clone it three times, no problem. I have a hard time rotating the other three into their proper orientation, but I’ve done it. Then I can make stretchers with tenons OK, too. I cannot )&%#&^()** connect them, or line them up properly, to save my soul. If I ever get past that hurdle I am hoping it will be a break-out moment.

Lets say you want to move the apron so that it lines up with the top of the leg and is centered on the leg.

To move the apron onto the leg you should 1st have both as seperate components. Once you have that you can click on the apron to select it, then choose the move tool. Move the cursor to the midpoint of the line defining the connecting edge of the apron and hover over it until you see a small box next to the cursor that reads “Midpoint in Component” then click to select that point. You will now be dragging around the apron by that midpoint you selected. Drag it up to the line defining the edge of the leg where you want it to connect and hover over it until you see the same “Midpoint in Component” box and select it. You will now have the apron precisely located at the midpoint of the leg. This also works for endpoints and centers of circles.

Now lets say you actually want the apron 2” down from the top of the leg. Select the apron and then click the move tool. You can now click any point in the model (it doesn’t even have to be on a surface or line) and start to drag down in the blue axis. Type in 2” and the apron will move exactly 2” down. If you had wanted to move it to the edge so that the faces were flush just move it from the endpoint of the apron to the endpoint of the leg.

Do you have the learning center tips dialogue active when you 1st enter sketchup? If not you can turn it on by going to the HELP menu and selecting LEARNING CENTER.The 8th window shown is about moving things accurately. It has a small animation that illustrates what I just explained. The other tips that are shown are just as valuable too. There is also a tab for additional resources which will give you a list of links for sketchup help. Once in sketchup the help menu also has links to all the official online resources.

1st thing you should do is open up the “Quick Reference Card” and print it out to have available.

The sketchup users guide (windows pdf) can be downloaded here: http://dl.google.com/sketchup/gsu6/docs/ug_sketchup_win.pdf

A few questions for you rikkor.

Have you viewed the online videos available at sketchup.google.com? The 1st thing I did when starting to use sketchup was to take a day and go through all the videos. Absolutely the best way to get started.

26 version 5 videos here, all still relevant…http://sketchup.google.com/gsu5vtvideos.html
for now you can probably skip 10,12,17,18,19,20

Do you have the INSTRUCTOR turned on? If not you can turn it on by going to the WINDOW menu and selecting INSTRUCTOR. The instructor gives context sensitive help for whatever tool you have selected.

Most of the questions I get on sketchup already have good explanations available for them either directly in the help menu or online at sketchup. You just need to know where to look.

Don’t be too frustrated. I’ve equated learning sketchup to running a strange marathon. The 1st mile is all uphill, then you get over the top and someone hands you a bicycle and a mai-tai and its all downhill and time to party…:)

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Thanks. This will take a little time to assimilate. I appreciate your help.

Again, nice tutorials Bob. How did you get them published in FWW?
Not to step on your toes Bob but I had a few thoughts on Rikkors difficulties..
Rikkor you can also use the measuring tape tool. When you activate it it is in snap marking mode..it will leave a snap mark or reference line where your measurement will be. You can toggle that on and off with the cntrl key, if you want to just measure stuff and not leave marks. So if you wanted the leg 2” down and 1/2” in from the face of the apron you could just use the tape to make reference marks, then grab the corner you want lined up to the marks and it will snap right to the mark…or intersection of marks. Also, I was thinking maybe you dont have the snaps set up to a fine enough level so it wont snap to where you want it too. Click on window, then click on model info. Then in that box click on units. There you can set up your precision and snap properties. When I am working on woodworking projects I always set both of those to 1/32” at least. Then it gives you greater flexibility to snap objects in more places. It wont let you set the snaps to a finer level than your precision…logically! If your drawing starts getting cluttered with reference lines and such you could click on the eit tab and then click delete guides, or you can also select them all and right click and hide them, or you could also select them and put them on a seperate layer then you can turn them on and off. That is handy if you put gudes in place to help you move and rotate objects. You just turn on that layer, use the gude, and then turn it back off. Hope that helps…

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

Nice work Bob. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you David. I have just copied both yours and Bob’s suggestions into a document to print, and I am going to go forth and slay this dragon!

Don’t worry about stepping on any toes Brad. No ego here (LOL..or at least very little). It’s all good. I hardly ever use construction lines in my work but I know a lot of folks do. I’m a lot quicker without them…less steps…but I know they can help.

I started doing tutorials on FWW’s knots forum about a year and a half ago as a way to contribute since I was learning so much from others there. The editors saw the tutorials and asked me to help start the Design, Click, Build sketchup blog with Dave Richards and Tim Killen. It wasn’t long after the blog started that I found LJ. As much as I enjoyed FWW I found the vibe here so positive that I wanted to help LJ grow. I walked away from a paying gig at FWW so that I could focus my efforts here. Now my life has gotten so busy that I even have a tough time posting here. I’m making an effort to be more active though so I hope that folks will ask for help with specific problems that I can do tutorials for…or at least describe the process that I would use to solve it.
LJ is all about helping friends…plenty of room for all to do that.

BTW…for those of you that do not have an online subscription to FWW you are missing out. The blog is still active and Tim Killen is not only great with sketchup but his processes for design are great. He also builds some amazing stuff.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org